Dual booting Win7 and Ubuntu (64bit)

[Comsat]

Hello -

I just built a new system and I'm moving on to installing the OSs. I would like to dual boot Ubunto and Windows 7 Home Pro (both 64 bit). I've never done this before and I'm a little nervous about partitioning the drive. I've been reading this how-to on Lifehacker as a guide but I'm still unsure of how best to size the partitions of my 1TB drive. I'll primarily be using Win7 and running a fair number of apps on that platform while Ubuntu is primarily being installed as my first foray into playing with Linux. Any direction would be welcome.

 

[pathasse]

Install Windows 7 first. Then make your partition in disk manager. It is really easy. From there I would set aside like 20gb to start. You can always increase it later with the same utility. Name it and install to it on boot.

 

[pathasse]

Its easier than it used to be.

 

[Dameon_Bananaman]

if your not sure about how to do this, you might want to consider using a program called wubi. Basically you install and run wubi (only about 2mb) and what that will do is download and install ubuntu onto your computer but install it into windows. You can select what drive you want it installed on, how much hard disk space you want to give it and what type of ubuntu you want, i use kubuntu.

This also installs the boot menu so when you start up your pc you will get the option of booting into windows or ubuntu. The beauty of doing it this way is that you dont have to worry about doing boot sequences, partitioning drives or anything. Ubuntu will appear as a folder inside windows if you want to look at it, but it is still a whole operating system which works outside windows, and if you want to uninstall ubuntu, just go into the control panel of windows and click uninstall.

simple

 

[Comsat]

Install Windows 7 first. Then make your partition in disk manager. It is really easy. From there I would set aside like 20gb to start. You can always increase it later with the same utility. Name it and install to it on boot.

I was more concerned about the size of the partition for Win 7. Excuse my ignorance but would you want the Win7 partition to be big enough for the OS and all of the apps you want run on that platform or just a partition big enough for Win 7 and you'd increase it's size as you add apps?

 

[Comsat]

if your not sure about how to do this, you might want to consider using a program called wubi. Basically you install and run wubi (only about 2mb) and what that will do is download and install ubuntu onto your computer but install it into windows. You can select what drive you want it installed on, how much hard disk space you want to give it and what type of ubuntu you want, i use kubuntu.

Is there any downside to this option?

 

[pathasse]

Its running in windows and not by itself.

 

[Comsat]

Its running in windows and not by itself.

Even if you choose to run Ubunto at boot up?

 

[pathasse]

If you run at boot and choose to install them separate then you have two independent Operating Systems. If you do the wubi it sounds the same as a virtual machine. You will have two operating systems running at once. and Ubuntu would be dependent on MS. Its really up to you. I personally would install win7 then partition my HD and give Ubuntu its own space to breathe.
On the Flip side you have to reboot to access Ubuntu.
If you were running on SSD that would be seconds rather than minutes.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

will wubi work on windows 7 64 bit, if i want to install ubuntu 9.10 64 bit.will the installer no i want 64 bit!

 

[pathasse]

will wubi work on windows 7 64 bit, if i want to install ubuntu 9.10 64 bit.will the installer no i want 64 bit!

Read this
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1052602

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

thanks pathasse!

 

[pathasse]

Do you still need help comsat?

 

[Comsat]

I was more concerned about the size of the partition for Win 7. Excuse my ignorance but would you want the Win7 partition to be big enough for the OS and all of the apps you want run on that platform or just a partition big enough for Win 7 and you'd increase it's size as you add apps?

Do you still need help comsat?

The question above about partition size and later increasing a partition still stands. Having only partitioned a drive once in the past I don't have a lot of insight into dealing with this voodoo. Thanks.

 

[pathasse]

type "create and format" into your start search. CLICK ON create and format hard disk partitions. Right Click the drive you want to format and click "shrink volume" name it and select how much of it you want to shrink. Later you can shrink another piece of that drive and then you will have 3 partitions. You can then take the 3rd and put it into your Ubuntu by right clicking the Ubuntu partition and saying "extend volume". This will all be done in windows 7 disk management.

 

[Dameon_Bananaman]

you dont run the operating system in a virtual machine. its a separate OS and you choose it when you start up your pc. you get a boot screen and you can choose windows 7 or ubuntu.

choosing ubunta the way i said means that it is installed in windows in a folder, so you can uninstall it easy by going into control panel and you dont have to worry about partitions etc.

Both windows 7 and ubuntu act as separate OS's and cant see eachother as far as i can tell.

Best thing to do is to go onto google and research wubi. its quite popular for people who want to learn about linux and are new to all the partitioning and everything. remember that if you install ubuntu from scratch doing it the partition way, you also have to set up swap file memory allocation as well which can be difficult, whereas by using wubi its all done for you.

 

[pathasse]

When I did my Ubuntu it was really easy you just answer the questions and select your partition. You may be right though Wubi could be the way to go. Have to do some reading about it though.

 

[Comsat]

I think I may go the Wubi route since I'm just exploring Ubuntu for the first time and don't have any specific designs on how I'll be using it other than tinkering around. I definitely have a bit more reading to do before I decide.

 

[Dameon_Bananaman]

well either way you decide, you will get a full version of ubunta working. its purely down to personal preference. just read up on all the options available to you and do whats best for your situation.

 

[Comsat]

Pathasse thanks for answering my initial question...and special thanks dameon_bananaman for offering a sweet alternative answer to my problem.

 

[Dameon_Bananaman]

no problem. hope it all works for you

 

[Zenthar]

Since you seem to want to run Linux mostly to get to know it better, performance might not be the primary goal here. Therefore I would suggest you try running it in a virtual machine like VMWare.

IMO doing things like that has many benefits when not experienced:
■The OS will run in a "sandbox" so no risk of ever affecting your main OS.
■Easy to reinstall if you ever destroy your installation (you can even keep a "clean install VM" just for that)
■Still access to a know environment (Windows) to look things up on the internet.
■No need to reboot to switch

On the downsides there is of course the resource consumption (more RAM + CPU), but to familiarize yourself with Linux, I think it would be worth it. You could even try various Linux distributions side by side with VMs.