DualBoot

Soldato
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(I am no sure if this is in the right category, so I just guessed :p)

Basically, its whats in the title. I have myself Windows 7, and have ubuntu on a virtual machine, but I don't feel i'm getting good performance from it, and its also bogging down my Windows. I've been looking for a cheap hard drive to do so, something like this, but I'll need help to be able to set up dual booting, and it seems that you guys are the ones to ask :)

So would you's be able to help me step by step, and help me do this? :D
 
From what I remember of installing Ubuntu, dual booting worked fine providing you install Windows 7 first then install Unbuntu. Linux is smart enough to check for Windows installations and automatically set up a dual boot, Windows however doesn't bother checking for Linux installations...
 
Actually, thinking now, I'm sure can do both on the same hard drive? But yeah, Linux will be the second to be installed :)

+ 10.04 Ubuntu can be installed from a USB pen! :D
 
It's really a simple matter of making sure you install linux last. I had a duel boot set up with win7 and ubuntu quite recently, the distro has a rather nice and forthcoming installation wizard and a decent boot manager, it will detect windows and set up a multiple boot screen for you pretty much automatically. Back in the day it was a hassle but not anymore, there's this great race of 'user-friendliness' going on in the linux world, most distros trying to make things as easy as possible and ubuntu, alongside others such as fedora and mint are on top of their game.


As far as trying to snatch a piece of a hard drive away from an installed windows system goes, well it can work but then again it can be potentially tricky. You need to make sure that a part of the drive is partitioned and 'freed up' properly, windows is notorious for being all over the place and not liking other OSs getting in the way. I would back-up my stuff, format the whole drive, make some nice partitions for both win and linux and make them co-exist happily like that.



- Ordokai
 
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Well, i'm off to try it now after your adive, thanks guys :)

++ How can I install my graphics drivers? It wouldn't recognise my monitor in the Virtual machine!
 
I wouldn't trust what it reports via a VM. Worry about it if it doesn't recognise your hardware once it is installed properly.
 
i have win xp and ubuntu on my netbook installed on the same drive. As said above make sure you install ubuntu second as windows can throw a little fit as it doesnt like other os installed as well.
 
I've now established my USB has gne to electrical heaven, so its the last free Cd to be for Ubuntu :)

I shall keep you all posted on this in case I ever need your help :)
 
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you could use WUBI. it installs ubuntu from within windows and installs to a folder rather than using a whole partition. also you can easily remove it by running the un-installer from within windows. as it uses the windows bootloader, there's no chance of you messing it up.

http://wubi-installer.org/
 
I know you're going down the dual boot road, but what sort of performance issues were you getting with the VM?

On that machine you could give the VM 2GB of RAM and not even notice, so that begs the question how is it bogging Windows down?

The same goes for the instance of Linux. When I run it in a VM full-screen you'd have a hard time telling it was virtualized at all unless you knew what you were looking for. Or do you need it for something hardware-intensive?

What virtual machine software are you using?
 
I gave it 3Gb each, and Linux was stuttering. Wouldn't load all of the time, and then windows would have a little bit stutter afterwards. I'd rather just have the two sepereate :)
 
Do you need a DVD to install an OS, or can you just do it from a CD? Just seems a waste as it fills a CD, and hardly fills a DVD!
 
Okay, it all works fine until the 5dots turn red - Just below UBUNTU (loading the OS setup), and you go to enter the setup menu, then the picture cuts out and i'm left starting at NO SIGNAL. I don't know whats going wrong. I don't know if its my monitor 'Samsung T240HD' or my HD5770 (which I suspect). Does anyone know how to fix this?
 
To be honest when I looked at your sig earlier on and noticed the AMD card I winced a little bit, recalling the difficulties I've had with Ati cards and Linux. You might want to post in the Linux forum or even the Ubuntu forums for specific help. Can you boot the Live version from the disc?
 
Okay, it all works fine until the 5dots turn red - Just below UBUNTU (loading the OS setup), and you go to enter the setup menu, then the picture cuts out and i'm left starting at NO SIGNAL. I don't know whats going wrong. I don't know if its my monitor 'Samsung T240HD' or my HD5770 (which I suspect). Does anyone know how to fix this?
That happened to me today, I did get to the desktop. I loaded the driver that came with it fir my ATI card, but it made no difference. So I got fed up with it and took it off, might try again later.:eek:
 
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