Because of this topic, I have decided to download and try Ubuntu myself. I used BitTorrent to get the ISO image, wasted a CD-R to burn the image on and then booted up the operating system.

My first time using Linux. My first control of Linux. My first time using Firefox in Linux. Extremely exciting.

Anyways, Linux looks cool and I want to use it with Windows XP. The CD in the drive was extremely hot when I took it out, I could also hear strange noises coming from the drive. I think it would be a better idea to actually install the operating system on the hard disk.

When I reinstalled Windows XP Home Edition, I used up all the hard disk space in 1 partition and left only 8 MB unpartitioned space left. Obviously that cannot support Ubuntu, it needs at least 2 GB of space. I am planning to give Ubuntu about 35-40GB of space for operation, that includes the swap file thingy that I have to make (I think).

So I browsed around the Internet for tools to separate partitions, but none of the freeware/open-source stuff did the trick. They couldn't work with NTFS file systems. What do you recommend?

Of course I can reinstall Windows XP and repartition it there, but that would be a waste of time and I would need a good reason to do that because it takes days and sometimes weeks to reconfigure settings for myself as well as other users (I'm administrator ). The only problem with this is, well, reinstalling everything, restoring my files (and other users') and reconfiguring (personalizing) everything. It takes a long time. :|

I'm looking for an easier way to split an NTFS partition, and I am not buying PartitionMagic or any other commercial software. Otherwise, I will format the hard disk in 50 days and repartition from there. But I don't want to wait

Ya, it's a known issue. However, other distributions like OpenSUSE has it built into its highly easy to use YaST2.


I always recommend OpenSUSE over Ubuntu anytime. In fact, I never liked Ubuntu

xboxrulz

Look at here : http://www.clubic.com/telecharger-fiche996...on-resizer.html
They say that Partition Resizer 1.3.4 (English) is a free alternative to Parition Magic. (Free, but slightly more complicated too...)
Also, have a look at the gparted liveCD : http://www.linux.com/article.pl?sid=06/04/25/1917228

Looks like what you need, isn't it ? So, simply wait until the end of the "50 days" you mentionned, so the real risk is neglectible, and try the gparted liveCD. If there is a problem, you were going to re-install, so you loose nothing. And if my trick works, you save the time of re-installing windows, and I will be happy to have been helpful today.




This post has been edited by yordan: May 13 2007, 09:10 PM

If you have a spare harddisk at hand, it would be a lot easier, since hard disk is quite cheap nowadays. Or if you can get another hard disk temporarily, then you can dup your existing one, then try out on the 2nd hard disk while you figure out what's right or wrong.

I'm an opensource supporter, but one thing i face is that, some of those tools mentioned by yordan, i've tried a few of it povided in Ultimate Boot CD http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/, most of them didn't work as expected. Hopefully by now there's some improvement over it. So, i ended up using partition magic, and norton ghost, which is my favorites ever since the dos/win95 times.

either that, always have a backup handy, you'll always need it if you're trying out something new

good luck

I don't have a 2nd hard drive. The only one that I have is only 4GB, which is insufficient.

Anyways, due to a virus, I have reinstalled Windows XP and repartitioned the drive. Now I have Ubuntu on there covering 25% of my hard disk. I gotta get used to it though, and my default operating system is still Windows XP Home Edition.