I have a fresh install of XP and want to Dual boot Ubuntu 7.10 (linux) and XP. I have the Live cd, I have had some experience with this before but always run into problems. I am willing to manual partition on the live cd during install as long as its explained to me how to not screw it up. My main issues before were linux booted fine, but windows just said starting... and nothing ever happened. Assuming I wrote over the MBR and screwed everything up. Need some write ups or something.

-Jc

Let google be your friend.

Here, i found this (don't know about it myself)

Dual boot XP and Ubuntu 7.10 via boot.ini

I would do it by using gParted to create space for Ubuntu. If you only have 1 partition then shrink it (defrag in Windows first) to whatever size you want for Ubuntu, 10gigs is probably plenty if you don't have specific tasks in mind.

Then once you have resized that partition so you have a place to install Ubuntu I'd boot up into Windows like normal. It will run a chkdsk on your drive, let it. Then boot up with the Ubuntu disk and follow the instructions, it will go ahead and find that unpartitioned free space you made during the resize. Double check that it found that and is going to use that space, then go ahead with the install. Ubuntu will load GRUB as the bootloader and your Windows will show up there so you can choose Ubuntu or Windows on the reboot.

hollyw00dgt: I have dual boot with Win XP Pro and Ubuntu 7.10. Only thing, I have two hard drives. Windows is on the first one and Ubuntu along with my Windows XP storage files are on the second one. It is so much easier and when you manually partition, there is less error when you format. I manually formatted my second hard drive through Windows Disk Management and created my /, /home and swap partitions first. Then I installed my Ubuntu disk and it installed without a hitch. You just have to keep track of the ID's in Ubuntu for each drive and partition, i.e. hda1 is my 1st drive with Windows, hdb5 is my second hard drive, hdb2 is my / partition and hdb4 is my /home partition. As long as you keep track of the designations, it should be a snap. Good luck.