Dual booting XP and kubuntu

[wongryt]

Hi all,

Please can someone provide some help/guidance. I want to turn my laptop into a dual-boot. It's an HP dv2058ea, it came with no installation disks, but has this recovery partition instead.

I've had a look on the forum and haven't come across a posting which I can follow completely. I'm concerned about what might happen if I need to reinstall XP or Kubuntu after turning it into a dual boot. I expect most of the issues are to with 'What if Windows XP goes wrong' rather than Kubuntu.

• If I put Kubuntu on, will this stuff up the windows recovery software/recovery disks if windows needs to sort itself out?
• If I reinstall Windows XP, how will it affect Kubuntu?

Here's what I think I've understood from the postings.

• Degrag laptop: --- have defragged all drives, including the recovery partition.
• Burned Recovery DVDS and created restore points
• Get live DVDs: --- Downloaded, hash checked and burned(x4 speed) LiveDVD Dapper 6.061, also downloaded and burn Gparted liveCD.
• Kubuntu LiveDVD, boots and appears to run fine on the laptop.

This is about as far as I've got, and now am a bit hesitant. This is what I think I'm supposed to do, but don't know how best to proceed to minimise any stress if I need to sort XP out later on.

• I think I need to reduce the XP partition and leave the recovery partition alone
• In the remaining space I think I need at least 3 partitions, 1 for kubuntu, 1 for Linux swap partition and 1 to share data between XP and Linux, should I put in more?. I have no idea of what type of formatting is required or why.
• Boot the kubuntu liveDVD and install it to the partitioned space for it

I think that's the main idea, though I don't know the precautions/specifics/tips I should take/bear in mind to 'futureproof' it against reinstalling either XP/Kubuntu .... i.e. fixing one without affecting the other.

Thanks for any advice/help.

Ricky

[sky]

Re: Dual booting XP and kubuntu

Hi,

So for the partitions, I think you would need one more : /home to keep all your datas in case you want to reinstall the linux system.
The formatting : all partition can be ext2, ext3, reiserfs, jfs, ... (all linux format you want in fact, usually more ext3 but can be a big discussion about performances of all of them) and the swap has to be swap.

In case you reinstall windows, it will at best just erase mbr (boot record) so you will have to boot from a live cd to reinstall it. In worst, erase the whole disc and write it again with only windows.
In case you reinstall linux, if you did it the same as you did first time, it will not change anything more than first time

Hope it helps