drewmcarthur1
June 25th, 2015, 08:34 PM
I currently run Ubuntu 15.04 on a desktop I built from parts, on a 500gb SSD. I recently scavenged a 250gb HDD from an old laptop, and have since put that into the computer. With the new Windows 10 releases for free, I'd like to put that on my computer, to dual boot it with ubuntu.
I have two options in mind. One being to format the HDD, and put Windows on that, don't touch the SSD. This would be easy, I assume I'd format the HDD to NTFS, right?
Another option would be to move backups to the HDD, shrink the SSD's partition and create another, (format that NTFS?) and put Windows on that. So the SSD would be half Ext4/Ubuntu and half NTFS/Windows, and the HDD would be data/backups. In this case, would I format the HDD NTFS for Windows compatibility? Or would it be a better idea to also split the HDD into two partitions and give them separate file systems, for performance reasons?
Which option is better? Is the effort put into changing around partitions and formatting of the latter worth the performance boost from putting Windows on the SSD?
With these different partitions, is there a loss in performance if I were to mount them automatically, if so, how would I make sure that the other partitions aren't mounted until I want them to be?
I've got burg set up now so it looks nice, (almost), but as I understand it, installing Windows will overwrite this somehow. Could someone direct me towards a blog post or something similar that will walk me through reversing Windows stomping of my bootloader?
Speaking of my bootloader, I also had a question with having the menu hidden. Currently, it is hidden, and I don't want it to show unless I press and hold a button. Right now, i have to press ESC repeatedly, I'd prefer to be able to just press and hold ESC and have burg show up. Any tips? Here's my burg config:
# If you change this file, run 'update-burg' afterwards to update# /boot/burg/burg.cfg.
GRUB_DEFAULT="0"
GRUB_TIMEOUT="0"
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR="`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian`"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=""
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""
# Uncomment to disable graphical terminal (grub-pc only)
#GRUB_TERMINAL="console"
# If you want to enable the save default function, uncomment the following
# line, and set GRUB_DEFAULT to saved.
#GRUB_SAVEDEFAULT="true"
# The resolution used on graphical terminal
# note that you can use only modes which your graphic card supports via VBE
# you can see them in real GRUB with the command `vbeinfo'
# In the boot menu, use hotkey 'r' to popup a resolution selection menu.
GRUB_GFXMODE="1280x1024"
# Uncomment if you don't want GRUB to pass "root=UUID=xxx" parameter to Linux
#GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_UUID="true"
# Uncomment to disable generation of recovery mode menu entries
#GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_RECOVERY="true"
# Uncomment to get a beep at grub start
#GRUB_INIT_TUNE="480 440 1"
# GRUB_THEME's value can be 'saved' or a specific BURG theme name, you can also
# set it to the pathname of a GRUB2 theme file.
# In the boot menu, use hotkey 't' to popup a theme selection menu
GRUB_THEME="saved"
# GRUB_FOLD's value can be 'saved', 'true' or 'false'.
# In the boot menu, use hotkey 'F7' to show the full list, 'f' to toggle
# between folding modes.
GRUB_FOLD="saved"
# Add user with burg-adduser, then use GRUB_USERS to config authentication.
# The following example means user1 can boot Ubuntu, no password is needed to
# boot Windows, user1 amd user2 can boot other OS. Superusers can boot any OS
# and use hotkeys like `c' to enter console mode.
#GRUB_USERS="*=user1,user2:ubuntu=user1:windows="
# For a complete list of supported variables, refer to this wiki page:
# http://code.google.com/p/burg/wiki/ConfigurationVariables
#GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT="1"
#GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER="false"
I have two options in mind. One being to format the HDD, and put Windows on that, don't touch the SSD. This would be easy, I assume I'd format the HDD to NTFS, right?
Another option would be to move backups to the HDD, shrink the SSD's partition and create another, (format that NTFS?) and put Windows on that. So the SSD would be half Ext4/Ubuntu and half NTFS/Windows, and the HDD would be data/backups. In this case, would I format the HDD NTFS for Windows compatibility? Or would it be a better idea to also split the HDD into two partitions and give them separate file systems, for performance reasons?
Which option is better? Is the effort put into changing around partitions and formatting of the latter worth the performance boost from putting Windows on the SSD?
With these different partitions, is there a loss in performance if I were to mount them automatically, if so, how would I make sure that the other partitions aren't mounted until I want them to be?
I've got burg set up now so it looks nice, (almost), but as I understand it, installing Windows will overwrite this somehow. Could someone direct me towards a blog post or something similar that will walk me through reversing Windows stomping of my bootloader?
Speaking of my bootloader, I also had a question with having the menu hidden. Currently, it is hidden, and I don't want it to show unless I press and hold a button. Right now, i have to press ESC repeatedly, I'd prefer to be able to just press and hold ESC and have burg show up. Any tips? Here's my burg config:
# If you change this file, run 'update-burg' afterwards to update# /boot/burg/burg.cfg.
GRUB_DEFAULT="0"
GRUB_TIMEOUT="0"
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR="`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian`"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=""
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""
# Uncomment to disable graphical terminal (grub-pc only)
#GRUB_TERMINAL="console"
# If you want to enable the save default function, uncomment the following
# line, and set GRUB_DEFAULT to saved.
#GRUB_SAVEDEFAULT="true"
# The resolution used on graphical terminal
# note that you can use only modes which your graphic card supports via VBE
# you can see them in real GRUB with the command `vbeinfo'
# In the boot menu, use hotkey 'r' to popup a resolution selection menu.
GRUB_GFXMODE="1280x1024"
# Uncomment if you don't want GRUB to pass "root=UUID=xxx" parameter to Linux
#GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_UUID="true"
# Uncomment to disable generation of recovery mode menu entries
#GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_RECOVERY="true"
# Uncomment to get a beep at grub start
#GRUB_INIT_TUNE="480 440 1"
# GRUB_THEME's value can be 'saved' or a specific BURG theme name, you can also
# set it to the pathname of a GRUB2 theme file.
# In the boot menu, use hotkey 't' to popup a theme selection menu
GRUB_THEME="saved"
# GRUB_FOLD's value can be 'saved', 'true' or 'false'.
# In the boot menu, use hotkey 'F7' to show the full list, 'f' to toggle
# between folding modes.
GRUB_FOLD="saved"
# Add user with burg-adduser, then use GRUB_USERS to config authentication.
# The following example means user1 can boot Ubuntu, no password is needed to
# boot Windows, user1 amd user2 can boot other OS. Superusers can boot any OS
# and use hotkeys like `c' to enter console mode.
#GRUB_USERS="*=user1,user2:ubuntu=user1:windows="
# For a complete list of supported variables, refer to this wiki page:
# http://code.google.com/p/burg/wiki/ConfigurationVariables
#GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT="1"
#GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER="false"