Dual booting

[scooby]

Currently got a laptop running with Vista pro clean install.

Is there any dual booting software i can download and install now so i can run linux as a dual boot? i probably want to remove the dual boot if the linux doesnt work (expected as it struggles for drivers on a Virt PC).

[voodooflux]

This any good?

[DaveB]

Currently got a laptop running with Vista pro clean install.

Is there any dual booting software i can download and install now so i can run linux as a dual boot? i probably want to remove the dual boot if the linux doesnt work (expected as it struggles for drivers on a Virt PC).

Most linux distro's allow you to repartition if required and install a boot loader as part of the install process. Shouldn't need anything extra.

[Scotchpie]

Most linux distro's allow you to repartition if required and install a boot loader as part of the install process. Shouldn't need anything extra.

All the main modern distro's these days automatically partition the disk for you - you don't have to do anything. If you want a custom partition added (separating out the /home and /usr directories for example) then choose manual partitioning. No need for third party software. Just put in the disk and away you go.

[xoggoth]

Unix partition worked ok when I tried it but recovering the space again if you ever need to is another matter.

[DaveB]

Unix partition worked ok when I tried it but recovering the space again if you ever need to is another matter.

Re-run the install process and use the Linux partition tool to put it all back together again. That or just reformat the partition from Windows and keep it as a sperate drive letter.

[pmeswani]

Currently got a laptop running with Vista pro clean install.

Is there any dual booting software i can download and install now so i can run linux as a dual boot? i probably want to remove the dual boot if the linux doesnt work (expected as it struggles for drivers on a Virt PC).

Buy an external USB drive and make sure that the bios allows you to boot from the USB drive first and install Linux on this drive. Linux will come with a boot manager that should allow you to boot between Linux and Windows. However, if you install it correctly (not sure how), you can remove the USB drive and allow Vista to boot up without any third party boot managers.

HTH

[scooby]

Buy an external USB drive and make sure that the bios allows you to boot from the USB drive first and install Linux on this drive. Linux will come with a boot manager that should allow you to boot between Linux and Windows. However, if you install it correctly (not sure how), you can remove the USB drive and allow Vista to boot up without any third party boot managers.

HTH

that is exactly what i'm after! i assume GRUB or the like will be installed on the USB drive?

[xoggoth]

It was a long time ago DaveB so very hazy on details but I did all the obvious things and used all the tools that should have worked but no way could I ever recover the UNIX partition or reformat the entire drive.

[pmeswani]

that is exactly what i'm after! i assume GRUB or the like will be installed on the USB drive?

Most likely. However, I think some distros still have lilo as backup. I'm yet to install linux on my external drive... but won't get round to doing it any time soon.