well ive got it working windows 7 on one side and ubuntu 11.10 on the other side
and all my files intact.

went to install some aditional drivers and got the fallowing. Sorry,
installation of this driver failed.

In answer to your original question - not hard.

There are actually 2 ways to install Ubuntu along with Windows. There is a
file called wubi.exe on the Ubuntu (also Kubuntu, Xubuntu etc.) disk, which
you can run from within Windows to begin an Ubuntu installation. This
creates a large file with all of Ubuntu inside it. It is invisible to
Windows and you can choose from a new startup menu whether to start Windows
or Ubuntu. However, when installed this way there is a speed penalty.

The other option is to boot from the Ubuntu disk and choose the option to
install it alongside of Windows. This takes a lot longer because it has to
shrink the size of the Windows partition and create the Ubuntu installation
on it's own partition. Linux uses a different, incompatible, file system to
Windows. Again you choose from a startup menu and as long as you have
enough free space both work just fine, at full speed. Ubuntu will see the
Windows files but Windows won't see the Ubuntu install.

I suppose there is a third way, using a virtual machines - not the one from
Microsoft - to install Linux within Windows. You can do it the other way
around too and put Windows inside Ubuntu, which I do for those few
programmes that won't run under Wine in Ubuntu.

As for the failed driver installation... give it another try, it might
work. Make sure you have a solid internet connection and that the drivers
are really the right ones. Tell us more about why and what you were
installing and maybe someone here can give you some other options to try.

I suppose that this heading means installing Ubuntu THROUGH Windows?

I have done this more than once without any problems, setting up dual
boot computers with a version of Windows plus one of the Linux options.
My desktop machine is triple boot, while one of my local Linux Group
colleagues has five operating systems on a single computer

For me, the procedure involved adding Linux (Ubuntu) to machines
with Windows already installed. The important part of this was to
start with a Windows system, then to add Linux. If you try to work
the other way around, by adding Windows to a Linux computer you might
have problems. Windows is a stupid operating system that may well ignore
or over-write anything else on the hard drive.

Here is how I set-up a Toshiba laptop with an 80Gb hard drive and
Windows XP already installed.

1. Used the XP defrag to tidy up the disk.

2. Used GParted to partition the available hard drive space. In that I
have to use Windows for some Technical Support work and can not abandon
it completely, I (roughly) split the HD into two. Half for Windows and
half for Linux, about 40 Gb each..

3. The Linux HD space was then divided into three parts. The operating
system (Mepis in this case) 10 Megabytes. Linux Swap 5 Megabytes
(probably too big), and the remaining space specified as Linux Home.

4. Installed Mepis into these pre-determined partitions.

Grub, which came with the Mepis installation, recognised that XP was
installed and gave me access to both systems at boot-up. XP runs as an
individual operating system and completely ignores anything else on the
disk.

However, Linux knows that XP is there too, and provides access for
me to read and use the files stored in the Windows XP part of the hard
disk.

Perhaps this all seems to simple?

ok well i just got done doing a fresh install of windows, just a few mins ago.
im prob about to download and start running windows, gordon im in the same spot
you are needing windows to run sams broadcaster, because i dont know if wine
will cover it, i write back as soon as i know more. one other question i have
alot of mp3 files will the be viewable to both operating systems, and what are
the min specs i should install ubuntu under mainly the hard drive space i know
you can chage it. i have a 320 gig and have it partitioned off. in half just
like you, 160 gb and 160 gb

and i do have ubuntu 11.10 burt to a disk.

There is are two ways to install Linux in Windows and only one way to
install it through Windows.

The two ways to install it in Windows are to use a virtual machine such as
offered by Virtualbox or VMware with Windows acting as the host and Linux
as the client and the other way is to use somethng like andLinux or coLinux
or Ulteo (more for enterprise).

Since Linux is free you can use it in a VM without worries about licensing
or cost as would be the case to run Windows in Linux. The downside of VMs
is that it takes a fairly powerful processor and lots of RAM. The coLinux
option is rougher, but works a bit like wine in reverse.

