Trying to install Ubuntu MATE next to Windows XP

[wolfman]

Several of your questions answered here:

Ubuntu beginners guide, complete how to install and run first update

WARNING 1: BACKUP ALL YOUR DATA BEFORE YOU START TO INSTALL IN CASE THINGS GO WRONG!. SAVE ALL YOUR IMPORTANT FILES AND FOLDERS TO EITHER AN EXTERNAL USB DRIVE AND/OR TO A 2ND HARD DRIVE ON YOUR PC. DO NOT SAVE ANYTHING ON THE SAME DRIVE YOU INTEND TO USE FOR LINUX UNLESS YOU UNDERSTAND/KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING!. ONCE YOU START PARTITIONING AND YOU COMMIT TO FORMATTING YOUR PARTITIONS, THERE IS NO GOING BACK!. WARNING 2: IF YOU HAVE A RECOVERY PARTITION AND HAVE NOT CREATED ANY RECOVERY DISKS FO…

For partitioning:

GParted partition guide for Linux and Windows users

PLEASE NOTE: THIS GUIDE DOES NOT DEPICT THE INSTALLATION (CREATION) OF A UEFI PARTITION. IF YOU HAVE A COMPUTER WITH UEFI/BIOS, MAKE SURE YOU ALSO CREATE A UEFI/BIOS PARTITION AS WELL. SEE FURTHER REMARKS ABOUT UEFI PARTITIONS IN THE GUIDE!. Linux beginners should also look here: You can only partition on an unmounted drive using an installation disk of your Linux flavour with a partitioning tool included, use the Gparted tool in live mode, or you can download a copy of Gparted from the link…

Hope it helps!.