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General discussion

Is it possible to dual-boot linux and windows on one disk?

May 13, 2005 6:26AM PDT

I want to be able to dual boot between Linux and Windows on one hard drive. is this possible?

Discussion is locked

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(NT) (NT) Yes.
May 13, 2005 8:01AM PDT
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Dual Boot Linux & Windows on one Hard Drive
May 15, 2005 6:38PM PDT

Yes it is possible to do this, but you have to have your hard drive partitioned, into at least 2 drive, for the best results. putting each O/S on it's own drive for best proformance.

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The rabbit hole is deeper than this (partitions)
May 15, 2005 8:55PM PDT

It's best to use Linux installation software (comes with the distro) to do all this. Your answer could lead a person to needless and worrisome investigations of how to partition the drive, what sizes said partitions should be and more when the Linux install software could make this a "press the return key" operation.

Bob

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So...
May 16, 2005 12:57PM PDT

if I install Linux on the 40 GB drive it should install on a new partition and not overwrite the Windows files?

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Press the return key.
May 16, 2005 9:22PM PDT

Again, you have been DERAILED. Linux does not install into "one partition" from any distro I've seen. It creates on average 3 partitions.

I will not discuss this at any lenghth since it's all out there on the web.

-> But if you did boot up Mandrake, Suse in their current versions, a partition scheme would be presented and you could press the return key and get the job done.

Bob

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Dual booting Linux/Windows
May 17, 2005 7:05PM PDT

Mandrake has a partitioning tool that will allow you to resize your windows partition. A good idea would first be to backup all your important windows data, and do a thorough defrag. then boot from the mandrake CD. The partitioning tool (qtparted) will allow you to choose how much to shrink your windows partition by (which will be limited by how full the drive is). Then allow it to do an automatic partition of the resultant free space. You will get either 2 partitions (/ and /swap) or 3 (/,/home and /swap). The software is quite clear about what it is doing. Alternatively, if the distro doesn't have a partition *resizing* option, get a repartitioning tool from www.tucows.com and repartition first. BUT BE SURE TO BACKUP FIRST - I have sometimes had problems with resizing, and then you're down to formatting and reinstalling windows and all your programs.