Dual boot best practise

[Biscuity]

Hi

System: Windows 7 32bit Ultimate (clean install), 1x SATA hard drive, 1x Windows partition + the usual hidden WinRE partition.

I'd like to try Ubuntu on my main desktop. It runs ok as a Live CD. The desktop currently runs Windows 7 32bit Ultimate & is pretty well 100% reliable. I've been reading some of the problems people have got with bootloaders & I'm getting the collywobbles about it as I don't want to mess up my W7 installation.

Installing a 2nd hard drive to run Ubuntu seems to create it's own set of problems on this forum, so what is the most reliable way to set up dual boot? Should I instead build another pc for Ubuntu & use a KVM switch?

Thanks.

[Quackers]

First, do you have a Windows repair disc? If not, make one. Control Panel > Backup & Restore Centre > in the left pane select "create recovery cd". This is not a set of recovery dvd's! This is a repair cd.
Second, do you have a set of recovery dvd's? If not make them. They are worth having - in fact make them twice! and check that they work.
Third backup independently any data you don't want to lose.
Have a look in Windows dsik management screen. Confirm that only 2 or 3 primary partitions are in use. 4 would be bad!
If you need to create space for Ubuntu to install in to you may need to shrink the C: partition. You can do this from the same screen by right-clicking on the C: partition and selecting "shrink".
*** You should defragment Windows before shrinking the C: drive. Preferrably twice!
Once the sapce for Ubuntu is created you can boot from the Live cd/usb and install (after trying Ubuntu first, to make sure everything works). Select the manual partitioning option and create partitions for Ubuntu from the unallocated space now available.

[Biscuity]

Thanks for your reply.

2 Windows partitions are in use.

I use Acronis for backup to a USB drive, but I will also set up the repair CD as suggested.

My disk is 300gb, with about 200gb free. How many partitions & of what approximate size should I set up for Ubuntu? Would it be better to install a 2nd hard drive instead?

[Quackers]

You say you have 200GB free, but is that unused space within C:
If so, then that's not space that Ubuntu can install into. There needs to be unallocated space, or partitions created for Ubuntu.
Disc use is a question for you to answer. It would depend on how much space you need for Windows and for Ubuntu.
The basic Ubuntu installation uses one partition for /root and usually a swap partition. These are usually within an extended partition.
A separate /home partition can also be created, if required.
Obviously the size of your /root partiton will depend on whether you are having a separat /home partition.

[kansasnoob]

Glad you asked. You didn't mention which version of Ubuntu you'll be installing but, if it's 10.10, I'd particularly point you here first (check out post#1 and post #15):

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1622388

And you might want to check out this bug report and it's two duplicates:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubiquity/+bug/655950

Basically if you choose the option to "Install alongside other operating systems” and get to this screen:

181172

If you click on either "Use entire partition" or "Use entire disc" you will very likely wipe out your Windows OS and any data contained therein!

No need to panic because you planned ahead and asked for advice :D

My personal suggestion is to first boot the Live CD and from the live desktop go to terminal and post the output of these two commands:


sudo fdisk -l


sudo parted -l

BTW that's a lower case L at the end of both.

Then one of us will take the time to explain Ubuntu's drive and partition designations, and discuss possible partitioning arrangements.

While I personally prefer resizing Vista and Win7 partitions with their own partitioning tools rather than using Gparted this is my preferred method of dual/multi-booting:

http://members.iinet.net.au/~herman546/p22.html

I must go play in the snow and the mud so I may be unavailable for a while.

[Ad@m]

Installing a 2nd hard drive to run Ubuntu seems to create it's own set of problems on this forum, so what is the most reliable way to set up dual boot? Should I instead build another pc for Ubuntu & use a KVM switch?


I run a 2 disk setup problem free. Most problems occur due to a misunderstanding with the grub loader.

For a fool proof method physically setup your disks as follows,

Disk 1 --- SATA 1 /dev/sda ------ Ubuntu / Linux
Disk 2 --- SATA 2 /dev/sdb ------ Windows 7 / Vista / XP

With this setup, when you install Ubuntu it will by default keep grub on /dev/sda and not alter your Windows drive /dev/sdb.

Both drives will therefore be capable of booting independently.

