installing ubuntu side by side windows with formatting

hello,
i want to format my computer and install windows xp and ubuntu. in order to reinstall my existing xp i need to make a cd copy of some files on my computer but i don't have a cd burner on it and i don't a usb device to replace the cd. i know, however, that when installing ubuntu i can either format the computer or just reduce to size of windows, thus staying with both OS at the same time. my question is: since i can't reinstall windows after formating the computer, can the ubuntu installation process format everything but leave the windows xp files, so my computer will be as clean as it was when i got it and still have xp on it? (i can get ubuntu on a cd from a different computer)/
i'd appreciate any help and info.
thanks

I'm don't completely understand what you're trying to do, but if Ubuntu can resize the Windows partition for its install, then you could copy you're needed files off of the Windows partition onto the Ubuntu partition after Ubuntu is installed, then reinstall Windows in its partition (if that's what you want), and then copy the Windows files back to the new installation. Ubuntu should be able to mount the Windows partition.

Just to confirm Pafnoutios suggestion which I also subscribe:

(1) Use Ubunto Live CD to resize the hard disk to make Xp partition smaller, say redution of 50%.

(2) Use the squeezed out hard disk space, now unallocated, to install Ubuntu.

(3) Run the installed Ubuntu and copy the XP files you want to keep from the Xp partition to the Ubuntu partition.

(4) Use Ubuntu to format the Xp partition (NTFS filing system)

(5) Re-install Xp

(6) Move the Xp files back from Ubuntu to the new Xp.

The above scheme will work satisfactory.

saikee, how do i know which files i need to install xp? where are those NTFS files? are they all in the same location/folder?

Do you have an XP installation disc and license key?

If you want a clean copy of Xp you have to do a re-installation.

If you format a partition you have to erase everything inside that partition.

There is a "dirty" re-installation with which you instruct the installer no need to format the partition so that it overwrites only the system files but all the installed programs will have to be reinstalled too.

The current proposal is to keep a copy of your old Xp inside Ubuntu and re-install your Xp from new. You can then go back to the old copy to retrieve whatever old Xp file at a later date.

There is no such installer of one operating system designed to selectively remove files of another operating system so as to keep the second operating system clean. If a system file is changed or remove the resulting operating system will not work.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Pafnoutios

Do you have an XP installation disc and license key?

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i don't have the disc but i have the license key. my copy is legit but i don't have the cd and can't burn one from that computer.

plus, i'm affraid i didn't understand stages 3-5 in your explanation, saikee. "the files i want to keep" are the ones needed for installation? cause, i don't want to keep any file from the "old" xp.the re-installment is through the reduced xp or with files i need to extract earlier and put on a cd/usb device? cause i tried getting those files on a usb stick with a program called "win to flash", but it didn't work (the computer recognized the device and everything but i think that the program didn't install the files properly on the stick).

Ubuntu by deafult will mount all the NTFS partitions it detects. Therefore you can drag and drop from Xp folder to Ubuntu folder.

I guess most Windows users do not have an idea where the files go and so my advice why not copy the whole lot. Xp may object or disallow you copy the system files but in Ubuntu the system files are treated as normal files because you are using a different operating system.

You can try a similar Xp disc from another Xp user and fill in your own product key when asked. I am sure of having transferred several Xp from dead computers to other PC. All is needed is another activation. M$ does permit a re-activation if the licensed copy is not being used by another user.

ok great! one last thing though: where do i find the folder with the needed xp files? where are those system files / what lot are you referring to?

Ubuntu or nearly the majority of the Linux mounts Windows partitions automatically on the /media using the name associated with the partition label. Very few of them mount it on the /mnt.

In Ubuntu if you click Places/Home folder you will be able to see all the partitions Ubuntu has found in you PC on the left hand side of the screen. Just click the partition if you want it mounted. If the partition has been mounted a click will unmount it.

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where do i find the folder with the needed xp files?

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that will depend on the person that did the original XP install:-

- some will place those files into /i386 & others into /windows/system32/install
- others will not do either - coz their a slack installer.

in which case:- you will have to 'borrow' a install cd & supply your own licence key.