One way to dual boot is to use Linux (Mint, for instance) on a USB Flash drive.
FYI, I completely overwrote XP with Mint on my FIL’s laptop and it works fine. I stopped trying to get it to connect to the printer, however. He never prints anyway.
It will install Ubuntu along side your Windows and modify the boot.ini file so you have a choice of operating system at startup.
You will need about 5gb of free space to do this...though more is better.
Be sure to backup all data you can't afford to lose. An image od yor current drive is best. That way you can restore it back if something goes wrong. But it won't.
Of course, od yor=of your.
should not be a problem I duel boot with mint. Although I’m never in windows.
If that is all you are doing, consider the Mint distribution. It will look and feel a lot like XP. http://www.linuxmint.com/
Under the concept of try before you buy (or commit), I would run from a liveCD first. If you like it, you may be able to install as a USB or dual boot on your laptop hard drive if you have enough room.
Ubuntu says you can keep Win 7 but I have doubts
M4LwhenXPdies
I recommend Linux Mint. The installation process will leave windows on if you want and take care of the partitioning.
It is possible to install Ubuntu on a machine that already has Windows on it (dual-booting), but the difficulty is in making the space available for the linux partition.
I read that the Windows disk management can handle shrinking the Windows partition in order to make room for Linux.
This article explains how to do it with Windows 7 Disk Management.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/gg309169.aspx
Here is an article about how to install Win 7 and Ubuntu side by side.
http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/dual-boot-windows-7-ubuntu.html
Although the article recommends using linux’s GPARTED, I would avoid using a linux tool because I consider Microsoft’s own tool to be safer.
If all you’re looking for is Open Office and websurfing, probably 20 GB should be sufficient for a partition size, but if you have more that you don’t mind Windows 7 losing it.
I would recommend that you do a full backup of the computer before attempting the disk shrinking and Ubuntu install. I generally would trust Windows and Ubuntu to play nice together, but you never know how things work out.
While installing Ubuntu, avoid using full disk encryption. I had that backfire on me once before and lost a linux machine when the private key got corrupted.
The Ubuntu disk manager on the installer should be able to detect the Windows 7 partition and give you the option to wipe or install on the now vacant partition.
In the installer, you can tell GRUB (the linux booter) to make Windows 7 available as a boot option. Linux has to be in control of the boot options.
Ubuntu is probably the best version of linux to use if you’re new to linux. I’ve been using linux since 1993, and even as a pro, I would use it.
And let me reiterate: make a good backup.
Good luck!
If you put Ubuntu on a windows machine the two versions will engage in a death match with each other until all that remains is a molten bubbling ooze of former plastic computer molecules.
I’d recommend something a little more lean than Ubuntu for older machines. I played with several distros several years ago, and I found Ubuntu as much of a resource hog as MS Windows.
If it’s a really old machine, you might try Puppy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puppy_Linux
I have two on Ubuntu and one running Mint.
Ubuntu is easy, no hassles but wants you to update all the time. I enjoy Mint on my laptop....but see some others here that sound interesting.
BTW...Ubuntu seems to get slower as you go...just my experience.
I’ve done every possible variation of this exercise and done it many times. Agree with all the comments. Yes shrinking the windows partition is the sore spot. Yes Linux (Ubuntu or any other flavor) will behave when installing on top of windows (but not vice versa).
All things considered I’d get another drive. It’s actually easier on a laptop on a desktop. You can exchange drives on a laptop in a matter of seconds. And then your linux environment is your linux environment and same for windows. A laptop harddrive should set you back somewhere in the $50 to $100 range and it’s probably well worth it for piece of mind and freedom to explore.
If you decide you need to redo your linux install, then boom - you can do that all day long and there won’t ever be a worry of corrupting the other drive.
As many others have stated, go with the “Live” version of Ubuntu on a USB drive first, to see if you like it. In many cases, running from the thumb drive is preferable if you’re running on an older disk bus (i.e. EIDE).
I run linux mint 15 (getting ready to upgrade to 16) on my old laptop. I had an old external usb drive knocking around so I just put mint on it. When I want windows, I unplug the mint drive and boot windows. When I want Linux, I plug the mint drive in and boot to linux. I almost never use windows anyway.
I ran ubuntu for a while, but I like the mint philosophy of careful and reliable upgrades.
Most likely you have a 32 bit system. Try the live CD first (use ImageBurn to born the iso) Do not use the whole drive but choose to use the free space.
What are your specs? Run dxdiag on the Run command and give the CPU and Ram info.
I just loaded Mint onto an older Toshiba laptop. It works great and my son’s can even play Minecraft on it. It would never run that while it was a Windows system.