Manuel A. left a new comment on this post “Essential Setup Tools – Dell Latitude 2100 Netbook…“:

I´m trying to install a dual boot. I first USE the Win XP CD for partition the HD, and then i tryed to install win XP in the first partition (c), but when it reboots the first time, it does the same as the first stes, i mean, it tries to do the partition wrork again. First i thought that it happens because i used an external DVD-DRIVE-USB. I don´t know what to do, may i try to install Ubunto first?

Thanks for help!

Thanks for the comment, Manuel. Having just spent two days with a recalcitrant Dell Latitude D531, I urge you to consider the following process.

1. Get the Gparted ISO file (instructions) and burn the ISO file to a CD. You’ll want to use BurnCDCC, a free program for Windows, to accomplish that. Or, you may have another utility for that.
2. Boot from your newly-created Gparted CD and partition your hard drive. Allocate at least 50-80 gigs for your Windows partition (format it to NTFS or FAT32 for maximum compatibility), 12 gigs for UbuntuLinux (format it to EXT3), and 1 gig for your Linux-swap (format to Linux-swap). This diagram may help. If you have plenty of room, include a MyDATA partition to save your data.
3. After applying changes (saving them), right-click on your Windows partition and MANAGE FLAGS. Click “Boot” option to put a checkmark next to it.
4. Restart your computer from the Windows XP CD. Install Windows XP to your NTFS or FAT32 formatted partition…hopefully, the first partition you setup (SDA1).
5. Once the installation is complete, insert your Ubuntu CD and start up from that.
6. Install Ubuntu using custom partition setup and make sure to install to SDA2, or your Ext3 partition.
7. At the end of the Ubuntu installation, you can restart and you’ll see a menu of operating systems…among them, Windows. This menu is called “grub” and is installed by Ubuntu.

I do NOT recommend installing Ubuntu first. If you install Windows second, Ubuntu will not add Windows to the “grub” menu of operating systems. This would mean that you would then have to rebuild your grub menu, not a task for the faint of heart (which I am, but I’m sure some of you have some great suggestions for making that process easy).

Finally, note that all the bootable CDs created above could be moved to flash drives to speed the process. That way, you are carrying USB flash drives around instead of CDs.

Subscribe to Around the Corner-MGuhlin.org

Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure