All the software you need for free! (Part 2)

Yesterday you read part one of this series about how I trashed the filesystem on my spare Dell PC trying to do a dual-boot install with Ubuntu Linux and restored the XP install successfully. So far so good. Now for the REST of the story. . .

When I did the XP re-install I set aside part of the disk (about 10gb) to install Linux. The GParted utility still didn’t see this formatted partition as a partition. It saw it as unused space. As soon as I created a partition on that space the NTFS partition was “blown away” again. Missing Operating System. Oh well.

Dell had put two small partitions at the very beginning and end of the disk. I assume these containers held data to aid restoring the PC back to it’s factory condition. I finally decided to boot the XP CD and delete ALL the partitions. I decided to create a 20gb partition at the front of the disk for XP. Having done that I re-installed XP again and verified that it was working.

Next I re-booted to the Ubuntu ISO CD and created a 17gb primary partition for the OS and with the remaining 3gb I created an extended partition. About half was allocated to a Linux swap partition and the other half was left unformatted. To be honest I’m not sure why or if the swap partition was necessary but the guide I found elsewhere on the web suggested it. I figure I’ll learn it one of these days! :0

At this point the NTFS partition stayed “intact” and the Ubuntu install went off without a hitch. I set the root (/) partitioin as the 17gb and the swap file as the other ext3 partition. The GRUB dual boot menu was automatically installed as well so now when the computer starts up I have the choice of booting to Linux (default) or XP Pro. Pretty neat.

It wasn’t the “minimally invasive” operation that I wanted but in the end I accomplished what I wanted.

This is the end of Odyssey for now. If I discover an awesome application(s) for Linux I’ll let you know. If you have compelling reasons to go open source all the way please comment.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. I wish you and yours a great one!