Installing another OS

[JesseJ1935]

I am running XP Home with SP2, and have a 160GB Maxtor H.D.

This is split into 'C' = 107GB with 95GB free, has virtually everything on it, and 'F' = 45GB with 33GB free, used for back ups, one for the whole of 'C' and the rest as weekly back ups, when its full I scrub everything and start again having first burnt the full back up to DVD's.

I would like to partition, say, 20GB of 'F' and install a Linux OS, at the moment I have the Ubuntu CD, and a Linspire CD which came free with PC Pro.

Installed are Acronis True Image and Partition Magic 8.0.

I should add that this will be a first for me, having two O.S.'s, also I've never used Linux before other than have a quick look at Ubuntu running it from the CD.

Any help/advice/suggestions will be gratefully received. I would also appreciate any instructions being kept on the simple side please.

[-pops-]

Are you sure you want to do this?

I've often had dual boot systems in the past thinking that it would be easy to switch one to the other (which it is usually) but then you find after quite a short time one of the sytems is not being used at all and is just taking up space on your hard drive.

As your Linux is usable from CD, try using it that way until you are happy in knowing which O/S you really want. When you have decided, use either one OR the other but not have the facility for both of them.

If you put both systems on your hard drive and then you decide to dump one to gain space or whatever, it can be a problem in successfully removing the O/S you don't want.

Just my view, others may thing differently. :)

[JesseJ1935]

Quite frankly Pops, no, I'm not 100% sure, just thought it would be something new to play with and, hopefully, learn. I sometimes wonder why I bothered with a 160GB Hard Drive, I had big plans at the time I bought and fitted it but now I can't even remember what they were. Maybe I'm going senile in my old age.

I know, of course, I can run both Ubuntu and Linspire from the CD's having tried it once with Ubuntu, but I'm a little bit worried about making a habit of it in case I muck something up and have to do a complete reinstall of everything. I guess the way round that is to make sure I've got a nice fresh back up just in case. Having said that, I'll be very interested in what others may have to say on the subject and look forward to hearing from them.

[ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb]

I think it can be interesting to have a multiboot system, even if it's only to play and learn.

Does PartitionMagic still come with BootMagic? BootMagic is the easiest boot manager I know. You will need a tiny boot partition somewhere, and all is ready. (BootMagic works differently from the Windows boot manager; you can install each OS on a virtual C: drive, and BootMagic will hide them and show only the active C: partition).

Regarding the 160GB; sooner or later it will get full; believe me... :)

[jason.b.c]

Hey Jesse.! , You know what you could do. You could download The 32 bit Menuet OS and do a triple booting system,

Ubuntu Linux - master hda0

Windows XP - slave hda1

and

Menuet OS - slave hda2

So that way you've got some really good variety.. Since you said you wanted something to learn and mess around with..

What do you think of that..??? ;)

[Seshomaru Samma]

I ran Ubuntu Breezy with Windows Server 2K3

I had Windows on the C partition

Ubuntu on the E partition

and all my files on the D partition (FAT32)

This way both OS could access my files easily

Interestingly Windows couldn’t see Linux (it claimed there was nothing on E) but Linux could see Windows.

To install I resized the Windows partition using a Linux tool called parted (I mounted Windows with Knoppix - a Linux live CD) . Then I installed Linux on the free space. I think there should be a similar application on Ubuntu's live CD. If not just ran this command from Ubuntu's live CD:

sudo apt-get install qtparted

this will install qtparted on your system and you can resize windows (more about parted here )

You can do the same with partition magic - except that partition magic costs money.

I think that Windows needs to be defragfmentised before you can resize it's partitions.

I have also ran Fedora with XP and SuSe with XP . It's quite easy to set up.

The new Ubuntu (Dapper) is great , you should give it a try, it does 3D vista-like environment without vista's ridiculous hardware requirements , a dual boot is good option for beginners.

Good luck.

[JesseJ1935]

Many thanks to all who replied. Acronis does have Boot Magic on it though I haven't looked at it, will do so and see where I go from there.

Thanks a bunch all.

[trackrat]

Just a word of warning if this is your first attempt it might be wiser to put the other OS on another hard drive if you have one available.

And before you try do as POPS says and back everything up.

[JesseJ1935]

Thank you. Yes, I do have another Hard Drive, a 10GB mounted in an i-Buddies USB HDD Housing. I was wondering if I could do that.

Everything is already backed up, and is done everyweek. Just as well as something got messed up, don't know how, and just had to restore from the last back up to put things right.

Unfortunately, doing so has not cured one problem, cured the rest though so can't grumble (too much)

The remaining problem is with I.E. 6, it comes up on screen then 3 seconds later it closes. No error messages so have no idea why. I discovered Ramesh' site at http://windowsxp.mvps.org/IEFAQ.htm (not on my own, somebody told me about it) but, so far, it hasn't helped.

[jason.b.c]

Thank you. Yes, I do have another Hard Drive, a 10GB mounted in an i-Buddies USB HDD Housing. I was wondering if I could do that.

Yea so long as take the drive out of the usb housing.. ;) Make it internal.. :P