Well, I taught myself GParted and the install :D, and got everything working.

Had a 604MB swap on my 37.2 GB hdd (empty), and linux throw away on another partition. (some unallocated space not used..

Had a 30GB NTFS drive for all my spoon.

I was going to dual-boot with XP but I backed out during install and it looks like Win XP's Partition Manager couldn't pick up the full Ubuntu install but it did the swap and other drives..

And something happened, and Ubuntu wouldn't boot no more.. Ugh. Time to re-install everything now.. :-p

By the way, since I'm going to install Ubuntu and then upgrade to 8.04, can you guys fill me in with everything I need to know. Like updates and out of the ordinary... (Which reminds me, got to learn Terminal now :-p)

Also, used this guide (just skipped to install Windows XP part since I already did Gparting my self) : http://apcmag.com/how_to_dual_boot_linux..._first.htm

Incadude Wrote:don't double boot. just use virtual box to emulate XP.

Already done that.. Works fine.. Just needed to install codecs and what not.

On top of that, even though I claim the laptop is mines, it's actually my cousin's and he's more adapted to Windows than Ubuntu and I want to give him the option of directly booting to Windows without going through Linux. (Wee all have a limit on patience nowadays)

why wouldnt it boot? that's funny... can you elaborate a bit moar? As for 8.04, it currently has some nagging issues.. already a 50 MB update has been released, so I think it would be prudent to stick to 7.10 LTS or the other and get used to Ubuntu for a while, and then upgrade via update manager. (Also, hardy has a lot of graphics improvements that one won't appreciate until ones has worked on 7.10)

Dunno. Anyways, tried installing again. XP then Ubuntu. Got GRUB and the dual boot working. However, WinXP bitches that hal.dll at system32 is damaged. (of course I know the obvious fix for that though) I'll report back and see if I can get WinXP working again.

P.S. I installed 7.10 and then did the 2 hr (ugh) upgrade to 8.04 LTS.

that shouldnt happen... where are you installing the penguin? I recommend people to first create partitions using partition manager (or like)...  sometimes partitioning during installing linux screws up windows (if its installed in windows partition)...

Well. I had the install like this.

XP (C:\) First partition
SWAP - Second part.
Ubuntu - Third part.

D:\ (NTFS - Shared stuff)

Mostly like that is how I can remember it. This whole thing is driving me nuts, and I don't want to do emulation. :( As soon as this re-install of XP gets finished, I might wipe Ubuntu clean so I can get the space back.. (No worries. Ubuntu is still a win)

soka...

I think I figure what your problem is...

do this.

After you install XP, use norton partition magic (or like) and create a a raw partition (or an ext partition to make things easier later on) of about 40 GB (less if you want).

When you boot into the linux cd, you will come to point that lets you manually create patritions.. there, you will see all ntfs drives with one raw (or ext) partition...

select it and make the linux partitions there your self or delete it, select create partion in free space and alot 40 GB to the new partition. Installation will then ask you to format the new partition, preferably do it according to your needs or let the setup format it automatically...  you can fudge about  creating more drives if you want, after the main root drive is formed....

procede with installation...

You will be asked to install grub... if XP shows, 99% everything will be fine... install and then at reboot, you will see the new Grub, with linux as the default OS... (10 sec timeout)..

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