I recently recieved a Ubuntu distro (Breezy Badger, 5.10) and installed it on my laptop, uninstalling Windows in the process as I could not resize the FAT32 partition without erasing all data and I loved it!

After several days without the internet as I couldn't get the modem working I decided to reinstall Windows ME on my laptop. I resized the Linux partition and created a FAT32, enough for Windows and any programs, games and documents I would like, ample space really.
The partition was created successfully and the Linux partition resized.
However, I inserted the Windows ME installation disk and booted the computer. All goes normal and I see the 'Wipe all data' so I continues, not knowing that it would delete all other partitions and create a new one for Windows.

So my questions are as follows:
- Does anyone know how I can install Windows without it re-partioning the drive?
- How can I safely resize a FAT32 partition? I can't find any programs that will do this and I have come to the conclusion that a FAT32 partition cannot be resized safely.
- How can I install the driver for a Toshiba Internal Modem on Ubuntu? or, What driver do I use and how do I do it?

If I could get an answer to anyone of these questions it would be fantastic and all I need, If I can get an answer for all or two of them I will be over the moon! I would really like to run Ubuntu with Windows or Ubuntu with the internet. Either one will please me.

All help is appreciated and the specs for my laptop are as follows:


Thanks in advance!

I used Norton BootMagic and Norton Partition Manager.

I formatted my hard drive, so that nothing was left. Then I installed Windows 98SE onto it. I installed the norton products and set-up a partition for Windows 98SE and one for Windows 2000 (you could change the partition type to Linux). Then restarted.

I kept the 98 Install, and booted through Norton BootMagic onto the empty (Win 2000) partition. Obviously, nothing was there, so I started up my Win 2000 disk and installed it onto that partition.

The whole process took me a couple of hours, because I was figuring it out as I went along.

Its just a matter of being carefull with installing windows to only one partiton.

I usually partiton my disk in linux with cfdisk ( a menu based alternatie to fdisk ) create linux partions, and leave some un-partitoned space on the disk for windows.

when install windows first, allow windows to create a new partiton, in the space you left over, and install.

The reason i say install windows first, is because windows will nuke your master boot record, replacing it with a boot loader only capable of booting windows.

then when you install linux, allow linux to overwtiye the master boot record again.. ( linux will install grub, a boot loader capable of booting windows, linux, unix... whatever )

for your modem, try checking your modem to see if it's listed at LinModems (google it).

If so, they should have a driver for your modem.

xboxrulz

I'm not shure about this, because I've never used (and never wanted to use) windows ME, but when you boot, try to let it boot in DOS mode. Here you can partition your hdd using fdisk (you can also use linux). Then reboot and let it boot in DOS mode again. Now format the drive and run the windows installer (it could be in cdromdrive:\windows\setup).
You'll need a bootfloppy that supports cd-drives in DOS.

This is how it works for Win98 SE, so don't shoot me if I'm wrong .

On the other hand, I just did a quick google and found this (http://www.thesatya.com/blog/2005/03/fat32resize.html). So it's possible to resize a FAT32 partition using linux

Well first you install ANY WINDOWS OTHER THEN ME..... then you install ubuntu...

Ubuntu has a decent partitioner built in, but since it'll be a clean install I'd say just install ME and then see if the ubuntu installer can handle shrinking the partition so you have space for ubuntu, worst case scenario you'd need to reinstall windows again.

But yea, dual booting is a breeze once you get the partitions set up, especially with a distro like Ubuntu that handles everything for you basically.