Jason32
March 26th, 2009, 05:47 AM
OK, so I'm new to Linux but I'm planning on replacing my current Windows XP installation with ubuntu.
I'm not quite ready to cut the Redmond cord just yet, so for the time being I'm planning a dual-boot system. I'm comfortable with reducing the size of my windows partition and installing ubuntu in the free space, and using the default boot-loader (Grub?) to handle the dual-boot duties.
What I hope to do is install ubuntu and use VirtualBox to run Windows XP as a guest operating system for the (hopefully few) occasions when I need it. Once I'm happy with this setup I plan on deleting the original Windows partition and filling my harddrive with ubuntu goodness, and it's this part of the plan I'm not sure about.
I know that if I had windows installed on disk 0 partition 1 and I subsequently decided to move it to disk 0 partition 0 and use the entire disk I'd be setting myself up for untold misery. Will ubuntu and it's bootloader be able to handle that change better, or am I likely to cause myself problems by doing that?
Also, I know Windows uses just the one partition whereas ubuntu is going to have both a primary and a swap partition. When I resize it to fill the whole disk, should I be growing just the primary partition, or should I be resizing the swap partition as well?
Thanks in advance for your help! I'm sure I'll have a hundred more questions as I work through the process :P
I'm not quite ready to cut the Redmond cord just yet, so for the time being I'm planning a dual-boot system. I'm comfortable with reducing the size of my windows partition and installing ubuntu in the free space, and using the default boot-loader (Grub?) to handle the dual-boot duties.
What I hope to do is install ubuntu and use VirtualBox to run Windows XP as a guest operating system for the (hopefully few) occasions when I need it. Once I'm happy with this setup I plan on deleting the original Windows partition and filling my harddrive with ubuntu goodness, and it's this part of the plan I'm not sure about.
I know that if I had windows installed on disk 0 partition 1 and I subsequently decided to move it to disk 0 partition 0 and use the entire disk I'd be setting myself up for untold misery. Will ubuntu and it's bootloader be able to handle that change better, or am I likely to cause myself problems by doing that?
Also, I know Windows uses just the one partition whereas ubuntu is going to have both a primary and a swap partition. When I resize it to fill the whole disk, should I be growing just the primary partition, or should I be resizing the swap partition as well?
Thanks in advance for your help! I'm sure I'll have a hundred more questions as I work through the process :P