Install drive missing

[rweakley]

Hello, first day user of Linux. With WinXP support ending next year, I am debating just using Linux on my current hardware (built in 2004) or building a new computer to run Win 7. I don't have a problem with the performance of my machine, and it runs great. Mainly used for surfing web, email and photoshop.

My Windows setup is a dual HD system. My 80 gig contains the OS and program files; the 500 gig contains my family's user profiles, and other data such as our photos and music.

I want to install Linux alongside WinXP so I unmount the HD during the setup when it asks. However, when giving me a choice to select a drive and configure the partition, it only alows me to select space on the 500 gig drive. I would like to keep with my current system of haveing the OS physically separate from the data, in case the OS drive malfunctions. How do I get the setup to allow me this option? If I open the Computer icon in Linux, it shows both of the drives in there. Hope I made sense. And thanks ahead of time!

[catweazel]

You can always boot from the live cd and manually use gparted to create the space before running the installer. Of course, that assumes there's not something wrong, which prevents the drive from being seen.

[rweakley]

You can always boot from the live cd and manually use gparted to create the space before running the installer. Of course, that assumes there's not something wrong, which prevents the drive from being seen.

Ok, when I go to the gparted program, I can see the other disk. It has an ntfs section size 74.52 GiB capacity, 21.86 GiB used, 52.66 GiB unused, and boot flag. I have no option do create a new partition in the space, but do have the option to resize.

If I resize (shrink) this partition in order to create a new partition out of the unallocated space, will it mess up the Windows OS or any programs installed on that partition? The reason I ask is that I know in Windows, once a partition has been made, it cannot be resized with the standard disk management tool.

[rweakley]

The message:

Are you sure you want to apply the pending operations? Editing partitions has potential to cause loss of data.

has me a little paranoid.