I need a good, free HDD partitioning program so I can install Ubuntu

I already have the ISO for Ubuntu downloaded and ready for burning to a DVD/CD, however, I need a program to create a partition for it. I've already tried the "demo" for Partition Magic 8.0 which will let you try out the features, but not actually make a partition. Bunch of jerks >:|

So anyone have any good programs for what I need? Any assistance will be greatly appreciated

 

Doesn't the installation process allow you to partition space for Ubuntu. I'm pretty sure it did for me.

 

Download Gparted.

Ubuntu also has a Gparted in it's installation.

 

Oh.......that's good

All I need is a blank CD or DVD now

 

GParted is great and it's what I use, but Ubuntu does have it built in. However, for some reason, it's just much more restrictive in what it will let you do, so I use GParted v3.

 

yea, ubuntu has something installed already (i guess the same thing people are saying), and its pretty easy to use

 

GParted is great. I use it from SystemRescueCd which is a bootable linux cd (based on Slackware I think) which includes alot of other tools that come in handy from time to time.

Just boot from that CD, type "startx" at the promt, and once the window manager loads, type "gparted" in the terminal window.

Resizing a 120 Gig NTFS down to 80 gigs took about two minutes.

 

I'm pretty sure you can get a free installation cd from ubuntu. (i installed ubuntu on my dv9000t today...)

 

Use the ubuntu formatter only if you have a full partition already in the same array of sequence on the HD (like...if you have 3 partitions, 2 and 3 are the ones you are using). The ubuntu partitioner doesn't let you move things around, only change things up.

I said "screw my recovery partition" and made it my swap xD

 

There isn't a point to using gparted if you don't have a linux install yet. If you are just using windows, and have free space, then the Ubuntu install disc will deal with some basic re-partitioning of space commands. Nothing very advanced. If you want to make specific partitions, I would use the Windows install disk, boot into it, and make another partition in a FAT32 file format. Linux will use that partition, convert it over to EXT3, and things can be a bit more predictable for you as a newbie.

 

IMO,if it is the first time you install Linux, a free ripe partition is neccessary.You can adjust the free space(swap,root...) when installing Ubuntu
I recommend hiren boot cd first because the feature are full of many useful stuff such as checking disk,recovery,...besides many partition progz

 

I've been having problems dual booting xp and ubuntu. Whenever I attempt to resize my hard drive I always get an error. Anyone have an idea. The specs are in my sig.

 

You can check the sig.

 

Are you using the built in Ubuntu partitioner?

Like I said in my earlier post, I have never had luck with Ubuntu's built-in GParted. Therefore, I always have the GParted LiveCD ( gparted.sourceforge.net) on hand when I'm ready to mess with the partitions on my computer.

 

Yeah I am using the built in Ubuntu partioner. I guess i'll try the GParted Live CD.

EDIT: Well I can't figure out how to use the GParted Live CD. If you can tell me the command to resize the hard drive it'd be great. And how to add a partion.

 

GParted is no longer a default package in 6.10. You need to download it separately, and so you won't be able to use it via Live CD...or maybe you can? I have never tried downloading and using a package on a Live basis..my hunch is that it won't work.

 

I'm going to direct you to this thread that I wrote a while back on dual-booting XP with Vista. The formatting steps (steps 1-4) will be the same for Ubuntu. Note that I believe those screenshots are from an older version, but the steps should still be the same. There is no need for terminal commands; GParted is a graphical partitioner. There's an icon on the desktop to get to the graphical partitioning program on the CD.

The GParted project has a LiveCD now that you can boot from. It's separate from any Linux distribution and is just the partitioning software on a CD by itself.

 

Great help! Thanks a lot for that. Just so everyone can know - notebook_ftw is talking about

GParted Project - Live CD