WARNING for Windows 8 Dual-Booters

[Mars11]

After several weeks of searching for why my files would disappear after booting into Windows 8 I found out why. I have a Media partition that I use to store my music, pictures, videos, movies, documents, downloads, and pretty much anything I want on both OS's. It was fine when using Windows 7, but Windows 8 has a new way of shutting down. It puts itself into a hybrid hibernation/off state. While this makes boot times extremely fast (less than 10 seconds on a HDD) it deletes all my files because it's restoring it to the pre-hibernation state. (Explained better here.) I'm doing this as a warning to anybody else planning on, or that is currently dual-booting Windows 8 with any other OS. Instead of shutting down, restart. The boot times are longer, but it's better than losing several hours of hard work.

[shuttleworthwannabe]

Another of Windows 8 features to not allow dual boot systems. Wise.

[sffvba[e0rt]

Another of Windows 8 features to not allow dual boot systems. Wise.

I doubt that this was the intention.


404

[Mars11]

Another of Windows 8 features to not allow dual boot systems. Wise.

Who, outside of Microsoft, knows? I'm pretty sure they didn't even think about it, that's MS for ya.

[leopoldbirkholm]

Thank you for the warning.

What I have read is that the thought of Windows 8 is that you will not need any other system. And if you do, you know enough to fix a work-a-round yourself.

Just my thought of the "bug"...

Other then that bug, what do you think of Windows 8?

Myself, I think it will be great for my mother with the Metro. Point, click and voila! you have your favorite program open mommy!

But for me, it is just annoying jumping from Metro and to desktop and back.

[Mars11]

I'm liking it, though I still find myself in Ubuntu more.

I love the lock screen, I want Ubuntu to get something similar and hopefully that will happen when they move into the tablet/phone space.

I actually like the look of Metro, because I like things to be minimalist. Though I wouldn't use it all the time, it's been almost too simplified, to the point where you can't be very productive.

The hot corners are nice, I prefer them more than buttons for quick tasks.

The ribbon interface is also nice for Explorer, I can access some settings faster than if I right-click.

I don't know why, but it doesn't bother be to switch between Metro and the Desktop, the Metro "Start" is similar to Unity's Dash when set to taking up the entire display.

The hot corners are nice, I prefer them more than buttons for quick tasks.

Anything other than that I either don't like, don't care about, or was in Windows 7. I still have a hard time functioning without Workspaces on Windows. I always flip the screen around.

[Basher101]

thanks for the warning..i planned to get the beta for some tests

[F.G.]

I doubt that this was the intention.


404

if they simply didn't test this part of the functionality that seems far more worrying.

[sffvba[e0rt]

if they simply didn't test this part of the functionality that seems far more worrying.

I (again) doubt that MS cares if you can or can't dual boot their OS... they care if you can install and use Windows.


404

[flurospar]

First of all, Secure boot will prevent running alternate OSes, and BTW, Microsoft's new hibernating shutdown will also make it a better place for viruses. The viruses can be kept in memory for ever, and ever...

To forcefully shutdown, IIRC, one can use:

shutdown /s /full t 0