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Re: [LUG] Ubuntu & Vista

 

On Mon, 14 May 2007 09:54:03 +0100
christopher.berry1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

> Dear friends,
> I feel like someone who ought to be in sack cloth and ashes BECAUSE 'the old 
> computer' finally bit the dust at the end of last week and I have bought a new one 
> from PC WORLD - Acer Aspire small footprint variety - excellent little thing but 
> set up in Vista Prof.
> Now, the crunch question is, will there be any problems if I try and dual boot 
> with Ubuntu?

Do you really need Vista at all? (clue: if possible == no, must == maybe).

Do you have a Vista install DVD / or other media? (NOT a repair disc
and NOT an "upgrade" either.)

Do you have a Vista-compliant drive partitioning tool (PartitionMagic etc.)

The risk is that the (deliberately) broken Vista bootloader setup will
make it harder to make a dual-boot machine than with XP.

Many guides on the internet seem to go for either a second hard drive
(not good for a laptop solution) or a customised (Advanced)
installation of Vista that explicitly makes room for Ubuntu during the
Windows install (you'll need the full Vista installer).

As ever, the question is whether you can shrink the Windows partition
without requiring a complete reinstall of Windows. Once again, M$ have
(deliberately) modified their install procedure to make it harder to
use dual-boot. Seems pointless to me, if dual-boot is such a problem,
it makes people considering Ubuntu less likely to keep Windows.

Is there any data on the laptop that you may need? (Put that onto a USB
stick or something and be prepared to blitz the pre-installed Vista.)

Put ubuntu+dualboot+vista into google and take a look at some of the guides.

--


Neil Williams
=============
http://www.data-freedom.org/
http://www.nosoftwarepatents.com/
http://www.linux.codehelp.co.uk/

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