Dual Boot...Windows and Ubuntu.

The 'Creating a Dual-Boot Windows XP and Ubuntu Laptop' will work. Other ones on the Fedora Core web site. Let Linux do the boot with a menu for switching to XP works the best.

As for your questions;
* It does work.
* Not on a laptop, desktop with FC, redhat, w2k, win95, XP... still running three os's on one box.
* Clean HD... Back-up.. Back-up. Don't use windows Fdisk to do it, use a Linux disk tool. If you prepare and read up, shouldn't be a problem.
* None, the only slowdown will be deciding which is faster..
* Adding a USB Hard Drive

If you don't have a windows install CD, then if possible, make a restore CD of your HD just in case it all goes wrong.

Using a Fat32 partition for shared files works.. that's the way I have it.

Ha! I completely forgot about fragmentation when I was cutting up my external HD. The first partition probably didn't have anything in a sector I wanted to reallocate (it had never even gotten close to the end) and ntfsresize probably would have caught it in a test run.

Ok. Here's how to slice up a hard drive and get two OSes set up for dual-boot.
First of all, you will need to use the live CD, but only to set it up before installation.
1. Defragment so that the end sectors of the partition are available. If the defrag tool included in Windows is too slow for you, try contig[1]. Verify that there is plenty of empty contiguous space available for reallocation.
2. Fire up the live CD and start QtParted (note: I have only used GParted, but QtParted looks like basically the same thing). You'll need to have at least 4 partitions: your Windows NTFS, Ubuntu's ext3, a swap, and a shared FAT32. Remember, though, that a drive can only have 4 primary partitions, and an extended partition is a primary, which means that you'll have to format one to get another partition. It's best to make an extended partition containing the FAT32 partition. Ok, on to the slicing. Right-click on your NTFS partition and select the resize option. This is when you decide how big you want your Windows partition to be. You shouldn't put programs in your shared space, so make it big enough to hold new programs. I can't give you a number because I don't know how much shareable data you have or how many programs for either OS you want to install. Next, make your new slab of disk into an extended partition (or if you're absolutely sure you won't want another partition later, go ahead and make it a primary FAT32). Resize the partition to whatever you want for your shared data, and note that this is the space you'll have available in case of an extra partition, so if that's what you might do, make it a bit bigger.
3. Your next slab will be your ext3 for Ubuntu. Resize it to leave enough for your swap (1GB if you use the standard 2x RAM rule). If you think this partition is too big or too small, resize your other partitions.
4. Your last slab is your swap. Format it to linux-swap.
5. Carefully review your layout, making sure you aren't setting it up to do something you don't want it to, resize things as necessary, and if you decided to go with the extended partition, format the logical partition to FAT32.
6. Apply the changes. (you should not have actually made any changes before now!)

Now reboot and install Ubuntu to the ext3 partition.

Will this work?
Yes, unless there's something wrong that I don't know about.
Have you tried it?
I've used GParted and know my way around it.
What are my risks?
If you interrupt resizing or formatting operations, you will probably damage the filesystem involved (filesystems can usually be repaired without data loss). I would still back up the system, even though the chances of data loss are quite slim.
How much will this potentially slow down my operating systems?
Assuming everything went as planned, there will be no performance degradation.
Do I have any other options?
A swap partition isn't absolutely necessary (although I see no reason not to have one). There are other partition editors out there.

-

go to their website and download it. it has it's own BIOS etc. you can boot into Windows and from within Windows you can boot Ubuntu. I use it all the time. It also ensures that you do not mess up your harddrive etc.

Im trying to do this right now,
Im on the live cd for Ubuntu as I type this. When I click install all goes smoothly until it goes to resize the NTFS partition. I am working with a 250 GB HD. So, i thought it resize the NTFS to 150 GB, create an extended partition like you said and make the ext3, linux swap and shared fat32 under the extended one. it keeps giving me an error when it goes to resize the NTFS. Am I doing something wrong?

*FYI my boot drive (the one Windows is on now, and Ubuntu will be on) has 1 existing partition already, but i dont know how to remove it.

Please help, I love Ubuntu

I dont understand alot of it. He mentions a system recovery disc, what is that, my windows boot disc? And im running gparted in live cd, do I have to go back and fix it then. Could you please help, the only operating system Ive ever installed was windows, and it pretty much did everything for you.

PS. I dont really see how that is helpful in my case, because my windows boots automatically, no questions asked...