Wubi paranoid friendly?

[David Fletcher]

On Tue, 2010-12-07 at 12:15 -0600, Richard Owlett wrote:
> I date from the era of vacuum tubes and 026's.
> Though I've programed, I'm a user not a programmer.
> I am a Windows(tm) user who wishes to be a *nix user.
> 
> I wish to try Ubuntu.
> 
> Full install OBVIOUSLY *NOT* acceptable ;/
> 
> Dual boot *NOT* acceptable as it requires repartitioning my hard 
> drive. I've had bad experiences with repartitioning.
> 
> I've already gone the "live" CD/USB route which proves that my 
> hardware is minimally compliant
> 
> !!! *BUT* !!!
> 
> I'm looking for something indistinguishable from a full install, 
> think equivalent of "Turing Test" ;/
> 
> Basic question is:
> "How does Wubi mess with my hard drive?"
> 
> I've searched multiple Wubi related pages without an adequate answer.
> 

I've not tried the wubi installer at all but I successfully run Kubuntu
Hardy and Windows XP as virtual machines with Virtualbox. You should be
able to go the other way around I think and run Ubuntu Maverick as a
virtual machine under Windows.

Installing as a virtual machine is a little more technical than
installing on a hard drive but easily doable. If you want guidance just
ask. Loads of folks on here have done it.

Another alternative is to take the hard drive out of the inside of the
PC (assuming that it's a proper computer not a laptop) and put it into a
caddy system that loads drives into a drawer on the front of the PC.
Caddies cost several pounds per drawer and I find them invaluable,
although the fans in the ones I got are rubbish and need to be replaced
sometime. Hard drives are so cheap these days that the cost of having an
extra one isn't worth worrying about.

Dave