Dual Booting Windows/Linux

[Im New]

Title says it all i have windows now and i want to install Linux ive never done anything with Partions or w/e so i would b pretty new to that and if im corrects id have to deal with that?


anyways ive heard its possible to have 2 OS's installed but i dont know how to go about doing it exactly ive tryed b4 but just wound up formatting about 4 times b4 giving up


So any help is appreciated...


PS hope tihs is the right section

[Jimmy0]

What distro of linux where you thinking of installing? You may be able to get LiveCD's of some distros to check them about before thinking about dual booting it with Windows, just to make sure you can see what you are getting into and you have the time to learn about it.

You also should expect a learning curve when playing with linux, you may also be required to touch the terminal (command line) from time to time to do things.

Also remember, Linux in not Windows.

Reply back saying what distro you were planning on using, then we can proceed from there.

[Im New]

ubuntu...(sp?)


yeah i had a live disk once but couldnt get it to work.....i will try again

[Im New]

i dl and burned onto disk what is supposed to be the linux live cd i guess..


but when i restart the disk boots up does a bunch of stuff and basically just leaves me in an MD-DOS format....am i supposed to enter sum command or sumthing to get it going?


im not sure what to do

[telegramsam]

What program are you using to burn the CD? It has to be a bootable CD. Use Nero, or BurnCDCC. The latter is free.

If you continue to have problems, try slowing down the burn speed.

[Im New]

Originally Posted by telegramsam What program are you using to burn the CD? It has to be a bootable CD. Use Nero, or BurnCDCC. The latter is free. If you continue to have problems, try slowing down the burn speed.

i used nero


also it loads up when i restart and ask if i want to boot or wait for logo or sumthing of the sort

if i wait or select boot the same thing happens

it goes to a dos type thing goes thru like a check list to indicate everytihngs ok then it leaves me there when its done i can type commands in if i like but i dont know what id tell it to do...i do know how to pull of a list of commands to choose from but idk what 90% of them even mean

[telegramsam]

I've had boot CD's do that as well. Something along the lines of Caldera Dos or something?

My fix was to re-download and re-burn. Sometimes downloads come in corrupted, and sometimes burn software or the disc itself just doesn't work. At least that's my assessment of the problem.

I've tried following that command line thing too, and never gotten anywhere with it.

All I can tell you at this point is frisbee the disc and try again...

Edit: Btw...I've never done a dual boot on the same HDD, I've always used a second HDD and just changed the BIOS order to dual boot. Ubuntu, upon install, will partition the drive for you, but there is a protocol to setting up GRUB. You can find all kinds of tutorials on this at www.ubuntuforums.org

[Im New]

Originally Posted by telegramsam I've had boot CD's do that as well. Something along the lines of Caldera Dos or something? My fix was to re-download and re-burn. Sometimes downloads come in corrupted, and sometimes burn software or the disc itself just doesn't work. At least that's my assessment of the problem. I've tried following that command line thing too, and never gotten anywhere with it. All I can tell you at this point is frisbee the disc and try again... Edit: Btw...I've never done a dual boot on the same HDD, I've always used a second HDD and just changed the BIOS order to dual boot. Ubuntu, upon install, will partition the drive for you, but there is a protocol to setting up GRUB. You can find all kinds of tutorials on this at www.ubuntuforums.org

im not possitive if my hdd is just partioned but its an HP and it had 2 HDD in my computer the main one and another one was used for system recovery i belive its around 9 gigs...anyways i made recovery disk all ready which ive used so i know they work...and ive reformatted it...so i guess i have 2 hdd just one is rather small but SHOULD do what i need it to if i gotta do it that way

[glc]

That's a single HDD with 2 partitions. That's how HP does it.

[Im New]

Originally Posted by glc That's a single HDD with 2 partitions. That's how HP does it.

thanks....since its all ready partioned cant i just install linux onto that partion like i said 9 gig should be enuff space for me to use linux

[glc]

Only if the partition is cleared and unhidden - and that would kill any possibility of you doing a factory XP restore unless you built the HP recovery CD set.

[Im New]

Originally Posted by glc Only if the partition is cleared and unhidden - and that would kill any possibility of you doing a factory XP restore unless you built the HP recovery CD set.

yeah ive created recovery disk and ive used them so i know they work...and i have cleared it and its usable

[Im New]

i downloaded and burned another CD of Linux Ubuntu and the screen poped up asking what i wanted to do

i selected "Start/ Install"

after i did that it went to a screen that had the Ubuntu logo and had the loading thing under it...after a while of waiting it comes back and says sumthing is wrong with the buffer or sum sort...

ive tryed it buring at 40x speed and 24x speed and the same thing happens...even when i try to check the disk for defects....


ive tried installing Ubuntu several times and each time a new error occurs its really getting on my nerves