Ubuntu/Windows XP Dual Boot Help!?

Hey Guys! I need some help installing Ubuntu 8.04 and Windows XP as dual boot. As I am writing this now I'm low level formatting my other computer's hard drive and need to setup the hard drive so 60% of it is dedicated to windows XP while the remaining 40% belongs to Ubuntu. I'm not going to use fdisk to format the hard drive so I'm thinking of using Ubuntu's partition manager to get this dual boot working. Does anyone know what I should do? How many partitions should I make? Does swap need to have its own seperate partition? Does the Windows XP partition need to be FAT32 while Ubuntu's EXT3??? I'm very lost and I need set by set instructions that can tell me exactly what to type in, what to click and what to fill in. Thank you SO much Guys! I've wasted two days wrestling with this..going through corrupt installs..errors..floppy disks..booting from USB drives from DOS..five failed ISO burn attempts at 4x and more)

just get to 2 hard drive in the computer and format one to each thats how i do xp and red hat

I can commiserate. Did you write your ISO to CD after disconnecting from the Internet and closing down your virus/firewall software? But first, you need to check your download using md5sum to assure it's a good download. (It took me several tries to get a good CD).

Next, go to the Ubuntu site/s and read the basic install instructions and also check the User Community for additional info, as needed and/or Google for Ubuntu startup instructions.

Once you get a good CD, shut down, go into your BIOS and select boot first from CD, then hard drive. Save and Exit. Power down, then bootup and insert the CD before bootup completes. You should then be presented with an Ubuntu 8.04 startup menu of three choices. Select the top choice, unless you want to select an Ubuntu under WinXP choice (middle choice of the three).

Follow the screen directions after your Ubuntu choice is selected, also using the information you gathered when you went to the Ubuntu and or Google site/s.

These steps should get you there, or at least further along. Be patient--and also order a free Ubuntu CD from the site.

Or install Ubunto on a virtual PC - e.g. vmware server (does work on XP standard).

This way you wouldnt even need to burn disks to install as you can install straight from ISOs, plus you have access to the OS by running it in a window at the same time as running XP Bonus in its simplicity!