Wubi paranoid friendly?

[Colin Law]

On 7 December 2010 18:15, Richard Owlett <rowlett at pcnetinc.com> 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.

Another possibility in addition to those mentioned by others would be
to spend a few <insert currency here>s and buy a second hard disc.
Then you can install Ubuntu on the second one and dual boot without
re-partitioning the existing disk.

>
> 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?"

Others have answered this question, but I will comment that I had a
bad experience with wubi.  I installed with no trouble and spent some
time setting up my system and installing a number of apps.  It ran
fine for a couple of weeks but then Windows crashed in some way
related to wubi and I could no longer run Ubuntu.  It may well be that
my experience is unusual.  Of course had I backed up my wubi file then
I could just have restored it.  I would vote for one of the virtual
machines or dual booting however.

Colin