I got a laptop(64-bit) with ubuntu installed on it.It has 320GB hard disk,but only one drive is there of all 320gb in which ubuntu is installed.I want to partition this single drive on which ubuntu is installed, into 2 partitions so that i can install win8 also.
So i want to shrink the drive in which ubuntu is installed without formating it,so that i can create another partition from it
Try to use Gparted,if it impossible to do it from Ubuntu try use Live Gparted,you can boot Gparted from USB drive or CD and then re-partition your drive
but beware if there's only 1 partition,there's high possibility that the whole Ubuntu including it's bootloader,etc. (Boot stuff) is on that partition and there is also high possibilty to not able boot your Ubuntu due the MBR re-write.Make sure you not also have free space boot also partition that not have any connection with boot stuff.
So for safe i suggest you to re-partitioning your drive from your Ubuntu.
P.S.:If you install Windows after Ubuntu,you will lost your Ubuntu Bootloader (Not the Ubuntu) because Windows re-write the whole bootloader on the disk.But you can always fix your bootloader
Using gparted partition editor you can split a partition into two.It was done through gparted live-disk or ubuntu live-disk because you installed ubuntu on the 320 GB which was already mounted while you logging into ubuntu.
Boot ubuntu live-disk,click on try ubuntu,then connect to the internet and openup the terminal.And run the below commands to install gparted
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gparted && sudo gparted
Right-click on the 320 GB partition then select the option Resize/Move.Now reduce the size of how much space did you want for another Os.
After resizing,an unallocated space was created just below to the 320 GB partition.
Now right-click on the unallocated space and click on the New option.From that Create ntfs partition for windows.
Your external drive will have AT LEAST 1 partition on it. It must be partitioned in order to use it at all. Depending on the options selected when you installed Ubuntu, you may actually have more than one partition on the drive.To create another partition, you will first need to shrink another partition in order to make room for the new one. You can use gparted (gparted.sourceforge.net) to do this. Download and burn the ISO image and restart your computer with it. Most operations are quite evident in how to accomplish them. After you shrink the first partition, you will be able to create another.As with any major disk operations, make sure you back up your data first. Also, it is possible to run GParted from Ubuntu, but you run a greater risk of losing data by doing so.
