Ubuntu & Vista Compatible On Same Hard Drive?

[jeremyj]

Hey, all, I'd used Ubuntu solely on my laptop a few years back, but my old desktop didn't have room for Ubuntu and XP on the same hard drive. Now that I have a brand, spankin' new desktop and my laptop is kaput, I was wondering if there would be any problems installing Ubuntu on the same HDD as my Vista OS? I've read about some people having problems between the 2 on the forums here, and it's peaked my interest as to whether or not I'll run into compatibility problems with both on the same HDD.

I'm not sure if this will help or not, but my desktop is a Dell Inspiron 530, 2.4 Ghz Quad Core, with 3 gigs of memory and 500 gig HDD with 290 gigs free. I'm guessing at the very least, I will allocate 60 gigs to Ubuntu, as most of my music, games, movies, photos, are on my Vista install as of now. I plan on moving most of my music and movies to Ubuntu as well.

Also, would anyone think that installing a 2nd OS on my HDD could void my warranty/support?

Thanks for the help in advance!

[russu52]

prepare a partition beforehand, and when installing ubuntu, direct it to that partition and use all of it. should work.

[jeremyj]

prepare a partition beforehand, and when installing ubuntu, direct it to that partition and use all of it. should work.

Thanks! But doesn't Ubuntu give the option to resize the Windows partition when installing? Would that work too?

Also, do you know of any compatibility issues between Linux and Vista on the same HDD? Or have an opinion as to whether or not installing Linux in a partition would void my warranty/support?

Thanks again for the advice!

[mister_p_1998]

Ive done it, no problems whatsoever.
now installing XP on the same laptop...
thats a different story!!

took me all day to get the drivers installed!!

Steve

[Mark Phelps]

jeremyj: Unless you have a Vista DVD, do NOT use Ubuntu to resize your Vista partition; instead, use the Vista disk manager tool. In some cases, when a non-Vista tool is used, the Vista OS partition is left unbootable and requires repairing from a Vista DVD. If you have such a DVD, you should be OK; if you don't, you run the risk of losing the use of Vista.

If you have trouble getting Vista to shrink the partition enough, go to the following link for some workarounds:

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/working-around-windows-vistas-shrink-volume-inadequacy-problems/

[jeremyj]

Great! Thank you all for your suggestions!

[spcwingo]

You might also want to do a Google search and see if your brand of comp tattoos the HDs.