[Daskill]

I run Windows Vista at the moment and for a while now, I've been quite interested in dual booting with some incarnation of Linux.

I have some questions though:

Why do people do it?

Is it easy to set up?

Is it easy to use?

Are there any risks to my data?

Is it worth it?


If anyone feels like answering any of these questions, I'd be much obliged.

Thanks.

[Noyb]

I wouldn't do it on the same HD as Vista.
I can triple boot to XP MCE ... (3 different HDs)
or a fresh install of XP MCE ... as a backup ..
or Vista ... when I'm in the mood for problems.

All My Data is in other partitions ... Eliminates any problems there.

[stormyonell]

Why do people do it? Different reasons, I supppose. I do it because part of my job is testing updates to the system file of 2 of our apps after the programmer makes changes. I have to test them on many platforms and only 2 are in virtual machines, so I have to have several boot options.

Is it easy to set up? Depends on what you already have on the partion and what you want to add. Recovering space, creating a partion and installing XP was fairly simple when I started with Vista only on that hard drive. I could not get it to work when I started with XP and tried to add a seperate boot to Vista.

Is it easy to use? Yes, when you boot you get a menu asking which OS, you select it and it boots. Very simple.

Are there any risks to my data? I would not do anything like this without backing up the disk first. I have never lost data installing parallel operating systems, but why chance it?

Is it worth it? For me, yes! For you, I would suppose that depends on what benefit you hope to gain.

[Daskill]

What's a partion?

[stormyonell]

Partion/Partition

Your hard drive is the local drive C.
If you physically install another hard drive, it will have a different letter, usually D

A partion is a way of splitting the space on one physical hard drive into more than one logical drive. One physical hard drive can be split into C, D etc.

If you want to dual boot, you need a seperate partion for each system you want to run from one physical drive.

If you install a seperate operating system on a seperate physical drive, that is not really dual booting, that is booting to a non default drive.

For example, on my work machine I have a 500 GB hard drive.
Partion C is 100 GB and has Vista installed on it.
Partion D is 80 GB and has Windows XP installed on it.
Partion E is 80 GB and has Windows 2000 installed on it.
Partion F is 240 GB and used only for document storage, no operating system installed.
Total of 500 GB
When I boot this machine, I get a menu asking which operating system I would like to load.

On one home machine, I have 2 seperate physical hard drives, each 250 GB.
One is named Drive C and has Windows XP installed on it.
One is named Drive D and had Ubuntu installed on it.
There are no extra partions on either drive, and I do not get a menu asking me which operating system I want to boot to. I have to use the BIOS to specify which hard drive is the one to boot to first.

[Daskill]

I've only got a 100GB hard drive, is that too small?

[stormyonell]

It depends on what you would like to dual boot, and how much of that space is used.
It should hold Vista and another operating system, but if it is full you would not be able to recover enough space for a second partion large enough for another operating system.

[TRS-80 vet]

Originally Posted by Daskill

I've only got a 100GB hard drive, is that too small?

100G is plenty for 2 OS's to be loaded.

Dual boot is a mis-nomer, however.

Dual LOAD would be a better 'word' , because only one OS can be booted at one time. I asked the local techienerd that question (about booting both at the same time). Seems it don't work that way.

Windows is like government. "You just sit back, and we'll do it all for you. Our way." Linux is for those who like to have it their own way. Once you learn it, it is a WHOLE LOT MORE efficient. Learning it IS tedious tho'. But the patience/analytical skill that you must develop in the problem-solving will go with you in places where it is a VERY valuable commodity.

That's why I'm dual booting (loading) one machine right now (see sig below), until I can close the last window.

[Daskill]

Okay, I currently have 30GB free on my hard drive and I want to install some form of Linux, is this feasible?

[stormyonell]

Yes, absolutely.

[tomdkat]

Originally Posted by TRS-80 vet

Dual boot is a mis-nomer, however.

Dual LOAD would be a better 'word' , because only one OS can be booted at one time. I asked the local techienerd that question (about booting both at the same time). Seems it don't work that way.

I'm not sure I agree with this since "dual" doesn't imply "concurrent".

Peace...

[TRS-80 vet]

Originally Posted by tomdkat

I'm not sure I agree with this since "dual" doesn't imply "concurrent".

Peace...

Hmm. Okay...

Lots of forums posters say their box came pre-LOADED, with [windows]. I don't know. Maybe they ARE booted up when you get 'em out of the box.

[tomdkat]

Originally Posted by TRS-80 vet

Hmm. Okay...

Lots of forums posters say their box came pre-LOADED, with [windows]. I don't know. Maybe they ARE booted up when you get 'em out of the box.

I don't dispute a computer being loaded with one or more operating systems but having an OS loaded doesn't indicate if that OS will actually be booted, especially if more than one OS is loaded. I guess the underlying point is I don't think referring to having the capability to boot more than one OS natively on a computer as "dual-booting" is a misnomer.

Peace...

[Daskill]

So how do I set up a dual boot then?

[briealeida]

The other (less scary) alternative is virtualization. You can get a VM that has Ubuntu already installed and stuff. It makes more sense, in some situations.