Installing vista onto Ubuntu machine

[monique]

I'm attempting to install Vista onto a PC which is running Ubuntu. I've partitioned the hard drive using GParted to create a new area for Vista. When creating new partition for Vista install, it was formatted as ext2. Vista installation program couldn't install onto this or format it. I then used GParted to re-format as FAT32 (since NTFS wasn't an option) and then attempted to install Vista. This time around I was able to format to NTFS using Vista installer but am now getting an error message from the installer app that it is not usable for the install. GParted reads this as NTFS but gives me a warning "unable to read the contents of this filesystem". Any thoughts on how to better format this partition would be really appreciated.

[Jonathan183]

Welcome to the forums monique

I suggest you leave the space free and let Windows format the free space. You may find the install process fails because Windows is not allocated space at the start of the hard drive. You may also find that the Windows CD fails to work because you have Grub installed to the MBR of the hard drive (if this is the case then use Supergrub to restore Windows bootloader code to the MBR).

[monique]

I tried deleting the NTFS partition and having it as unallocated then allowing the installer to format. Still receiving the error of "windows is unable to find a system volume that meets its criteria for installation" I also get the same error about the partition in GParted (listed in my earlier post). How do I move the partition to the front? Also, I've read somewhere that moving the ubuntu partition away from the first position will cause it to crash. Is this accurate?

[Jonathan183]

Have you tried using supergrub to remove grub from the MBR before you boot from the Windows CD?

Moving the Ubuntu partition can cause problems for two reasons I know:-
1. uuid information for the partition is changed ... since this is used in bootloader config and /etc/fstab for later versions of Ubuntu it can stop the system booting until you correct the entries.
2. on some machines there is a grub/bios issue which prevents boot from a partition which starts or ends after cylinder 1024 on the drive.

It may be worth you posting the output of

sudo fdisk -l

so we can see the disk partition structure.

[hyperman299]

I currently have Vista and Ubuntu on my other computer. The computer came with Windows Vista and I installed Ubuntu seperately. I currently am having lots of trouble with that computer with Ubuntu and get many error messages saying that disk space is not sufficient for Ubuntu. Speaking from personal experience, I advise you against this. It is troublesome trying to load Ubuntu, probably becuase Vista already takes up so much disk space. As you have Ubuntu and try to install Vista, most likely you will have trouble making it work. You can try Jonathons idea, but I would not do it if I were you. It messes up the features on both Vista and Ubuntu, and makes the computer very slow.

[devils casper]

I currently am having lots of trouble with that computer with Ubuntu and get many error messages saying that disk space is not sufficient for Ubuntu.

How much space did you allocate to Ubuntu? Did you clear apt-get cache?
Dual boot has nothing to do with Machine's performance because none of OS affect other OS. OSes are completely independent of each other in dual boot setup unless you have installed one in Virtual Machine.

I have Windows OS + 6 Linux OSes in my test machine and multiboot is working fine. You should allocate recommended disk space to each OS.