Does anyone have any experience with dual booting? I have Ubuntu 8.04 installed on my machine as it stands, and want to install XP also.
I have created all the necessary partitions, etc, and ran the xp installation disc.
Problem is it wants to install to D: , this causes problems with some applications that I want to run, and infact the only reason for the xp partition at all.


If anyone can help, that would be fantastic.

Thanks in advance

probably a stupid statement but make very sure your backups are up to date

XP may want to install to D: but you can tell it to install in any partition you like as long as it starts within the range of the MS bootloader, can the install disk see the partition you created ?

also watch out for the MS bootloader overwriting the Grub bootloader and you not being able to start Ubuntu

usually I'd install the other way round put XP on first and then add Ubuntu as grub is a lot more flexible about booting other OS's

have a look at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WindowsDualBoot which adds ubuntu to a windows installation but it may have some useful information

Thanks for the info esme, know about Grub, thats not the problem though, windows wont let me install to any other location than D:.
Have setup dual boots on a machines that have XP preinstalled a countless number of times, this is the first time I want to do things the other way round.
Was trying to avoid reformatting, installing XP, and the reinstalling ubuntu. Got everything set the way i like it :(

edit: windows will let me install to different partitions, none of them C: though. I believe it's because the windows installer has already assigned my ubuntu partitions a drive letter, one of them being C:

Why is it a problem to install on D?

Why is it a problem to install on D?

Some older programs that I need to use are hard-coded to install to C:/Program files/.


Have opted to go the vmserver way instead, but would still be interested to see if there is a workaround for my original problem.

Personally I'd go with VirtualBox over VMWare Server on Ubuntu, performance is great.

Its much easier to install Ubuntu second than XP second, as Ubuntu's boot loader supports booting XP, while XP's doesnt support booting a linux OS, so maybe do it just how I usually do it, dont use a boot loader, unplug the Ubuntu HDD, install XP on a second physical drive, and use your bios's boot menu (usually F8 or F12) to select which drive to boot..

much easier.

this might work but I wouldn't guarantee it


take a backup of the Ubuntu partition
wipe the machine and repartition
install XP first
install Ubuntu so Grub knows about both OS's
make a note of the Grub and fstab settings
restore the Ubuntu partition from your backup
boot from the Ubuntu install CD
mount the Ubuntu partition
edit the grub table and fstab to the settings you noted
the system should boot with both os's and your Ubuntu setup the way it is now

I've probably missed something vital though but you have backups

To fix the C/D problem you need to move unpartitioned space to the beginning of the hard drive and the ubuntu installation to the end. I'm not sure if gparted can do this but I don't see why it wouldn't be able to.

But windows bootloader will overwrite MBR and grub, so you will need to re-grub the MBR for dual booting, as XP bootloader won't recognise linux.