A Simple Question Regarding Partitions and Dual-Boot

[lordmarcos]

Currently, I'm running Fiesty on my machine and that's it. I would like to make a partition and put Windows back on my machine and dual-boot.

Unfortunatley everything I found pertaining to partitioning and dual-booting is "Windows user switching to Linux and setting up a partion via Linux installation" and nothing for the other way around.

Do I need to go back to Windows and start all over from scratch?

Thanks in advance!

Mark

[Qqmike]

Re: A Simple Question Regarding Partitions and Dual-Boot

http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3086917.0

Try the advice I gave there. Should be no problems.
It is true that it's always easier to install Windows first, on the the first hard drive and the first partition, but, I don't see why it won't work the other way. Try it.

[lordmarcos]

Re: A Simple Question Regarding Partitions and Dual-Boot

Thanks Mike. It looks simple enough but I've already hit a snag.

I don't know how to install Windows on my machine. When I put in the install cd Wine opens up for me but acts funny. It won't let me select the option to install.

My computer also won't let me hit F9 at startup to select what drive to boot from.

Is there some way I can install Windows using Konsole?

-Mark

[Fintan]

Re: A Simple Question Regarding Partitions and Dual-Boot

I take it you cannot boot from the cd? How did you get feisty installed?

Please clarify before we continue. What type of computer / motherboard do you have?

When we have gotten that sorted we can continue.

Installing windows fresh is a very big pain in the proverbial. And if you don't watch out your new windows will be infected with all kinds of malware within minutes (20 on average)

So if you really need it there is, as Dible pointed out in the thread mike pointed you to a more elegant way of doing this. It is called vmware. basically this is a "fake" windows running parallel to your Linux. No double booting Plus you will not have the usual agony of spys, viruses, trojans etc. it will run and keep on running more stable and just as fats as a "real" install.

But first things first:
Before we continue get gparted live cd for partitioning:
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php

There is also some useful information on partitioning on that page.

Now you will have to make a new partition for your "fake" windows.
This partition should be formated as fat32 and about 30gigs (if you have the space) call it /Vmware. While you are at it it is a good idea to make a separate /data partition also formated as fat32 and as large as possible. This will enable you to share data between linux and windows. It also keeps your data separate from your OS which is always a good idea


Now for the ingrediants:
You will need legal copy of windows to make this work so have one handy so depending on which legal windows you have:
Go here for xp pro:
http://www.penguin.ch/repository/con...s/WinXPpro.tar

Go here for xp home:
http://www.penguin.ch/repository/con.../WinXPhome.tar

Go here for win2000 pro:
http://www.penguin.ch/repository/con...s/Win2Kpro.tar

to download the virtual "Fake" windows xp pro to the /vmware partition we just made .

Then go here to download the latest vmplayer:
http://www.vmware.com/download/player/
to your /home/username directory.

When you have done all that we can install vmplayer, activate your new partitions and get your "fake" windows up and running.

I hope this helps and I would be happy to guide you through as best I can