Dual Boot OS

[endgame]

I was wondering if anyone had any experience with dual booting operating systems and if they could offer any advice/help. I'm thinking of booting Ubuntu and Xp. I only have one hard drive so i'd have to partition it. Any advice?

 

[M3dley]

I would maybe go with two hard drives just for space and things like that. I mean a second hd is not that expensive. I think there are some programs out there that will help you set it all up. Ill check real quick and respond soon.

 

[mindful23]

Well I've dual-booted Linux and Windows alot.

Some things to know...

1.) Have over an 200-300GB HD.
2.) Make sure you install Windows first and setup the partitions inside Windows and then later tweak the partitions however and then install Ubuntu on the second partition. This is because Windows will screw up the boot loader from Ubuntu.


There is alot more but since I'm not familiar with the new version of Ubuntu.... I don't know much else to tell you. I'm sure you can google it someplace.


Edit: Here is an article on dual-booting from the original Ubuntu site.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WindowsDualBoot

 

[Trukilla]

what is dual booting?

 

[endgame]

dual booting is installing two seperate operating systems on your comp. for example XP and Vista or some microsft product with a linux OS. when u accomplish this u will be prompted at startup to select the OS u want to run on. the tricky part is figuring out how to partition the hard drive to allow for both OS's to operate and also installing a boot loader. i really have no idea where to start but im gonna check out the site trukilla.

 

[endgame]

and by trukilla i mean mindful lol

 

[Trukilla]

oh alrite thanx for the info

 

[mindful23]

Lol. Don't mix us up

 

[GreenMonkey]

Mindfull was right - except I dont see why you need 200GB to have a dual boot. I mean,... I can dual boot XP and ubuntu on a 10GB if i want,... i dont really see how size matters.... its what you do with it. No this post isnt suspicous at all, hey look! a distraction!

 

[omgooses]

On my laptop I have a 20gb NTFS partition for XP, 15gb ext3 partition for Ubuntu (both primary), and a FAT32 partition to share files between the two (I believe in an extended partition).

I believe when resizing your NTFS partition with the Ubuntu installer, it defrags the drive for you but I'm not quite sure. I would defrag before resizing and installing just for in case...

 

[mindful23]

Well I just prefer alot of space on each partition. Of course size doesn't matter but if you are going to play TF2 and stuff... TF2 alone takes 5gigs of space.

If it is just a non-data / gaming laptop... size doesn't matter (that isn't what she said ).

But if it is your gaming rig... make sure you have plenty of space for your games etc etc.

 

[Magnus]

The general rule with multiple boot OS is to have separate partitions for each OS; install the newest Windows OS first, the next newest Windows OS next, and so on, then install Linux last. I've never had more than 2 OS on a single machine though.

 

[GreenMonkey]

Whereas, I would Install the oldest windows first, the newest second, and of course linux last. ALWAYS linux last.