okay after surviving on a p*ss-*ss slow windows XP 256 RAM 1.6GHz desktop since forever, i've decided to take out the XP and just install ubuntu onto it, since i use it primarily for internet purposes. however, i have a couple hundred GB worth of music, videos, and pictures over there. i only have one hard disk in there, so i'm planning on using gparted to create a separate partition on my HD, dump all my music, videos, and pictures there, wipe everything else, and install ubuntu. will that work? will i still be able to access my files and everything after i do this?

Go for it

I am a Ubuntu novice but can tell you about my experience. I installed 7.10 on an AMD XP3200 with 512mb ram and XP Pro. 1 hard drive with 80gb.
With the Ubuntu partition program (during install) I allotted 50% of the drive to Ubuntu. Installed without a hitch. On reboot received a menu to select the OS I wanted to boot. Can boot to Ubuntu or XP as slick as you please. XP is using NTFS yet I have been able to read files on the windows partition.

In general I'd be backing up anything I didn't want to lose before proceeding. It's just safer that way.

I hope that was helpful or at least encouraging!

With 256MB or RAM, you are better off installing Xubuntu - a lightweight version more suitable for your machine.

You might want a different Linux distro such as Xubuntu, Puppy,or DSL. Getting more RAM might help too...

FenderGuy2112

Depends on What you call the drive....

If you have a drive designated as a "Volume" Ubuntu will read and I believe write to it with XP's NTFS file system. I'm assuming the latest Xubuntu will do the same. < Verify anybody?

Ubuntu is the easiest install, about a dozen clicks. But, they're claiming it needs 384MB of memory for use installed in a desktop.
Unless the copy of XP you have is a retail version , you cannot migrate it to another machine.
Memory prices are bottomed out at the moment, and I suggest looking into that first, instead of, (IMHO) trying to work backwards by installing an operating system because it has low memory requirements

You can read NTFS but not write to it unless you have ntfs-3g installed, and that still has some issues and IIRC can't reset permissions as yet. You can get it through apt-get or synaptic just make sure the universe/multiverse repositaries are all enabled in your sources file.

please make a backup of the contents of any hard drive before using hard disk partitioning software of any kind on it.

My Ubuntu install came with read/write support for NTFS out of the box.

E_P_A_K was here, but now he's gone, he left this thread to carry on....!

Would you also agree that the best chance for success here also comes from a fairly empty HDD and a couple passes with the defragger first?

You're not going to keep us in suspense by not telling us which version you're talking about, are you?

E_P_A_K posted this Dec. 19, 2007. Do you think he still cares? I'm cool with with the thread becoming more of an academic discussion, if everyone else is.