Trouble Installing Ubuntu on Windows XP

[matt90]

I've been trying to install the latest version of ubuntu on my windows xp machine, but it doesn't seem to work I've tried doing the automatic partition but it doesn't seem to load, so I decided to do the manual partiton. But when I partition the sizes I want I get an error message saying my NTFS is corrupted. I tried to fix it using ckdsk/f in the windows command prompt and then restart the computer twice like the installer advises. But I still can't get it to work.

Can anyone suggest anything can do to fix this.

[jdhore]

I've been trying to install the latest version of ubuntu on my windows xp machine, but it doesn't seem to work I've tried doing the automatic partition but it doesn't seem to load, so I decided to do the manual partiton. But when I partition the sizes I want I get an error message saying my NTFS is corrupted. I tried to fix it using ckdsk/f in the windows command prompt and then restart the computer twice like the installer advises. But I still can't get it to work.

Can anyone suggest anything can do to fix this.

try burning Gparted LiveCD ( http://gparted.sf.net ) to a CD and resize your XP partition with that...i find it has MUCH better NTFS handling support then Ubuntu's installer

[matt90]

Ok I'll try that and see if it works. Thanks for the advice.

[popltree2]

Edgy should have GParted on the disc.

[jdhore]

Edgy should have GParted on the disc.

it does, but it's a quite old version AND it can't do nearly as much as the Gparted disc can...the gparted disk has more/better drivers

[BCModder]

yea overall if your gonna dual boot its best to either partition before theres an OS on the drive period or to have a secondary drive handy to install Ubuntu on.

[Zetas2k]

try burning Gparted LiveCD ( http://gparted.sf.net ) to a CD and resize your XP partition with that...i find it has MUCH better NTFS handling support then Ubuntu's installer
Great recommendation, i wasn't aware of a gparted live cd, i ususally pop in my copy of knoppix std 4 or 5 that comes with a newer version of gparted.

BTW, i am required by law (and embarrasment) to give this disclaimer everytime i mention knoppix: Don't forget to mount your local disk before trying to use gparted or any other disk tool or it wont work and feeling like an idiot will come shortly thereafter :P

Also, a few partitioning tips, especially if your new to linux: It's always a good idea to partition your home directory seperate from '/' because if you foobar your kernel or some other critical app its easy to reinstall and save all your settings and programs (usually). Also, depending on the ram in your system and available hard drive space, it's common practice to make your swap partition 1x times your ram for desktop systems (used to be 1.5x back in the day of 128-256Mb ram systems). I only actually follow the 1x rule if i have less then 1gb, once you get to a 1gb ram i actually drop it down to .5x (i.e. 512mb swap for 1gb ram). I have servers at work with 8Gb of ram with no swap at all, even though i would go this route with as little as 2Gb. I never use the auto-partiton feature, i dont trust skynet to partition my hdd. Typically this is what my linux partitions look like (in order of position on the disk) for a desktop system:

HDD Size: 20Gb
Ram: 1Gb

Mount point: NA (hda1)
Size (mb): 512
Type: Linux Swap

Mount point: /boot (hda2)
Size (mb): 150
Type: ext3

Mount point: /home (hda3)
Size (mb): 15000
Type: ext3

Mount point: / (hda4)
Size(mb): 4338 (whats left over)
Type: ext3

Thats what i have found to work best for me, the reason for that order is because partitions higher up on the list are (theoretically) closer to the center of the platter meaning they are slightly faster and should you go into swap, you want it to be as fast as possible even though it will never compare to volatile ram. /boot comes next because this is where ubuntu will store your kernel and being as anal as i am i feel better knowing its in a faster place and i swear i feel it boot faster. /home and / can be interchanged. Just make sure when you install new apps to put them somewhere in your home directory. Technically if its just a desktop system you should never have to install things in /.

Also, im not sure if you said you could no longer boot into WinXP, if thats the case you can bootup into dos with a windows startup floppy (you should have one of these anyway) and type "fdisk /mbr" and that will clear your master boot record and usually fixes any issues with being able to boot into windows. If your NTFS partition itself is corrupted then you could try some utilities out there to fix it, but in that case i usually opt to reformat and start over.

Hope this helps,
-Zetas

[f0xh0und]

edit: delete

[f0xh0und]

don't listen to those guys! gparted is a DESTRUCTIVE partition editor!! use a NON-DESTRUCTIVE partition editor (like partition magic) if you want to resize your windows partition!!!

[wastern]

Make sure you do a full backup of everything before you go partitioning, even if you are using a non-destructive partitioner. Things can happen....

If you do mess things up during the partitioning then just wipe the dive clean, partition it, install windows, then install Ubuntu on the partition you already made

[Black_Magic]

When I was first getting into linux, I kind of had this problem... I'd get to the partitioning stage of installing, and it just wouldn't do anything... troubleshot a bit, and somewhere in gParted it told me I had bad sectors on my HD so it wouldn't do the partitioning :/ Boot back into windows, trying to find out wtf it was talking about, and couldn't find anything wrong.

I swore, linux just hated me.

I was getting a new computer a few months down the road, so I didn't think too much off it, I didn't have linux for years, a few more months wouldn't hurt, finally build my new completely awesome computer (it's still completely awesome ;) ) and find out that something on the motherboard it didn't like, so it just didn't work. After troubleshooting some more, I find out other people are having the same problem, and the general guidance was wait for a newer version of whatever OS to come out. (It's working fine now :D )

But while I was trying to get it to work on my new computer, I thought I'd pop it into my old computer for shits and giggles, and it worked... Same old disk that didn't work before, just magically works now. Don't ask me why.

Wow, I made this post trying to give you advice, but I don't think I have any :/ Hope you get it to work :P

[creepingdeath]

Just a thought but this happened to me last time I installed Ubuntu side by side with a windows install... boot into safe mode and defrag the drive you intend to resize. When I ran it I found files scattered all over the disk; so there wasn't a big chunk of free space at the end. Just doing that (which took an hour on that 40GB drive) rebooting and using gparted from the Ubuntu live CD worked like a charm.

[LauDauns]

it does, but it's a quite old version AND it can't do nearly as much as the Gparted disc can...the gparted disk has more/better drivers
I also encountered the same problem, although with the help of many people. But I do not always feel satisfied.