Dual boot Ubuntu and Vista

manic111 · 12 Jan 2008 at 01:10

I am looking at dual booting Ubuntu 7.10 and Vista 32bit and was just wondering what the possibilities are that I may mess up my Windows install? Is it a particularly risky thing to do?

Cob · 12 Jan 2008 at 04:07

Nah you should be fine. Ubuntu happily installs alongside other operating systems.

Mindriot · 12 Jan 2008 at 12:55

It's a lot easier if you install vista first, then ubuntu

Linux's bootloader (GRUB in this case) is designed for dual booting and will find other OS's easily, but i don't trust vista's to do the same thing

GarethDW · 12 Jan 2008 at 13:48

Yep, definitely install Windows first followed by Linux. I've lost count of the number of times I've done this, and the one time I had a problem it was due to me being a noob and not thinking what I was doing rather than my Linux distro breaking something unintentionally.

manic111 · 12 Jan 2008 at 13:53

When I try and shrink my Windows partition it can only do it by 924mb using the Vista HDD management tool. If I use the Ubuntu tool to do this will it mess anything up?

Cob · 12 Jan 2008 at 13:59

The Ubuntu partitioning tool is based on GParted, and it's considered to be one of the best.

But with all partitioning tools there is always a small risk that something can go wrong. I would back up any important data before starting.

manic111 · 12 Jan 2008 at 14:03

Cool cool. I cant decide whether to back up stuff onto my external USB drive and partition my main drive or to leave my main drive alone and happy and risk partitioning my external!