New user - partition question for dual boot/32 bit/XP

I am Windows XP user and would like to be able to dual boot Windows & Zorin. When I get to the partition section of the install I have no idea what to do. I started reading an article on gparted but it just confused me. My XP info.:

XP Info:

C:
Used space: 66,854,539,264 bytes - 62.2GB
Free space: 433,250,676,736 bytes – 403gb
Capacity: 500,105,216,000 bytes – 465G

System:
MS Windows XP
Professional
Version 2002
Service pack 3

Computer: Intel Pentium 4 CPU 3.20GHz, 3.19 GHz, 1.99GB of RAM

When going through the install process at the partition section I have the option to overwrite Windows and then other settings so I chose the other settings (upload of screenshot attached).

I would like Zorin to have the biggest part of the hard drive as I would like Zorin to be my main os but I would still like to have some room to use Windows and have a little extra storage space.

I found one youtube video of installing Zorin & XP as a dual boot but that video had an option choice of doing a dual boot with XP in addition to overwriting XP and the other settings.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

HI,

please see this post, if you any further questions, please feel free to post again.

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=12

Regards Wolfman

If I buy one of the premium versions will it do this for me? I have read your instructions and watched the video and I am still confused, I just want to divide my hard drive into 2 partitions one of about 175Gb for the windows part and the rest for zorin. When watching the video it was hard to follow because the screen kept moving about. Why the 512 part, why did you keep reverting. None of it made sense to me.

I am sorry but I still do not understand. This is just beyond my understanding. Is there anyplace that it is written with very detailed steps? If I just purchase a premium disk will it offer the option to have a dual boot? If not I will just not do this.

Hi,

the easy way to do it is to use the automatic install function which will shrink your Windows partition for you, you can tell it what size you want it to be.

Make sure that you defragment the Windows drive (C) before you resize the partition!!. The defrag tool is in the systems tools section of your program list in Windows!!.

Regards Wolfman

http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/gparted.html

that is the problem. all the versions I download of zorin does not have the automatic function. My only options are to either overwrite windows or use the other setting. I have downloaded latest version 4 times and even downloaded version 3.2, all with the just the same 2 options in regards to the partitioning of the hard drive.

Hi,

here is another how-to, I don't have the time to sit here and type instructions, there are more than enough suggestions and how-to's already out there!!, Google them!!!!!!.

You are going to have to take the plunge sometime so back-up your data and go for it!!.

http://ubuntumanual.org/guides/435/how- ... tion-guide

Read it slowly and carefully!!!!.

Regards Wolfman

Wolfman wrote:Hi,

here is another how-to, I don't have the time to sit here and type instructions, there are more than enough suggestions and how-to's already out there!!, Google them!!!!!!.

Regards Wolfman

I can't understand the problem: same basic configuration as i have (enough space, not allocated space on the disc. Just don't bother about partitioning: your swap and ext4 partitions are created automatically by Zorin!! At least in my case; even dual-boot is automatically generated without any manual action!! Thanks to Zorin so just try it after first making an image-backup to external medium

Never mind sorry to be such a pest because the programming is not working as every body says it should. I will stop being a pest - Just forget this posting

debi0662 wrote:Never mind sorry to be such a pest because the programming is not working as every body says it should. I will stop being a pest - Just forget this posting

Hoi Debi,

i'm a Linux newbee, but know my way through Windows quite well. My start position was more or less equal to yours: Windows XP installed using 2 NTFS-partitions and half of the disk not allocated, and did a first try with the Live-CD of Zorin. After all hardware was correctly identified, and the GUI investigated, i decided to install from the running Live-CD to the HD. Some standard questions were asked (country etc.) and i just had to choose to leave Windows intact for the Zorin installation and the rest was done automatically. I did not bother about bootmanagers or partitions and assumed the installer would take care of this. I can't imagine that a serious programming error is present as i retested the Live-CD on two other PC's without any problem.

Maybe my advantage was that i did not read ANY forum-thread / Youtube video about how to install but just gave it a go after a backup of my PC. This probably saved time and miss-steps like manual partitioning.

hi,

here is another link for you, you can get a better understanding of how to manually partition with the info provided, there are 2 pages!!.

http://www.linuxbsdos.com/2010/05/26/ma ... ntu-10-04/

It is a little dated but the principal is the same!!.

Regards Wolfman