I'm Going To Jump In

[mikex]

OK I have Ubuntu and Kubuntu downloaded. I plan to have a dual boot on a laptop.

XP Pro sp2 2.8 mobile pentium 256 megs ram 24 g hdd.

I need a dummies guide to not screwing up my work laptop.

Yeah I know "risk of loosin all data on drive..." I trust you guys to point me in the right direction. I have never done linux, always been a windows guy. I guess a GUI would make my life easier.

Anyway need a how to from patitioning if I need to do so or will the distro I have do it.

M

[shanenin]

OK I have Ubuntu and Kubuntu downloaded. I plan to have a dual boot on a laptop.

XP Pro sp2 2.8 mobile pentium 256 megs ram 24 g hdd.

I need a dummies guide to not screwing up my work laptop.

Yeah I know "risk of loosin all data on drive..." I trust you guys to point me in the right direction. I have never done linux, always been a windows guy. I guess a GUI would make my life easier.

Anyway need a how to from patitioning if I need to do so or will the distro I have do it.

M

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

to be honest, I am not sure if ubuntu will resize ntfs, which is what you need to do. the very first thing I would do would be a good defragmening, and back up any data you do not want to lose.

Some people rave about partition magic to resize ntfs. I have had it both work and fail for me. When it failed, it left my ntfs partition toasted; but that program would be an option. You could also try the program on knoppix called qtparted, it is a graphical partitioner similar to partition magic, I have never used it, but it has probably a similar succes rate as partition magic. You could also just try and use the ubuntu disk, if it gives you and option to resize ntfs you could let it do it for you.

if you use either qtparted, or partition magic, the idea is to leave the space needed for linux as unallocated. When you go to install ubunutu it will offer to install itsself in unallocated space.

first off, try ubunutu, it may offer to resize ntfs for you, if it does not have that capability, it will just say their is no space fo it to install, no harm done :-)

[TheLetterK]

OK I have Ubuntu and Kubuntu downloaded. I plan to have a dual boot on a laptop.

XP Pro sp2 2.8 mobile pentium 256 megs ram 24 g hdd.

I need a dummies guide to not screwing up my work laptop.

Yeah I know "risk of loosin all data on drive..." I trust you guys to point me in the right direction. I have never done linux, always been a windows guy. I guess a GUI would make my life easier.

Anyway need a how to from patitioning if I need to do so or will the distro I have do it.

M

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

to be honest, I am not sure if ubuntu will resize ntfs, which is what you need to do. the very first thing I would do would be a good defragmening, and back up any data you do not want to lose.

Some people rave about partition magic to resize ntfs. I have had it both work and fail for me. When it failed, it left my ntfs partition toasted; but that program would be an option. You could also try the program on knoppix called qtparted, it is a graphical partitioner similar to partition magic, I have never used it, but it has probably a similar succes rate as partition magic. You could also just try and use the ubuntu disk, if it gives you and option to resize ntfs you could let it do it for you.

if you use either qtparted, or partition magic, the idea is to leave the space needed for linux as unallocated. When you go to install ubunutu it will offer to install itsself in unallocated space.

first off, try ubunutu, it may offer to resize ntfs for you, if it does not have that capability, it will just say their is no space fo it to install, no harm done :-)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

As far as I know, it does not have that capability. Unless the Ubuntu team added it themselves.

[mikex]

I have to make an image of the drive. This laptop came preconfigured and we can't find any cd for it. It is a company machine. So I intend to take my time with this so as not to screw anything up.

M

[shanenin]

I have to make an image of the drive. This laptop came preconfigured and we can't find any cd for it. It is a company machine. So I intend to take my time with this so as not to screw anything up.

M

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

that sounds like a good idea, resizing a partition is a risky maneuver.

[mikex]

we are going to try dual booting one laptop then the second. The software we use for the business dictates the need for a windows part.