WUBI

[Christopher Lees]

On Tue, 2009-08-18 at 05:14 +0100, Jeff Spargo wrote:
> 
> Message: 1
> Date: Fri, 24 Jul 2009 23:16:02 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Jeff Spargo <spargo.jeff at gmail.com>
> Subject: WUBI
> To: ubuntu-au at lists.ubuntu.com
> Message-ID:
> 	<56513260-d10b-4910-8dc4-3b12335eda7d at f20g2000prn.googlegroups.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
> 
> HI!
> Ive been playing with ubuntu for a few years and this year have been
> stoked with WUBI. Wubi 8 was fine but I demounted it to show my son
> (he's 9 and says "WINDOWS IS CRAP! I just cant do what I want to do on
> it") )  how to put it onto my laptop. I tried teh new wubi that slaps
> on the 9.04 BUT the bloody download never finishes, tried 3 times.
> I have the iso from a mag but prefer to run teh dual boot option and
> keep teh xp on the side..
> Can I somehow run the wubi and get it to use the magazine ubuntu I
> have?

There are three options:

1. Put the .iso file into the same folder as the Wubi program, so it
won't download it from the internet

2. Burn the .iso to a CD and run Wubi straight off the CD - it comes on
the CD.

3. Best option: Burn the .iso to a CD, boot off it and tell the
installer to resize your Windows partition and install Ubuntu in the
free space, to make a real dual-boot.

Wubi has a couple of massive drawbacks; firstly, you only get up to 30
gigabytes of space, and secondly if anything happens to Windows you will
also lose your Ubuntu. If Windows crashes, it doesn't unmount its own
partition cleanly, so Ubuntu won't be able to boot. You need to run
chkdisk before Ubuntu will be able to work again.

Even with the existence of Wubi, I still recommend a real dual-boot
setup. Fewer potential problems, and much easier to turn your dual-boot
into a single-boot.