Creating a partition for windows while installing ubuntu

[webster]

I'm trying to install windows xp on a computer that has fedora installed right now. I ran into a problem during that process, which you can see in the fedora forum (I can't post links) titled "what would happen if I deleted partitions from the terminal."

I have an ubuntu cd that I'm now trying to use to delete the partitions for fedora and to create a partition that can install windows xp.

My plan is to create a partition for windows xp and then to create a few partitions for ubuntu. But the ubuntu cd doesn't allow me to set the windows xp partition as ntfs. It only offers options for fat 16/32. Is there a way around this? There's also a "do not use this partition" option. Should I just create a partition using that option and then create partitions of ubuntu and will the xp cd install on that partition? Thanks.

[oz]

If it were me, I'd use the Ubuntu CD to wipe the entire drive then start fresh.

To wipe a drive of all content, go to a terminal and issue the following command:

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=512 count=1

Using the dd command above will write zeros to the entire drive giving you a totally fresh start.

Then you can install Windows and leave some free space on the drive for installing Ubuntu. Direct the Ubuntu installer to use the remaining free space.

[D-cat]

Actually that'll only overwrite the MBR, which should be sufficient for this particular problem.

Omit the count=1 to erase the whole drive (if you find that's necessary).

[Hal343]

An alternative way I have used is to make a fat32 partition for Windows. When you install (XP is what I used) Windows will change it to ntfs. If you use the "do not use this partition" option, there is a chance that it will be unusable with any OS

[ArunPrasath]

You have to delete the partition as unpartitioned space by using gparted[system->Administration->gparted] in ubuntu live cd and then you boot into windows XP CD and format that unused partition as your wish. I think this makes u very simple.