HOWTO: migrate wubi install to partition

[bcbc]

Disk /dev/sda: 750.2 GB, 750156374016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 91201 cylinders, total 1465149168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x1a3f0dfb

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *        2048      409599      203776    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2          409600  1434804223   717197312    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3      1434804224  1464936447    15066112    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda4      1464936448  1465147119      105336    c  W95 FAT32 (LBA)

...

Okay so it's not so simple. Some computers come with 4 primary partitions already setup (e.g. some HP computers). And that's the max number you can have. In order to create more partitions, you'd have to delete one of those primary partitions, and then create an extended partition in its place. An extended partition is also a primary partition, but you can create many logical partitions within an extended partition.

So I'm really bad at reading fdisk output but it looks like you have a boot partition 200MB, a main windows partition 734GB, a 15GB restore partition, and a 100MB tools partition. Even if you deleted one of those (only /dev/sda3 and /dev/sda4 are candidates) you'd still need to take some space from /dev/sda2 i.e. shrink it. There's a nice post by lesliek earlier in this thread about how to do this for an HP computer.

If you don't have the stomach for that you could migrate to an external drive.

Hope that helps!

[Stonecold1995]

Okay so it's not so simple. Some computers come with 4 primary partitions already setup (e.g. some HP computers). And that's the max number you can have. In order to create more partitions, you'd have to delete one of those primary partitions, and then create an extended partition in its place. An extended partition is also a primary partition, but you can create many logical partitions within an extended partition.

So I'm really bad at reading fdisk output but it looks like you have a boot partition 200MB, a main windows partition 734GB, a 15GB restore partition, and a 100MB tools partition. Even if you deleted one of those (only /dev/sda3 and /dev/sda4 are candidates) you'd still need to take some space from /dev/sda2 i.e. shrink it. There's a nice post by lesliek earlier in this thread about how to do this for an HP computer.

If you don't have the stomach for that you could migrate to an external drive.

Hope that helps!

So basically, if I don't want to delete any of my partitions, I'll just have to keep my Wubi install? That won't be too bad, will it? I know it's slightly slower and more susceptible to corruption from a hard-reboot, but other than that it's fine, right?

[bcbc]

So basically, if I don't want to delete any of my partitions, I'll just have to keep my Wubi install? That won't be too bad, will it? I know it's slightly slower and more susceptible to corruption from a hard-reboot, but other than that it's fine, right?

Alt + SysRq R-E-I-S-U-B is your friend. Use it if your mouse/keyboard stop working (Ubuntu freezes).

I recommend keeping important data backed up regularly (but you should do that anyway). I've been running a Wubi install daily to see how unstable it is, but it's worked flawlessly for me... just a couple of freezes (but then i am running the dev release so I'd expect that anyway). But even though my experience has been fine, I can't fully explain why some users do get corruption (not all of them report hard resets), so I'd advise taking reasonable precautions. e.g. data backups and even periodic root.disk backups.

[alex2035]

Can I install to HD leaving the Wubi Grub where Ubuntu stays last after Windows? --no--bootloader does this?
Will a HD install run better in a 64 bit 11.10?

thank you

[bcbc]

Can I install to HD leaving the Wubi Grub where Ubuntu stays last after Windows? --no--bootloader does this?
Will a HD install run better in a 64 bit 11.10?

thank you

Yes, the --no-bootloader option will let you migrate without installing the bootloader and use the 'Wubi grub' to boot. But note that you'll have to keep wubi installed and able to run in order to do this. In addition, if you install a new kernel on your partition install, the Wubi grub will not be updated to show this until you boot the wubi install and run: sudo update-grub

Note: it's possible to add a custom boot entry in wubi's grub menu that will always boot the latest kernel from your partition install

There are alternate ways to keep the windows boot manager in charge e.g. with Windows vista/7 you can use easyBCD (I haven't tried this myself).

I don't understand your last question. If you are asking: "Will Ubuntu 11.10 run faster from a partition than using a wubi install?" then my answer is "yes for some tasks" (but from my personal experience for most things you won't see a huge difference if any). But since you mentioned 64bits maybe I didn't quite understand the question.

[alex2035]

Yes, the --no-bootloader option will let you migrate without installing the bootloader and use the 'Wubi grub' to boot. But note that you'll have to keep wubi installed and able to run in order to do this. In addition, if you install a new kernel on your partition install, the Wubi grub will not be updated to show this until you boot the wubi install and run: sudo update-grub

If I have to keep Wubi install it doesnt look a proper way to do this, I would end up with a 11.10 updated (filewise, etc) and a Wubi 11.10 getting outdated

Note: it's possible to add a custom boot entry in wubi's grub menu that will always boot the latest kernel from your partition install


There are alternate ways to keep the windows boot manager in charge e.g. with Windows vista/7 you can use easyBCD (I haven't tried this myself).


I don't understand your last question. If you are asking: "Will Ubuntu 11.10 run faster from a partition than using a wubi install?" then my answer is "yes for some tasks" (but from my personal experience for most things you won't see a huge difference if any). But since you mentioned 64bits maybe I didn't quite understand the question.

this answered my questions, perhaps it is not worth it, I have everything working great, I only wondered if Photo processing might get faster (raw development, big pictures)

thanks for your help

[bcbc]

this answered my questions, perhaps it is not worth it, I have everything working great, I only wondered if Photo processing might get faster (raw development, big pictures)

thanks for your help

You can see where wubi is slower: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...ubi_1010&num=1

There are other benefits to a partition install - the virtual disk is higher risk than a partition install, because if the root.disk file is corrupted you can lose everything on the virtual disk. As long as you backup data regularly this is less of a concern.

[alex2035]

Yes, I always had my Ubuntu on HD, but I am bothered over the difficulty to edit Grub2 to make Windows the default boot (for the other 2 people using it), as Wubi does. I have edited Grub and LILO for years now but Grub2 is inescrutable to me, I am not programmer, I could never do this and there is no tweak to easily access it that I know.

[bcbc]

Yes, I always had my Ubuntu on HD, but I am bothered over the difficulty to edit Grub2 to make Windows the default boot (for the other 2 people using it), as Wubi does. I have edited Grub and LILO for years now but Grub2 is inescrutable to me, I am not programmer, I could never do this and there is no tweak to easily access it that I know.

I think this is what you're after: HOWTO: Grub Customizer

[alex2035]

I finally used your method and moved Wubi install of 11.10 to an ext4 partition on the same partition as Wubi install. I used the --no-bootloader option just in case.
Now I dont know how to proceed, should I install Grub in the HD install? then update-grub? then deinstall Wubi from Win? or deinstall Wubi first, could I boot 11.10 HD then? I dont think so. you see, I am a bit confused here. thanks for your help.

By the way, HD install is little faster on boot as Wubi, but not a difference launching or using programs. Worth it? not sure, except for security reasons.