[AuckLUG] Dual Boot

[Richard Innes]

I believe more people than will admit are dual booting Windows and 
Linux; I do on both my boxes. Like you I am finding I do not use my 
Windows (Vista) as much as the Linux, but it is still useful for certain 
tasks. Do not be opologetic, most people are not fanatics and appreciate 
that dual booting is a practical option for many.

The Windows Installer/Bootloader is all consuming and doesn't like 
sharing with Linux, this is believed by many to be deliberate. To 
overcome this, it is necessary to install Windows first and Linux which 
is much more accommodating afterwards. While it is possible to install 
and manage a dual Windows/Linux just using the two OS's I think you 
would find it useful download a copy of Parted Magic 2.2 (which in an 
earlier post I referred to as Partition Magic, my apologies!). There is 
also the Trinity Ressure Discs (which I haven't found that useful) and 
Koppix. Parted Magic will help you resize and maintain your partitions, 
Trinity has programs to help with corrupted Partitions tables and MBRs. 
Every dual booter will find one of this discs useful at some point.

IMHO you will find it best to do a complete re-install of all your OS's. 
Start with Windows, then using Parted Magic or whatever reduce the 
Windows partition to the desirable size and install your Linux on the 
free space. I always keep my installations simple, just the main linux 
partition and the swap partition.

There are free programs that claim to manage multiple installations 
better than LILO or GRUB, but I have found the latter perfectly adequate 
and well behaved. I always do a manual install when the partitioner 
comes up on installation, and it is important to mark the partition as 
root (/) at this stage.

You might consider using the latest versions of Mandrive. I thought 
Mandrive Spring 2008 one of the best distros around, just as good as 
Ubuntu 8.04. These later versions have the ability to extract files from 
the Windows partition and therere also programs you can ins6tall on 
Windows to extract files from Linux. When you are dual booting this is a 
useful ability.

Others will have different approaches which may suit your way of working 
better. I have been duall booting for three or four years, using 
different combinations of Windows and Linux. As with all things 
computer-wise dual booting isn't perfect, sooner or later you will 
experience problems such as you have experienced. One thing I have found 
is that it is easier and quicker re-installing Linux than it is Windows 
so you might consider archiving your Windows installation on your second 
drive once you have it in a prostione condition or making a mirror copy 
on a DVD.

Of course at all time back up, back up, and back up again.