The way to install Linux through windows is to use Wubi as previously
explained by LAC. The advantage of Wubi is that it requires NO
partitioning. You just install it (and remove it) from the Windows
installer (and remove using the Control Panel). The difference between Wubi
and the VM or coLinux route is that you must re-boot to use Linux. While
Wubi installs in Windows on your C drive, it runs outside of Windows and
does not require windows to run. It is just as fast a Linux running
natively, however it will run slower if your disk (C drive in Windows) is
fragmented. Defragmentation before installing Wubi is the solution. It also
can be destroyed should anything happen to your Windows drive such as a
hard re-boot with it open etc. because large files are the first to go and
this is a huge file. Also you cannot hibernate from Linux installed by
Wubi. Read the explanation below if you want to know how Wubi works.

http://www.andlinux.org/downloads.php
http://www.ulteo.com/home/
http://wubi.sourceforge.net/faq.php

A true dual-boot is using the Grub Boot Menu and selecting Windows as last on
the list usually. Within Windows is either as a virtual OS or on the NTFS hard
drive as a directory, which is a temp deal as a trial with limitations, as you
may be discovering.

As a beginner I tried dual-booting through a Windows partitioning and menu
program, but Norton SystemWorks 2003 hosed Mandrake, if memory serves. So I
switched to multiple hard drives or computers running various OS installs.

Ubuntu can play mp3 files.

Is 160gb be enough?
Here is how I have my HD partitioned:
Windows NTSF 21gb
Ubuntu
/ ext4 20gb
swap 2gb
/home ext4 160gb

Let me explain this Ubuntu setup
1) "/" is a partition and where the root directory and OS will be located
with many subdirectories. Where Windows partitions are setup using a NTSF
system Ubuntu's latest setup is ext4. I use 20gb but I think 10gb would be
enough.
2) "swap" is partition, the OS uses this as a runtime cache. This partition
setup is automatically set by the OS.
3) "/home" is a partition, having a folder in each user's name. Windows
copied there "My Directory" system more or less off of this and is used in
the similar way, each user having their own. I have a 500gb HD but find
160gb is way more than I need right now.

You ask if 160gb is big enough. That depends on how big your Music
collection you want to put on the /home partition. 160gb is a lot of mp3s
but then again...

Before you do the partitioning and installation of Ubuntu backup anything
you don't want to loose. I have never lost anything repartitioning and
installing Ubuntu but crap happens. Then I'm sure you knew this but just a
reminder. I'm sure you propabally knew most of what I mentioned above.
Repartitioning and installing Ubuntu is not that hard a thing to do but the
first few times it sure is a scarry thing to do. I know, I, we, have all
been there too.

When you boot up after Ubuntu is installed GRUB, the GRand Unified
Bootloader, will present you with a menu of OSs, usually Ubuntu is the top,
first and default, OS. With no intervention the default OS will boot in
about 10 seconds.

Gordon said that Windows is too dumb to know about other OSs. I disagree
with that. Oh I' sure MS Windows knows about that "other" OS but like a
male lion and another male lion's cub, it will kill it with do regard. But
the result is just the same.

ive went in and partitioned 219 gb 53 gb for windows 7 and 25 gb for
ubuntu, putting all my mp3s and such in the 219, at one time i had 15,000 mp3s
and will prob have more than that when its over with.

got ubuntu installed and working, i need to know where can i get a flash plug in
for youtube, i also got wine installed, i googled flash for ubuntu tried a
command but it did not work

You may not be able to get Flash player for latest Firefox. I installed Google
Chrome on Ubuntu and it has flash player built-in.

Flash player may in the future be displaced in the real world by HTML6. Apple
does not have flash on some of their devices but they will be an early mover to
get HTML6 in place.

i got flash working but i need to know how i can install utorrent in ubuntu with
wine.

not sure if different now james, but I have a program called "transmission
bitTorrent Client" on my computer running Ubuntu. Since I don't torrent, I
assume it was part of the default software package. You might check it
out. Looks pretty straightfoward to use.

ive checked it out trying to figure out how to config if now.