Linux Partitioning With Ntfs Splitting a partition

Because of this topic, I have decided to download and try Ubuntu myself. I used BitTorrent to get the ISO image, wasted a CD-R to burn the image on and then booted up the operating system.

My first time using Linux. My first control of Linux. My first time using Firefox in Linux. Extremely exciting.

Anyways, Linux looks cool and I want to use it with Windows XP. The CD in the drive was extremely hot when I took it out, I could also hear strange noises coming from the drive. I think it would be a better idea to actually install the operating system on the hard disk.

When I reinstalled Windows XP Home Edition, I used up all the hard disk space in 1 partition and left only 8 MB unpartitioned space left. Obviously that cannot support Ubuntu, it needs at least 2 GB of space. I am planning to give Ubuntu about 35-40GB of space for operation, that includes the swap file thingy that I have to make (I think).

So I browsed around the Internet for tools to separate partitions, but none of the freeware/open-source stuff did the trick. They couldn't work with NTFS file systems. What do you recommend?

Of course I can reinstall Windows XP and repartition it there, but that would be a waste of time and I would need a good reason to do that because it takes days and sometimes weeks to reconfigure settings for myself as well as other users (I'm administrator ). The only problem with this is, well, reinstalling everything, restoring my files (and other users') and reconfiguring (personalizing) everything. It takes a long time. :|

I'm looking for an easier way to split an NTFS partition, and I am not buying PartitionMagic or any other commercial software. Otherwise, I will format the hard disk in 50 days and repartition from there. But I don't want to wait

Ya, it's a known issue. However, other distributions like OpenSUSE has it built into its highly easy to use YaST2.I always recommend OpenSUSE over Ubuntu anytime. In fact, I never liked Ubuntu B)xboxrulz

Look at here : http://www.clubic.com/telecharger/
They say that Partition Resizer 1.3.4 (English) is a free alternative to Parition Magic. (Free, but slightly more complicated too...)
Also, have a look at the gparted liveCD : https://www.linux.com/news/quick-look-gparted-live-cd

GParted handles Ext2, Ext3, FAT16, FAT32, JFS, ReiserFS, Reiser4, NTFS, XFS, and other filesystem formats. At a bare minimum, GParted can detect, read, copy, and create partitions using those file systems -- and, in some cases, can shrink, expand, and move partitions. See the features page on the GParted site for the full rundown on GParted's capabilities..../...
It should go without saying, though I'll say it anyway, that you should back up any crucial data before making any modifications to the partitions on your drives. I didn't run into any problems with GParted, but it's always possible that you'll encounter an undiscovered bug that will eat your data -- or you might wipe something out due to user error. Better to be safe than sorry. You'll also want to be careful about re-arranging partitions, since you could create a situation where you'd need an emergency disk to get back into your OS because the partition names had changed.

I decided to start using GParted on a test system that I planned to reformat anyway, to get a hang of the interface. I tried deleting, creating, and moving partitions around, then booted into the installer for the next test distro to make sure that the partitions were OK after being changed by GParted. Everything checked out, so I decided to take it for a spin on a production system -- albeit not my main system.

I used GParted to resize an NTFS filesystem on my laptop, an IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad T43. This is my work laptop, which was originally configured with Windows XP. I had already carved up the partition to install Ubuntu Dapper on the machine, and decided that I wanted to liberate a little more space for Linux on the machine than I had originally.

Looks like what you need, isn't it ? So, simply wait until the end of the "50 days" you mentionned, so the real risk is neglectible, and try the gparted liveCD. If there is a problem, you were going to re-install, so you loose nothing. And if my trick works, you save the time of re-installing windows, and I will be happy to have been helpful today.
Edited May 13, 2007 by yordan (see edit history)

If you have a spare harddisk at hand, it would be a lot easier, since hard disk is quite cheap nowadays. Or if you can get another hard disk temporarily, then you can dup your existing one, then try out on the 2nd hard disk while you figure out what's right or wrong.

I'm an opensource supporter, but one thing i face is that, some of those tools mentioned by yordan, i've tried a few of it povided in Ultimate Boot CD http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/, most of them didn't work as expected. Hopefully by now there's some improvement over it. So, i ended up using partition magic, and norton ghost, which is my favorites ever since the dos/win95 times.

either that, always have a backup handy, you'll always need it if you're trying out something new

good luck

I don't have a 2nd hard drive. The only one that I have is only 4GB, which is insufficient.Anyways, due to a virus, I have reinstalled Windows XP and repartitioned the drive. Now I have Ubuntu on there covering 25% of my hard disk. I gotta get used to it though, and my default operating system is still Windows XP Home Edition.