BleepingComputer.com: Making a new partiton for Linux

I currently have a XP Professional Service Pack 3, 0.99 GB RAM, with 66 GB left on the C:\\ but there is no unallocated memory. I want to have at least 20 GB for the partition because I want it for Ubuntu. How exactly do I do this or go about doing this?

Ubuntu will do that for you. I'm moving you to the Linux forums

How exactly would Ubuntu do that?

I don't know about the Ubuntu installer so I cannot follow up on Garmanma's instruction. However, I can give you this instruction that has worked for me and a few others I have helped with it.

Download Gparted and burn the .iso file to a disk. Make sure its bootable (MagicISO does an excellent job at this as well as burning .iso's.) Put the disc in the drive and it will automatically boot, choose the resoultion, keymap, abd keyboard language on the boot of Gparted.

Now, when booted into Gparted you can shrink the partition for windows like the 20 GB you would like. The 20 GB will be marked as unallocated. You can format it there in gparted if you'd like or Ubuntu will do it for you.

Good luck on Linux!

Another option

Install dual boot w/o partitioning:

http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/wubi


http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/dualboot


partition stratagies

http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/partitioning

A few notes:

1)Before anything Backup and Defragment your Hard Drive. Most of the time when Windows is damaged or files are lost forgetting to defrag first is why.

2)Ubutnu can create its own partions very well, it's fairly simple and straight foreward with the LiveCD install

i have tried installing ubuntu before, a couple of times the partitioning system in the installer wiped my HDD, i have since used partition magic, has a nice GUI and is simple to use... good luck, be sure to edit the GNOME boot agent if you are dual booting.

Hi dark flame , some good sugestions previously , just a few of my own.
Run the Live Distro and get familiar with it . A GB of RAM is heaps .

Once you have decided to Install Ubuntu you need to be prepared . The biggest problem you may encounter by creating a Dual Boot setup is the Linux partitions overwriting some Windows system files as you haven't defragged the Drive . I defragged three times before hitting the Install button . Not just the Windows Defrag either .
jkdefrag is excellent for this . You can imagine the problem when you create a partition and some critical Windows files have been overwritten by it , not what anyone wants .
As far as Installing , from my personal experience I was guided through the process of creating partitions for Root , Home , and Page Swap File by the installer . Seemless operation , main consideration have a perfectly Defragmented Drive , and follow all instructions during the Install . I used 15 GB on the three partitions , no problem for what I wanted to do , which was take GNU/Linux onboard and get used to it before doing a complete Linux istallation . It's a steep learning curve , don't let anyone believe otherwise ! After some months you'll be very glad you did take the plunge