[Biscuity]

Here are the results:


ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 300.1 GB, 300069052416 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 36481 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x1fb2852b

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 13 102400 7 HPFS/NTFS
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2 13 36482 292931584 7 HPFS/NTFS



ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo parted -l
Model: ATA WDC WD3000GLFS-0 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 300GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 1049kB 106MB 105MB primary ntfs boot
2 106MB 300GB 300GB primary ntfs


Warning: Unable to open /dev/sr0 read-write (Read-only file system). /dev/sr0
has been opened read-only.
Error: /dev/sr0: unrecognised disk label

[Biscuity]

I run a 2 disk setup problem free. Most problems occur due to a misunderstanding with the grub loader.

For a fool proof method physically setup your disks as follows,

Disk 1 --- SATA 1 /dev/sda ------ Ubuntu / Linux
Disk 2 --- SATA 2 /dev/sdb ------ Windows 7 / Vista / XP

With this setup, when you install Ubuntu it will by default keep grub on /dev/sda and not alter your Windows drive /dev/sdb.

Both drives will therefore be capable of booting independently.

I like your idea of 2 disks. If I decided to remove Ubuntu, I could remove the drive & my Windows installation would be unaffected by the bootloader?

[Biscuity]

Update:

I don't think I can successfully install Ubuntu on any of my networked computers. This is because I have an SBS2003 premium server running ISA 2004. Although I can put the proxy settings within Firefox & get to work - with having to install my network username & password every time I run it - but it doesn't seem to accept the system wide proxy settings for other things - like the weather app, searching for printer drivers etc. A Windows pc would use the ISA client & this handles Internet access.

I'll therefore scrub the idea of running Ubuntu on my regular computers & just use it for my lower spec non-networked computers & my oldish laptop.

Thanks

[Biscuity]

Update:

I don't think I can successfully install Ubuntu on any of my networked computers. This is because I have an SBS2003 premium server running ISA 2004. Although I can put the proxy settings within Firefox & get to work - with having to install my network username & password every time I run it - but it doesn't seem to accept the system wide proxy settings for other things - like the weather app, searching for printer drivers etc. A Windows pc would use the ISA client & this handles Internet access.

I'll therefore scrub the idea of running Ubuntu on my regular computers & just use it for my lower spec non-networked computers & my oldish laptop.

Thanks

[Biscuity]

Update:

I don't think I can successfully install Ubuntu on any of my networked computers. This is because I have an SBS2003 premium server running ISA 2004. Although I can put the proxy settings within Firefox & get to work - with having to install my network username & password every time I run it - but it doesn't seem to accept the system wide proxy settings for other things - like the weather app, searching for printer drivers etc. A Windows pc would use the ISA client & this handles Internet access.

I'll therefore scrub the idea of running Ubuntu on my regular computers & just use it for my lower spec non-networked computers & my oldish laptop.

Thanks

[Biscuity]

Update:

I don't think I can successfully install Ubuntu on any of my networked computers. This is because I have an SBS2003 premium server running ISA 2004. Although I can put the proxy settings within Firefox & get to work - with having to install my network username & password every time I run it - but it doesn't seem to accept the system wide proxy settings for other things - like the weather app, searching for printer drivers etc. A Windows pc would use the ISA client & this handles Internet access.

I'll therefore scrub the idea of running Ubuntu on my regular computers & just use it for my lower spec non-networked computers & my oldish laptop.

Thanks

[Biscuity]

Update:

I don't think I can successfully install Ubuntu on any of my networked computers. This is because I have an SBS2003 premium server running ISA 2004. Although I can put the proxy settings within Firefox & get to work - with having to install my network username & password every time I run it - but it doesn't seem to accept the system wide proxy settings for other things - like the weather app, searching for printer drivers etc. A Windows pc would use the ISA client & this handles Internet access.

I'll therefore scrub the idea of running Ubuntu on my regular computers & just use it for my lower spec non-networked computers & my oldish laptop.

Thanks

[Biscuity]

Update:

I don't think I can successfully install Ubuntu on any of my networked computers. This is because I have an SBS2003 premium server running ISA 2004. Although I can put the proxy settings within Firefox & get to work - with having to install my network username & password every time I run it - but it doesn't seem to accept the system wide proxy settings for other things - like the weather app, searching for printer drivers etc. A Windows pc would use the ISA client & this handles Internet access.

