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Dual Booting

RhettRhett (Not even a monkey)
in Zocalo v2.0
I am considering spending some of my hard earned cash on buying a second hard drive so that I could dual boot Windows XP (Pro) and some distro of Linux. How difficult would that be, and is it worth the money/effort? My primary motive is just to explore Linux because it has always fascinated me, and I don't like Windows. I would eventually like to have a Linux laptop further down the line, and I figure this is the first step in that direction. If it is feasible, which distro would you recommend? Basically looking for the all around best, don't have anything in particular I want. I know the discussion over distributions has happened before, but I figured it might be good to get an update on your feelings. Thanks for your advice

Comments

  • BigglesBiggles <font color=#AAFFAA>The Man Without a Face</font>
    [url]http://ubuntu.com/[/url]
  • PhiPhi <font color=#FF0000>C</font><font color=#FF9900>o</font><font color=#FFFF00>l</font><font color=#00F
    [QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Biggles [/i]
    [B][url]http://ubuntu.com/[/url] [/B][/QUOTE] plus [url]http://ubuntuguide.org/[/url] and [url]http://ubuntuforums.org[/url]


    :)

    - Phi [i]a happy WinXP/Ubuntu dual booter...but mostly Ubuntu[/i]
  • PSI-KILLERPSI-KILLER Needs help
    Allot of different ways to make a dual boot, depends on hardware you have. I use red hat 64 bit. I disconnected a hard drive then added the new one to install linux then reconnect the windows hardive

    [url]http://fedora.redhat.com/[/url]
  • BigglesBiggles <font color=#AAFFAA>The Man Without a Face</font>
    rhett: Please, please don't use fedora. Don't use any rpm-based distribution. I wish rpms would go away and die. They're out dated. They're old. They don't do everything a decent packaging system needs to do.
  • RhettRhett (Not even a monkey)
    Ok sounds like we have a fairly good consensus here, Ill go with ubuntu. Which version should I use(5.04 or 5.10 which is a preview release)? And should I just do as Psi suggested, unplug my current (XP) harddrive after installing a new one, install ubuntu, and then plug it back in. And then I assume everytime I boot up I will have a choice of what os to run? Thanks again for all of your help and suggestions!
  • JackNJackN <font color=#99FF99>Lightwave Alien</font>
    I'm still a fan of Mandrake myself... :)
  • BigglesBiggles <font color=#AAFFAA>The Man Without a Face</font>
    5.10 will be out within a couple of weeks. You can install with 5.04 and upgrade easily or you can wait and get the newer install; it doesn't really matter since once you've installed you never have to install again (unless somiething really breaks) because you constantly upgrade to the latest programs.

    As for installing: Plug in your new drive, run the ubuntu installer, and when prompted tell it to create its partitions in the unpartitioned space on the new drive. It'll install the boot loader and configure it to load windows and ubuntu for you.
  • PSI-KILLERPSI-KILLER Needs help
    I disagree with Biggles on that point, do not let different OS's fool around with each others start files, keep them completely seperate and isolated. They don't need to know about each other.
  • BigglesBiggles <font color=#AAFFAA>The Man Without a Face</font>
    No, they don't. But the bootloader needs to know about them both in order to be able to boot them both. Ubuntu will very happily say "hey look, a windows install!" and set up the boot loader to start windows as well as ubuntu. This will not change any of windows at all, it simply installs a new boot loader.
  • PSI-KILLERPSI-KILLER Needs help
    I guess it is a hardware variable, my motherboard BIOS(ASUS A8N SLI DELUXE) has a option to hit F8 on boot to choose what harddrive to boot off of. I am uneasy about different OS's changing each other.
  • BigglesBiggles <font color=#AAFFAA>The Man Without a Face</font>
    Technically, it's not the OS's choosing eachother. It's a single boot loader doing it. If you want you can use the windows boot loader handle it, it's just much harder to set up.

    Trust me, ubuntu makes it all [i]very[/i] easy.
  • PhiPhi <font color=#FF0000>C</font><font color=#FF9900>o</font><font color=#FFFF00>l</font><font color=#00F
    I found it helped to look through some screenshots of the install process. Lets you know what to expect.
    [url=http://shots.osdir.com/slideshows/slideshow.php?release=305&slide=1]5.04[/url]
    [url=http://shots.osdir.com/slideshows/slideshow.php?release=465&slide=1]5.10[/url] (doesn't have the install process yet, but I assume it hasn't changed much from 5.04)

    And yes, ubuntu does make it easy to set up the bootloader. I installed it on a 10GB partition of my main drive and it left the windows half compleately alone (though I later mounted the windows drive so I could access files).

    Oh, and Breezy Badger 5.10 is officially released...today (Oct. 13). Go with 5.10, it will save on downloading updates after install :)

    - Phi
  • sinclairsinclair Ranger
    Just make sure you backup any existing data in your hard disk.. It wouldnt be the first time in history, that you lose your windows-partition completely... And it is also possible to fuck up with the partition table so badly, that you lose all information you have.. Been there, done that. And dont give me that *you didnt do it correctly* crap, I followed the instructions and understood every step I made. I gave Ubuntu a one partition in use which I had made for only this purpose. Anyway, it somehow "fixed" all the other partitions in my hard drive, and I lost 200gb of data because of that. Including most of the backups I made...
  • BigglesBiggles <font color=#AAFFAA>The Man Without a Face</font>
    [url]http://distrocenter.linux.com/distrocenter/05/10/10/204207.shtml?tid=127[/url]
  • PSI-KILLERPSI-KILLER Needs help
    My new Asus N7800GTX just arrived, It is going to take allot of effort to get it tuned in Linux. I can't beileve people actually use 2 of this videocards at once.
  • RhettRhett (Not even a monkey)
    Just a quick question, when I install the new hard drive (which will be the second hd I have installed) should I set it to slave, master, something else? Sorry Im totally new at this, thanks for the help!
  • BigglesBiggles <font color=#AAFFAA>The Man Without a Face</font>
    If it's SATA, it won't matter. There's no setting.

    If it's IDE, my condolences. IDE cables suck. Set it to slave and put it on the same channel as your current drive. Make sure your current drive is set as master.
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