# Solved: Dual Boot - XP and Kubuntu



## sportscrazy (Nov 27, 2004)

Hi everyone, I have had linux for about a year now and I used to run it on a separate hard drive but now that hard drive is corrupted so I need to have Kubuntu and XP on the same hard. The problem is that when I run the live CD and then run the installer. What happens is that I shrink the windows partition and leave 23 GB of free space. Then I split that into 20 and 3 GB. I assign the 20 GB to an ext3 format for Linux, but when I try to assign the remaining 3 GB as swap space the assign button is disabled. Why does it do that?

Any help is appreciated!
Sports


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## vtel57 (Jul 12, 2004)

You may not really have 23G to work with on the drive. Try reducing your Linux ext3 partition down to 18G, then see what's left for /swap.


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## sportscrazy (Nov 27, 2004)

I just talked to saikee, and the major problem is that I have 3 partitions already. The first is for windows, the second is DellUtilities, and the third I believe is to restore my PC in the case of emergency. I don't know why Dell made those 2 partitions because they gave me a re-install disk as well. Should I get rid of the 2 dell partitions or is there a way of exceeding 4 partitions in a Hard Drive?


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## sportscrazy (Nov 27, 2004)

Actually, I just got off the phone with dell and they said that I can remove both of the partitions if I need to. So I will remove them both and try installing Kubuntu from there.


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## saikee (Jun 11, 2004)

I have replied to your message and said there is no need to do so.

You are far better off to re-install Kubuntu in a logical partition than nuking the two primary partitions. The Vendor utility may come in handy if you ever need to reinstall Windows. Removing the back up partition means your Windows system has no regular back up. They can be removed if needed but there is no technical reason for you to do it, except in a panic.

Basically if you use the last primary partition as an extended partition then you can have up to 59 logical partition inside.


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## sportscrazy (Nov 27, 2004)

I removed the partition called DellUtilities, dell said it was just so they can quickly analyze what is wrong with my computer but all the files in that partition I have on a CD already. Kubuntu is up and running again! 

P.S. for some reason my USB mouse stops working after about 5 or 6 minutes and I have to reconnect it to get it going again. Why is that?


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