I'll therefore scrub the idea of running Ubuntu on my regular computers & just use it for my lower spec non-networked computers & my oldish laptop.

Thanks

(Good grief, what is it with this site! Times out constantly!)

[Biscuity]

Update:

I don't think I can successfully install Ubuntu on any of my networked computers. This is because I have an SBS2003 premium server running ISA 2004. Although I can put the proxy settings within Firefox & get to work - with having to install my network username & password every time I run it - but it doesn't seem to accept the system wide proxy settings for other things - like the weather app, searching for printer drivers etc. A Windows pc would use the ISA client & this handles Internet access.

I'll therefore scrub the idea of running Ubuntu on my regular computers & just use it for my lower spec non-networked computers & my oldish laptop.

Thanks

[Biscuity]

Update:

I don't think I can successfully install Ubuntu on any of my networked computers. This is because I have an SBS2003 premium server running ISA 2004. Although I can put the proxy settings within Firefox & get to work - with having to install my network username & password every time I run it - but it doesn't seem to accept the system wide proxy settings for other things - like the weather app, searching for printer drivers etc. A Windows pc would use the ISA client & this handles Internet access.

I'll therefore scrub the idea of running Ubuntu on my regular computers & just use it for my lower spec non-networked computers & my oldish laptop.

Thanks

[Biscuity]

Update:

I don't think I can successfully install Ubuntu on any of my networked computers. This is because I have an SBS2003 premium server running ISA 2004. Although I can put the proxy settings within Firefox & get to work - with having to install my network username & password every time I run it - but it doesn't seem to accept the system wide proxy settings for other things - like the weather app, searching for printer drivers etc. A Windows pc would use the ISA client & this handles Internet access.

I'll therefore scrub the idea of running Ubuntu on my regular computers & just use it for my lower spec non-networked computers & my oldish laptop.

Thanks

[Biscuity]

Update:

I don't think I can successfully install Ubuntu on any of my networked computers. This is because I have an SBS2003 premium server running ISA 2004. Although I can put the proxy settings within Firefox & get to work - with having to install my network username & password every time I run it - but it doesn't seem to accept the system wide proxy settings for other things - like the weather app, searching for printer drivers etc. A Windows pc would use the ISA client & this handles Internet access.

I'll therefore scrub the idea of running Ubuntu on my regular computers & just use it for my lower spec non-networked computers & my oldish laptop.

Thanks

[Biscuity]

Update:

I don't think I can successfully install Ubuntu on any of my networked computers. This is because I have an SBS2003 premium server running ISA 2004. Although I can put the proxy settings within Firefox & get to work - with having to install my network username & password every time I run it - but it doesn't seem to accept the system wide proxy settings for other things - like the weather app, searching for printer drivers etc. A Windows pc would use the ISA client & this handles Internet access.

I'll therefore scrub the idea of running Ubuntu on my regular computers & just use it for my lower spec non-networked computers & my oldish laptop.

Thanks

(what is it with this site - an hour to make a post!)

[Biscuity]

Update:

I don't think I can successfully install Ubuntu on any of my networked computers. This is because I have an SBS2003 premium server running ISA 2004. Although I can put the proxy settings within Firefox & get to work - with having to install my network username & password every time I run it - but it doesn't seem to accept the system wide proxy settings for other things - like the weather app, searching for printer drivers etc. A Windows pc would use the ISA client & this handles Internet access.

I'll therefore scrub the idea of running Ubuntu on my regular computers & just use it for my lower spec non-networked computers & my oldish laptop.

Thanks

(what is it with this site - an hour to make a post!)

[Biscuity]

Update:

I don't think I can successfully install Ubuntu on any of my networked computers. This is because I have an SBS2003 premium server running ISA 2004. Although I can put the proxy settings within Firefox & get to work - with having to install my network username & password every time I run it - but it doesn't seem to accept the system wide proxy settings for other things - like the weather app, searching for printer drivers etc. A Windows pc would use the ISA client & this handles Internet access.

I'll therefore scrub the idea of running Ubuntu on my regular computers & just use it for my lower spec non-networked computers & my oldish laptop.

Thanks

(what is it with this site - an hour to make a post!)

[Ad@m]

I like your idea of 2 disks. If I decided to remove Ubuntu, I could remove the drive & my Windows installation would be unaffected by the bootloader?

Yes, each drive can boot without the presence of the other drive.