How to install ubuntu with dual boot on laptop

[Arun Bhanu]

On 09:52 Sat 06 Nov     , prasad at i2r.a-star.edu.sg wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I have a IBM Thinkpad T30 laptop running windows XP and with lots of data. Is there a way to safely install ubuntu linux to co-exist with Windows XP so that during boot time, I can choose linux as an option if I want else boot normally with Windows XP ? Is there any step-by-step guide available so that I can safely install ubuntu linux from my downloaded CD image  without losing my WIndows partition and data ? 

You will need atleast one extra partition to install Ubuntu. If you
don't have one, in WinXP you can install PartitionMagic and resize an
existing partition to make room for an extra partition. Another option
would be to boot with a Knoppix cd and use QTParted.

It is also recommended to make a small partition for swap space(virtual
memory). Formula generally used is 2x size of available memory. For e.g,
if you have 256MB of memory, create a partition of size 512MB for swap
space.

Then follow along the installation guide[1].

[1] http://www.ubuntulinux.org/support/documentation/howto/installation-i386

The installation should detect your WinXP installation and add it to the
boot menu along with Ubuntu.

If you really care about your data, I recommend you do some backup
before attempting any of the above. It is pretty safe, but you never
know what will happen.

Cheers,
Arun...