Windows 7 & Ubuntu Dual Boot Issues

[presence1960]

I've got 3 hard drives, one specifically for Windows and a few games. It's only a 120 Gig SSD. The other two I have are for storage. One is full, and my 2 TB drive still has 1TB free. Could i just install Ubuntu on my 2TB drive. So i don't have to mess with the Windows Partition?

Yes. Make the disk you want to install Ubuntu on as first disk in hard disk boot order in BIOS. Install Ubuntu. Make certain in the drop down box for where to place GRUB you set the location to the disk (sda, sdb, sdc, etc) that has ubuntu on it, not a partition (sda1, sdb2, etc). When installation is done reboot and boot into Ubuntu. If all is well reboot and choose windows. Make sure windows boots fine. On installation GRUB should automatically detect and add your windows installation to GRUB boot menu.

The advantage to this method is you can boot either OS from GRUB, if need be you can make the SSD first disk to boot and boot straight to windows since windows boot loader is still on MBR of windows disk. GRUB is on MBR of Ubuntu disk.

[Piersadept]

Hrm, That's not bad. I'm new to Linux and Ubuntu. So I was assuming it would need the massive amount of space that windows requires. I could easily set aside 15 - 20 Gigs on my SSD for Ubuntu. Thanks!

[Kixtosh]

If you go the SSD route, then it'll probably be worth figuring out how to create your /home folder on it's own partition in your large 2TB drive. It's more or less the equivalent of a Windows My Documents folder. That way, all your downloads and saved documents will be all be added to that automatically.

It shouldn't be hard to do, but once again, I don't know exactly how to do it, so I won't try to advise you on the details!

[Piersadept]

I can't see that being too hard. If not when i download things I could just manually set them to install on my 2TB drive; that's what I do with Windows already.

[Piersadept]

Is there anything I should know before burning the ISO onto my DVD. I read that post you asked me too earlier Presence; It said a few times that people have had issues in the past installing from an ISO. Burning the image onto a disc with the speed too high, and other issues. I don't want to mess anything up.

[presence1960]

Is there anything I should know before burning the ISO onto my DVD. I read that post you asked me too earlier Presence; It said a few times that people have had issues in the past installing from an ISO. Burning the image onto a disc with the speed too high, and other issues. I don't want to mess anything up.

If you follow those steps you should be OK with the burning.

[Kixtosh]

I can't see that being too hard. If not when i download things I could just manually set them to install on my 2TB drive; that's what I do with Windows already.

Yes, I think it is quite easy.

You could also manage it "manually", as you point out, but what I don't like about that idea is that Windows seems to hate it when something messes with files on disks that it will be sharing, so I would advise creating a separate partition in any case, just to avoid that possibility. It may not be necessary at all, so I wouldn't be surprised if others may suggest there's no need, but otherwise, creating partitions is very simple to do. Just make sure you defragment your Windows stuff first, and use Windows to shrink Windows partitions as well!

[presence1960]

I can't see that being too hard. If not when i download things I could just manually set them to install on my 2TB drive; that's what I do with Windows already.

You can keep an NTFS partition on your other drive for all your data. Both Windows and linux can read/write to NTFS.

If you want to create a separate /home partition choose Something Else on the installer. When you get to the window that lists your partition table highlight the partition you wish to use as /home. Click change. Set mount point as " /home ". Keep file system as NTFS. DO NOT TICK THE FORMAT OPTION or your files will be toast!!!!

At this point you need to select the partition for ubuntu and set mount point as " / " and choose filesystem (most common are ext4 & ext3)and continue with install

Personally I don't create a separate /home partition, but rather have a partition (NTFS) for all my data.

You can always back up your home folder. It contains most of the settings for your installed software. So if you ever reinstall, upgrade with a clean install, etc you can copy that stuff over and retain your software settings provided you install the software to the new installation.

[Piersadept]

Well I followed all the steps to install Ubuntu from my DVD. It installed fine. When I got to the part to restart your computer. "Remove Media and hit enter" It spat out my DVD i took it out and hit Enter, It restarted and went straight to Windows. It did not give me an option to boot from Ubuntu. I didn't have this problem with WUBI.

[Kixtosh]

Are you installing from Windows? You need to boot from the LIVE DVD version and then install, from within the LIVE version of Ubuntu. Did you get your download from here?

http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop

Do these instructions seem familiar?

http://www.ubuntu.com/download/help/...desktop-latest