[darkcloud23]

so i have a few questions about dual booting this with xp
1. will it harm any of my files that i have on xp? i heard that that installing this will wipe my hard drive.
2. can this brick my comp? my mini 10 being my only comp atm, i dont wanna lose it...
3.is it worth it?

[OmgFriday]

From what I know, very likely you are going to lose your files on xp partition during the process. Be prepared to treat it a project with a solid backup plan.

The bottom line is that you can always reinstall your XP back on the whole drive as the last resort.

[reflex]

1. The Ubuntu installer should give you the option of shrinking the XP partition to make room for Ubuntu. Shrinking the XP partition shouldn't damage anything, but partition manipulation is inherently risky. Make backups of any critical files first. And you'd ideally have backups or restore discs for the Windows OS, too.

If the partition resizing goes well, there's little chance of Ubuntu later screwing up your Windows files.

2. A failed BIOS flash can "brick" your computer, rendering recovery very difficult. Installing Ubuntu can't do that much damage, but it could corrupt data on your hard drive, including the Windows install, rendering it unbootable.

If it gets really screwed up, you'd need to reinstall any OSs from discs. If just the bootloader gets screwed up, you can restore the original Windows bootloader without reinstalling the OS, ideally with a separate Windows install disc or repair disc and the "fixmbr" command.

Installing Ubuntu probably won't mess up your system, but there is a small chance it'll screw it up. (You'd also incur the same risks trying to install two versions of Windows on a single drive)

3. Do you have a 10 or a 10v? The graphics chip in the 10v has much better Linux support. So, I'd probably shy away from Linux on the 10.

But honestly, I don't see much point in dual-booting, unless you're a Linux user who wants to boot Windows for games.

If you're interested in learning Unix/Linux, I'd just create a full-backup image of the OEM Windows install, then install Linux as a single-boot system. And if you're not truly interested in learning Linux, I think you'll just find it frustrating, and you'll never boot it if you're dual-booting.


I hope this info helps you make a decision.

[darkcloud23]

thnx dudes.
i have desided not to fool with it.
i dont believe its worth it, i was just wanting to try out linux to see whats so great about it.

[EQPhoto]

Most Ubuntu linux distros will allow you to create a 'live' install on a USB flash drive that you can boot your system from. You have to change the boot order in BIOS, or hit f12 while booting, but once that is done, you can boot directly from the USB flash drive and run Ubuntu (or Kubuntu if you like KDE) without touching your Dell Mini's internal hard drive. I have found this is a great way to 'test drive' different distros and see how they behave on my Dell Mini 10v

[chronoguy]

This is what I do when I have a Windows Install I want to preserve.
I run ghostzilla (or is it clonezilla). I make a USB boot and clone my hd to another drive (usb or via ssh). I then run Parted Magic (another bootable USB distro) to resize existing partition and make a new one for Linux (or Mac OS). If it fails, I can always run ghostzilla to restore.

[fdalbor]

Originally Posted by darkcloud23

thnx dudes.
i have desided not to fool with it.
i dont believe its worth it, i was just wanting to try out linux to see whats so great about it.

If you really want to just try out Linux there are several good options that you can use. The best in my opinion is the live install to a SD/HC drive (8gig is a good place to start, you can get them for about 20$). Ubuntu 9.04 will install to the SD drive and allow you to save files and modifications to the OS so you can install the GMA 500 drivers and anything else you want and its there when you exit and then reboot. You can set your 1010 so all you have to do is put the SD card in the reader and it will boot it when you turn on the system. It will ignore you hard drive like its not even there; everything will be done from the SD card and your hard drive contents will be safe for when you need it. Take the SD card out and you are back to windows and booting from the hard drive. Give it a shot; you might like it. fdalbor