setting up dual boot

[mdram]

im considering adding ubunto, or maybe steam os, as a second os on my pc, currently have win7x64


anything i should be aware of?

its been years since i used *nix software (unix back in late 80's early 90's)

 

[denis280]

All of it.https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WindowsDualBoot

 

[markosb]

When you install Ubuntu (and most of the popular distros nowadays) the process of dual booting is pretty streamlined. I dual booted dozens of times so far on different machines and Linux and Grub took care of that for me. You literally only need to say that you want to dual boot.

 

[ArisVer]

Just in case, I would make sure I have a backup of the files I want, a Windows 7 installation disc (same as the one you are using now), and you should also write down the key of your W7 (in case you do not have it) retrieved through a key extraction program such as WinKeyFinder.

All these in case of a screw up.

 

[Dahak]

There is generally two way to do dual boot.

1) Once windows is install, install your linux/second os of your choice, it should see it and give you the option to dual boot. This replaced the default windows boot loader, so may add an additional thing to look at if need to do troubleshooting.


2) My personal preferred way.
If you are using a 2nd hard drive, i would disconnect my main hdd and the install the 2nd os on the 2nd hard drive and then use the motherboard's boot menu (usually F8 or F11 or something like that) to choose which one to boot from

Now Option 1) is the easiest and if you are planning to always use it its the better choice
Option 2) I prefer it especially when testing another os as it makes it easier to format the 2nd drive without worrying about the boot loader

 

[mdram]

There is generally two way to do dual boot.

1) Once windows is install, install your linux/second os of your choice, it should see it and give you the option to dual boot. This replaced the default windows boot loader, so may add an additional thing to look at if need to do troubleshooting.


2) My personal preferred way.
If you are using a 2nd hard drive, i would disconnect my main hdd and the install the 2nd os on the 2nd hard drive and then use the motherboard's boot menu (usually F8 or F11 or something like that) to choose which one to boot from

Now Option 1) is the easiest and if you are planning to always use it its the better choice
Option 2) I prefer it especially when testing another os as it makes it easier to format the 2nd drive without worrying about the boot loader

was actually thinking about doing it this way, but wasnt 100% sure yet.
my current thinking is this

1. disconnect my main hd
2. install new os on spare hd
3. test a bit
4 instal another new os on spare hd
5 test a bit
6 decide which flavor i like

i was thinking of putting up to 4 diff distros on the spare hd for testing, shile not touching the main hd

 

[Dahak]

was actually thinking about doing it this way, but wasnt 100% sure yet.
my current thinking is this

1. disconnect my main hd
2. install new os on spare hd
3. test a bit
4 instal another new os on spare hd
5 test a bit
6 decide which flavor i like

i was thinking of putting up to 4 diff distros on the spare hd for testing, shile not touching the main hd

That will pretty much do the setup of the 2nd option, where you use the motherboard boot menu to select the drive to boot from.

But you could also do a combination of them. If you are only testing, you should not need alot of room on the drive so you could partition that 2nd spare drive.

Disconnect the main drive.
connect the 2nd spare drive
install distro 1. partition the drive into 2/3/4 or what ever
install distro 2, on other partition. will give you the option to dual boot
repeat if you want to do all 4
hookup main drive again
when booting, you can use the motherboard boot menu to select main(and have it set as default) to boot to main when not testing.
or
motherboard boot menu to select 2nd drive, and it will give boot menu for the 2 distros and you can select which one to boot

Another way to test is you can use a USB flash drive to run a LiveUSB version as well. I just made one for Ubuntu(for new hdd burnin) and set it to use 1gb of the flash drive for persistence data.
but should have a 4-8gb usb drive

 

[mdram]

i have a 16gb flash drive, so i may give that a try

 

[Dahak]

i have a 16gb flash drive, so i may give that a try

you can use either UNetbootin or Univeral Usb Installer to make it easy