U can do all of the Hard Drive Re-sizing, Partitioning without loosing data using a Propitiatory Software for windows with which u can literally control Ur NTFS/FAT Partitions. Its called EASEUS Partition Master v5.5 Pro. How to get it ? U'll have to work out that... U can Buy it or there are other ways that I can't mention here for legal Reasons.
Once u have the software, make Ur Hard drive look like something like what I've shown Below.
And I have a suggestion, U don't have to use FAT32 for transferring files between Ubuntu and Windows. NTFS is better, Max File Size that FAT32 can Handle is 4GB, which is pretty less now and U might never be able to transfer a file larger than 4GB without splitting it.
[······300000 MB······] [··········1000000 MB··········] [····200000 MB·····]
Windows XP Data FREE Space
NTFS NTFS (for Ubuntu)
Once U have 15-20GB u can go ahead with Ubuntu installation in this way.
Boot from Live CD and start the Installation.
During Installation Select Specify Partitions Manually. To begin creating partitions, select the free space and click on the Add… button.
- Click on the “Add” button. In the new window, type 2048 in the “New partition size in megabytes” field and select the “swap area” option from the “Use as:” list. Click the OK button.
- Now, click on the “Add” button. In the new window, select the “Primary” option, input a value between 8,000 and 20,000 in the “New partition size in megabytes” field and select / as the “Mount point.” Click the OK button.
- Click on the “Add” button again and from the new window and select the “Primary” option, type in whatever space you have left in your hard disk in the “New partition size in megabytes” field. And select /home as the “Mount point.” Click the OK button. You are done with the hard part.
Click “Install Now” to proceed with the installation process.