Help creating partition

[terox13]

Hi, I'm trying to set up a dual boot with windows xp and debian. I'm trying to accomplish this by following this guide:

Dual Boot Windows and Linux Grub - Debian Linux with Windows 98 ME NT 2000 and XP

When I boot the installer and get to the partition part, I select "FREE SPACE". Then I get an error that says it can't create a partition because there might not be enough space. I have 15GB of free space. Shouldn't that be more than enough? I've been really confused in the partition process and any help would be greatly appreciated. I just have one hard drive (the C: drive) and I've never created any partitions or anything before.

[oz]

I'm not really sure why it's not working for you, but yes, the partitioning process is usually the biggest hurdle for any new user. Of course, if you were creating separate partitions for Windows, it would probably be a big hurdle there, as well.

Yes, 15GB should be big enough, depending on what you want to do with your system. I usually create my partitions something like this:

/ (about 6 to 10 GB, ext3)
swap (about 512 MB, swap)
/home (about 6 to 10 GB, ext3)

You don't have to create a separate /home partition if you don't want it, but there are advantages to doing so.

You could use the PartedMagic LiveCD to create your partitions before running the installer if you wish. It's a very small download and quick burn to CD, and it's really easy to use. You can find good directions for using it on their website, and on the CD itself. Then, you'd just tell the installer to use the partitions you've already created for the new Linux install.

[terox13]

Thank you very much. I used Parted Magic Live CD and created a new partition and it worked!

[oz]

That's great... glad it worked out for you!

Don't hesitate to post new threads with any new questions.