I am a Newbie on Linux, I installed it on my laptop a couple of months ago and I love it so now I want to install it on my desktop but need to keep Window$ for my wife's use, she just can't "get" Linux. I am running a Dimension 8250, P4, 2.4GHz with 1 Gig memory and 160Gig hard drive. Currently using Window$ XP Pro SP3. What I would like to do is partition my HDD to 50 - 50 without losing my current Win and files so that I can run Linux on one half and Win on the other half.Is there any FREE software that will do this. I know about "Partition Magic" but don't have the extra bucks to buy that. Any help or hints will be greatly appreciated!

This tutorial comes with screenshots. http://apcmag.com/how_to_dual_boot_windows_xp_and_linux_xp_installed_first.htm

Thanks, that was a very informative article, however, and this is my own fault, I failed to mention that I was using Freespire so this article does not apply. As a Post Script, I did, EARLY this morning, run across a program that will do what I wanted to do and I am now up and running on Freespire on my Drive G: (a second partition on my hard drive) and I am able to dual boot. The program, if anyone is interested is [u][b]EASEUS[/b][/u] and the personal edition of it is FREE ChuckK [Modified by: ChuckK on August 23, 2008 04:01 PM]

There are several partition editing programs available for free in linux, and Gparted is perhaps the most popular GUI version. I think that's what's used during many installation processes. So the previous article likely applies to many distros, with minor differences. Also, you could have used it and aborted the installation after re-partitioning but before actually instaling Ubuntu - then switching to installation of Freespire. You can also use Gparted from most liveCDs once you have an active desktop (not installed), including specialty system recovery distros. See distrowatch.com for SystemRescue and Gparted distros in particular. [Modified by: Bob on August 23, 2008 02:32 PM]