Dual booting XP and Linux

# First, start off with a machine with XP already installed on it.

# Next, download a Linux distro.

# Burn a CD of the ISO you downloaded and pop it into the drive and boot up off of it.

# Start the install process. This will take you through the Welcome screen, the Where are you? screen and the Keyboard layout screen.

# Now you’ll come to the disk partitioner. Choose the Resize [main partition] and use freed space option. This is where you find out if you have enough free space to do the job. The default recommendation for the new partition size will be ideal, but you can move the slider along to change the values to suit. When you’re done, click Forward.

# Now you can go away and leave the install to churn away until it’s done. It shouldn’t take all that long.

# When the install is complete the system will reboot.

# When the system boot up, now you’ll be greeted by the GRUB boot menu. From here you can choose which OS to boot into. In my case Ubuntu will be the default and will start automatically in 10 seconds.

# The first time that you reboot into Windows the OS will more than likely want to check the disk since the partition has changed size since Windows was last running. XP will also likely want to re-detect hardware and such and probably reboot.

# That’s it!