Dual Boot Help

kirbz

kirbz

kirbz

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Hi guys

I am thinking of dual booting my pc (if that’s the right term), I want to have Linux on a separate partition on my hard drive, and an option on boot to allow me to choose which 1 to boot, I already have windows and I would just like to see what linux is like.

So I need an “help for dummies” guide on how to make the partition and how to get linux. Can somebody help?

Also am I right in saying that linux is a free download? And finally… how can I get my hands on it?

Thanks
Kirbz
 
What you're wanting to do is easily accomplished with almost any Linux distribution. I'm a big fan of Ubuntu so I shall recommend it to you.

Ubuntu will boot off of the CD into a desktop environment. You can then click the Install icon on the desktop to be guided through the partitioning and installation procedure. It will automatically install the GRUB bootloader that will let you select what you want to run when you switch the machine on.

Here's a direct link to download the .iso image for x86 processors from the University of Kent: http://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/releases.ubuntu.com/edgy/ubuntu-6.10-desktop-i386.iso

Here's a torrent of the same: http://releases.ubuntu.com/edgy/ubuntu-6.10-alternate-i386.iso.torrent
 
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I also recommend Ubuntu :D

Before you run the live CD you might want to defrag your HDD [Ubuntu takes x amount of free space and I have found repartitioning is less risky if your HDD is nice and tidy]. Once done do as Billy says and run the installer. Tell Ubuntu how much space it is allowed - I am not sure what the minimum is but I gave mine 10GB.

You can probably give MUCH less as Ubuntu can be made to read and write to NTFS partitions. So basically no need to have separate partitions for your media and what not.

SiriusB
 
** Saves starting a new thread **

I'm gonna have a bash at getting dual boot working with Ubuntu, since the next part of my Physics degree is using Unix with a program called Fortran 90. I've dabbled with linux a little while ago running a small web server at home, but I reckon having something like Ubuntu running on my laptop as well will benifit me loads for the next part of my degree.

Now my laptop has 2 partitions built in ~ 50Gb each. C: being the windows drive + D: I'm using for My Documents at the moment.

I'm hoping I can keep about 30GB on the D: drive for my media (saves lugging it over to the C: drive). and have the other 20GB free for Ubuntu etc. Should I go about 'partitioning off' the 20GB for the installation? (Thus leaving C: 50GB, D: 30GB, E: 20GB if i'm not mistaken?) I've read through the sticky on dual booting and this is what it's lead me too :) Hope i'm on the right course.

Thanks for any help.
 
hendrix said:
I'm hoping I can keep about 30GB on the D: drive for my media (saves lugging it over to the C: drive). and have the other 20GB free for Ubuntu etc. Should I go about 'partitioning off' the 20GB for the installation? (Thus leaving C: 50GB, D: 30GB, E: 20GB if i'm not mistaken?) I've read through the sticky on dual booting and this is what it's lead me too :) Hope i'm on the right course.
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I'm not quite sure I understand you. You'll have to partition away at least some of it so you can install. The standard installation needs about 2 GiB.
 
BillytheImpaler said:
I'm not quite sure I understand you. You'll have to partition away at least some of it so you can install. The standard installation needs about 2 GiB.
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Yeah, I suck at putting across what i'm trying to explain. I work with numbers, so much easier :D Yeah, so I need to partition away some for the install. Cool, cheers.
 
PROGRAM Thank_You
PRINT*, "Cheers :)"
END PROGRAM Thank_You

So far, my fortran is limited to temperature conversions :o Should get a little more interesting tomorrow, we'll see :D
 
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