Linux 12 partitioning

[peahouse05]

Hi All
Have been in and out of Linux distros over the years but family like Windows and I tend to forget what I have learnt (coming up to 65years).
Got a 500GB SATA hard drive for Christmas and decided to dual boot Mint 12 (from CD) and Windows XP.
Did this on Boxing Day (a bit in wine) and not only installed Mint first but allowed it to fill the whole drive!
How can I get an NTFS partition on this this drive to install XP first?
Thanks in advance
peahouse05

[Jonathan183]

gparted will allow you to resize partitions and should be available on the Linux Mint live CD. If you don't want any data on the hard drive then you can wipe the MBR including partition table and start again (which is quickest). If you want to keep data then a resize is best. To allow install of Windows you will probably need to remove grub from the MBR of the hard drive. Suggest you post the output of sudo fdisk -l so we can see disc partition structure ... and designation of drive(s) connected to the system.

[peahouse05]

Thanks Jonathan
I will try all you have sugested
Kind Regards
peahouse05

[peahouse05]

Hello
Have downloaded and burnt gparted to DVD on two different machines to make sure. Went into BIOS on laptop with Linux 12 HDD and set to boot from DVD ROM. Will not boot with either disk - just makes noises that it is trying but after about a minute Linux 12 boots.
Most grateful for any further advice.
Kind Regards
peahouse05