dual boot?

[Chanchao]

Hello Charlie,

Wednesday, February 8, 2006, 11:01:43 AM, you wrote:

CE> I'd like to get my feet wet using ubuntu on a dual boot system with Win
CE> XP. The wording of the help files leaves me with nagging fear that even
CE> with partitioning, I might not preserve the windows functionality.  If I
CE> follow the instructions at
CE> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HowtoPartition?highlight=%28CategoryDocumentation%29

CE> & accept defaults after that, does the install process preserve the
CE> Windows partition & allow dual boot?

Be VERY VERY careful.  If at all possible then install it on a
separate drive (can be an old, smaller one).

With various Linuxes (incl. Ubuntu) I managed to temporarily lose
Windows on TWO occasions.  First time wasn't that serious (in
hindsight, though at the moment itself it wasn't fun), it was just a
matter of the previous Ubuntu version not recognizing Windows on an
SATA drive well while Ubuntu would be installed on another drive.  Was
able to fix that in Windows' maintenance console.  ('fixboot' and
'fixmbr' are your friends. :)

Second time had little to do with Ubuntu, I had to repartition my
drive to make space for Ubuntu and the whole thing got messed up. Had
to reinstall Windows.

So BE careful. If you want complete peace of mind then disconnect your
windows drive while installing Ubuntu on a separate drive. Then
connect all together again and if you want to boot ubuntu you just
change the drive to boot from first in the BIOS screen.

Cheers,
Chanchao