Duel boot windows XP and Ubintu Linux?

Question

My computer has a 2.8ghz processor, 512mb Ram, 1x40gb hard drive, 1x200gb hard drive. What is the best way to set up the partitions, what format should they be and what size should they be so that I can set it up to duel boot Ubintu linux and windows XP

All of my disks are formated as NTFS

Answer 1

During install of the Ubuntu OS you will be prompted or asked how much disk space do you want to use? or allocate, on a 80g HDD I allocated 50% or 47g. On a 80g HDD with windows installed -8g for the total amount of actual disk space available. That would be 80g HD = 76g of actual free space. Then look at all the files and stuff that is on the platter and adjust accordingly.
During the install the Grub Boot Loader will be installed, you may have to adjust the BIOS to get the bootloader to not be exempted by the win system.
On boot you will have 2 choices, WinXP or Ubuntu , you can adjust this in sysmgr or cmdexe or just the simple Allow XX seconds to pass before system start.
I allow 3 minutes .
It takes 3 seconds to choose, but if the phone rings or I spill my coffee or whatever, better to have a little wiggle room.
The Format is like hda1 the Debian Sarge is easy to work with.
I used 1/2 of a disk, (2 HDD in this box) at first, now I have 1 HDD full Ubuntu Linux and one Win2k, I took XP off.
http://www.howtoforge.com/partitioning_with_gparted
That is a good explanation of how to use the Gparted utility.
http://www.howtoforge.com/linux_resizing_ext3_partitions
That is a good one for when you decide how much you want or need for Swap, Storage and whatever.