Confused about Drive allocation

If you are dual booting with this hard disk, then you should decide how much you want to split between the two operating systems. You should decide if you want to create separate partitions that both OS's will use or if you will simply share existing system partitions. You'll need to figure out the exact values yourself.

https://help.ubuntu.com/10.10/hardware/C/disks.html#partitioning-device

If you are using wubi, then simply decide how much disk space you want to give to Ubuntu and that will be created inside your existing Windows filesystem without needing to format or repartition. However it's not the best way since performance will be based on your windows filesystem and not Ubuntu. But it's a simple and easy way to try it out.

Dual booting is a simple thing to do, and really hard to do perfectly. I highly suggest you know exactly how you want to use your hard disks, what filesystems you plan to use, and be prepared to do it all over again. For more information about dual booting look no further:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WindowsDualBoot

Good luck.

Hi Jeruvy,
Sorry if this is the wrong mode, Im getting hassle with login and password on Ubuntu but later I will sort that.
In the meantime I thank you kindly for assisting. Having read your links, cheers , I am still not getting the info I need.
Let me tell you my intentions and whats currently happending on my sys. I have managed to create two 320GB partitions
on my hard drive its new and empty and been formatted. So next I stipulate one for windows and one for Ubuntu. I also select FAT32 for the windows and ext.4 as advised, and oh thanks for the GParted link the Apps, Places, System setup is amazing. So Im looking at Gparted under partition the FAT32 states /dev/sda1 and the ext4 states /dev/sda2 under Flags only Windows has 'boot' ext4 has nothing.

Now to the practical I insterted the XP CD choosing the correct partition...it seemed to load all files fine but then it gave me a message stating there was a DISK error or problem...now things are beyond my theory? I tried this again with the same result? I know windows is recommended to be installed first ( or is that only if both are on the same partition) ? Anyhow where do I go from here...the link pages have a tremendous amount of help but I feel its the DUAL BOOT ( which Im not planning ) that gets the best attention.

If there is a link for my intentions by all means let me know. Ill reply to the Ubuntu Question Answered soon . Not sure what the WUBI is or if it would suit me at this time?

Did I say thanks for the assistance so far, thanks. Reply when Time permits,

BerneGPG

In a learning world....

> To: <email address hidden>
> From: <email address hidden>
> Subject: Re: [Question #147870]: Confused about Drive allocation
> Date: Sat, 5 Mar 2011 16:43:33 +0000
>
> Your question #147870 on nautilus in ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nautilus/+question/147870
>
> Status: Open => Answered
>
> Jeruvy proposed the following answer:
> If you are dual booting with this hard disk, then you should decide how
> much you want to split between the two operating systems. You should
> decide if you want to create separate partitions that both OS's will use
> or if you will simply share existing system partitions. You'll need to
> figure out the exact values yourself.
>
> https://help.ubuntu.com/10.10/hardware/C/disks.html#partitioning-device
>
> If you are using wubi, then simply decide how much disk space you want
> to give to Ubuntu and that will be created inside your existing Windows
> filesystem without needing to format or repartition. However it's not
> the best way since performance will be based on your windows filesystem
> and not Ubuntu. But it's a simple and easy way to try it out.
>
> Dual booting is a simple thing to do, and really hard to do perfectly.
> I highly suggest you know exactly how you want to use your hard disks,
> what filesystems you plan to use, and be prepared to do it all over
> again. For more information about dual booting look no further:
>
> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WindowsDualBoot
>
> Good luck.
>
> --
> If this answers your question, please go to the following page to let us
> know that it is solved:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nautilus/+question/147870/+confirm?answer_id=0
>
> If you still need help, you can reply to this email or go to the
> following page to enter your feedback:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nautilus/+question/147870
>
> You received this question notification because you are a direct
> subscriber of the question.

Hi Jeruvy,
I tried sending a reply , but now that login is sorted here we are good to reply:

My main issue was a XP install issue thats now resolved and I expect coupled with your advice in the near future I can look forward to completing the intended trial of
two OS's on my hard drive...I have been able to view briefly Ubuntu desktop and Menus...and USER FRIENDLY is certainly obvious.

All the best and thanks for you advisory,

BerneGPG

Hi Bernie,

Thanks for the kind words, it was just to provide some reminders that it's worth a few hours of preparation.
WUBI is the Windows UBuntu Installer, which simply installs Ubuntu like a program inside of Windows. This is a simple way of dual-booting and many don't recommend it. I think it's useful if you are trying stuff out.

Take care.