Dual Boot question

steerpike · 17 Sep 2006 at 13:38

Hi - my first post here....

I am in the process of getting a new system, and for various reasons want to build it as a dual boot ubuntu / windows x64 (i.e. win for games and linux for everything else).

I would describe myself as a pretty competant and confident computer user, though relatively un-informed on a more techy/software level.

What I want to know is this: does it make a difference what order I install the OS's in, and what impact does using the free distribution of Win x64 have on the system when it expires? (at the moment I can't afford to buy a full copy, that may come a couple of months down the line....)

Any thoughts or advice, I'd be grateful - cheers!

steerpike · 17 Sep 2006 at 14:07

Cheers for that

don't suppose clever partitioning could ease the situation could it?

steerpike · 18 Sep 2006 at 09:57

mortals said:
all you need to do for partitioning is make a NTFS or FAT32 partition however many percent of the disk for windows, leaving enough for linux. Like 50% or 70%. Then install windows. Then when you come to QUOTE]

Right, this is where I display my ignorance! What is the diference between these two formats, and is this a function I can perform in BIOS before installing either OS? - Cheers

steerpike · 18 Sep 2006 at 12:24

You are correct - I have never particioned a disk before, so thanks for that I will try it (with any luck, the machine arrives tomorrow and I can start playing

...)

steerpike · 18 Sep 2006 at 12:41

Dj_Jestar said:
ubuntu also has a GUI partition app bundled with it.

Ahh, that sounds promising, so I could install unbuntu, part' the HD from within GUI (i.e. point and click so a recent convert such as myself knows what's happening), install windows in the partician, then simply re-arange the boot order to boot from the partician first when I want to boot into windows? Or am I being wildly optomistic and missing something crucial?

steerpike · 18 Sep 2006 at 17:58

michellez said:
NTFS/FAT32 - the difference when concerned with Linux is that Linux can only read NTFS (well, some experimental support writing of data to an NTFS partition is present in Linux but not recommended to be used tbh), where as FAT32 can be written to and read by both Linux and Windows.

so make a smallish NTFS partition (say 25% [80gb in this case] of the total), install win into it, leave the rest as FAT32 and install LINUX there and happy hollidays?

Cheers by the way to everyone, it's a real help

steerpike · 20 Sep 2006 at 09:28

Thanks lads - that's all been really helpful -

And, fingers crossed - it all seems to be working!