How to Dual Boot Vista and Linux
You say you want to dual boot Linux with Windows Vista? Great! This page will get you through this long process. Note that I am using the Linux Ubuntu 8.10 distro for this guide. Also, you can do this with XP too although I have not tried it myself.
You Have: Windows Vista Home Basic, Premium, Ultimate, or Enterprise
You Want: To dual boot both Linux Ubuntu and Windows Vista so you can choose which one you want to load into memory at startup.
Things you'll Need
- A Desktop or Laptop PC with Windows Vista
- Ubuntu Installation CD
- Several CD-Rs
- Flash Drive (Optional)
STOP! WARNING:
I ONLY RECOMEND DOING THIS IF YOU HAVE A GOOD UNDERSTANDING OF COMPUTERS AND OPERATING SYSTEMS. YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT PARTITIONING, AND WHAT ROOT DRIVES ARE BEFORE CONTINUING THIS. IF DONE INCORRECTLY, LINUX MAY REPLACE WINDOWS VISTA ENTIRELY, AND RE-FORMAT YOUR HARDRIVE RESULTING IN LOSS OF ALL WINDOWS FILES AND DIRECTORIES. I AM ASSUMING YOU DON'T WANT THAT. IF YOU HAVE ANY DOUBTS, OR DON'T FEEL COMFORTABLE DOING THIS, DON'T. I AM NOT LIABLE IF YOU MESS UP YOUR COPY OF WINDOWS.
Step 1: Preparation
Alright, so assuming you've read and understood what I said above. Let's prepare Windows for the process. The first and foremost thing I recommend doing is backing up all your important files and folders to a CD or flash drive just in case anything goes wrong. When I did this process of dual booting, all was well and good; but you never know what could go wrong. If your computer came with the Windows Vista operating system disk, keep that handy. If something does go wrong, you can at least re-install a fresh copy of Windows.
Ok, now it's time you download the Linux Ubuntu distro on to a CD. Go to: http://www.ubuntu.com/ and go download the latest version of Ubuntu. The Ubuntu website will walk you through how to then put the Ubuntu OS onto a CD, so I won't bother to explain it here. Just read all you can about it on their site. This is the easy part.
Alternatively, you can also request a free Ubuntu CD to be shipped to you, but it's obviously much faster to burn it on to a blank CD.
After you've have Ubuntu on CD, set it to the side; we're not ready to install it just yet. We have a few more things to do in Windows Vista.
Step 2: Partitioning your Hard Drive
Ok, this is an important step, so read well. We must now partition our hardrive to "make room" for Linux Ubuntu. To do this, follow the steps:
Click the images to view the full size and description.
- Go to start, and right-click on Computer. Then select "manage".
- Next, select "Disk Management". This will bring up your partitioned hardrives. As you can see, I have three on my computer: The first is set aside for Dell Utilities, the second is my C drive, and the last is my Recovery D drive.
- Next, right click on a drive (most likely you'll partition your C drive), and select shrink volume.
- Now it'll ask you how much you want to shrink your hardrive in MB. It's up to you how much how much want to shrink it. I used 15 GB, but it's up to you how much space you want for Linux. One good thing about Linux is that it takes up much less memory than Windows.
- Alright, so now you can see that I have 15 GB of unallocated space. This space is what we're going to use for Linux.
Mmkay, that's all we need to do in Windows. Go ahead and turn off your computer. This next part is also very important.
Step 3: Booting off a CD
So in order for your computer to install that copy of Linux on CD, you need to tell the computer to boot off a CD at startup. By default, most computers boot directly off the hardrive, so you probably need to change that. So with that in mind, let's change that computer's boot sequence:
- Start your computer back up, and hit the key that brings up the setup screen right away. It's a little different for each computer, but the key on my Dell Inspiron 1525 is "F2".
- Once you’re in the setup, you should see an option for "Boot Sequence".
- Once there, use "shift" button and the up arrow key to bring the CD/DVD/CD-RW drive to the top of the list.
- Then, push "enter". Finally, push the "ESC" button and then "Save/Exit".
- Just shutdown your computer again after you've finished the previous step.
Not too bad so far right? Still with me? Just relax, the real "hard part" is coming up.
Step 4: Running the Linux Ubuntu Setup
Now, insert the CD into your computer, and you should see the Ubuntu load screen come up. Bear in mind that your computer is working entirely off the CD at this point, not your hardrive. There are no changes being made to your hardrive at this point. Also since the computer is running off the CD, it is going to be a bit slow. Just be patient... it'll work out.
Once it comes up, select the "install" option. If you want to, you can check to make sure your CD is a legitimate copy of Linux Ubuntu by checking for any errors. You could also run Ubuntu off the live CD too without installing it, but it'd be slow, and nothing would be saved after shutting down. So anyway, when your ready to install Ubuntu onto your computer select "install".
The install manager should come up, and it'll ask you some basic information like your language, location, time zone, etc. Just continue through that by clicking "forward" until you reach the Ubuntu Partitioner.
Ok these next steps are critical so PAY ATTENTION. You want to manually setup your partitions here, so select the "manual" option, ok? I don't recommend using "guided" because It'll setup everything for you, and when doing something as delicate as a dual boot with Vista, that's not a good thing. Just click "forward", and you'll see that free space you allocated earlier along with your other partitions . Alright, so now you'll setup your swap drive partition for Linux first. Here's how:
- Select "new partition"
- Now you'll setup your "swap drive". Your swap drive should be at least double the amount of RAM your computer has. My Dell laptop for example has 2GB of RAM, so I made my swap drive partition 4GB.
- Under "use as", select "swap drive".
- Click "ok". it won't do anything to your hardisk just yet, so don't worry.
Now take the remaining amount of free space and do the following:
- Select "new partition" again.
- Under "use as", select "ext3". This is the standard file system Linux uses.
- Next, set the mount as a forward slash (/). This indicates your root (it's the opposite in Linux compared to the Windows back slash (\)).
- Click "ok"
You’re now ready to proceed, so click "forward", and it'll now setup your partitions.
Step 5: Create Username and Password
You're past the hard part; nice job! It's all downhill from here; I assure you. It'll take a few minutes for it to setup the partitions. Once it's done, keep proceeding by clicking "forward" until it asks you to create your user name and password. Bear in mind Linux is case sensitive, and you have to have an all lower-case login name. Then, type a password and click "forward". It'll now install the operating system on your computer. This may take a little bit, so grab a cup of coffee or something.
Once it's done, click the "restart now" button, et voila you're D.O.N.E! Remove the CD when it pops out of the drive.
Now, whenever you boot your computer up, it'll go to the GRUB menu where you can select either the Ubuntu Kernel, or Windows Longhorn (which is Vista). Thus, you have now successfully setup a dual boot with Vista and Ubuntu Linux! Enjoy!
If for some reason you want to delete your Windows/Linux dual boot, see my Remove Dual Boot page.
