Dual boot Linux

d31b0y

Finally gonna dual boot Linux over the weekend. Here's what I want to do.

Currently have a 256GB SSD and a 750GB HDD. Windows on the SSD and the HDD used for storage.

If I wanted to move windows to the HDD would it just be a case of partition the HDD and clone the SSD over? There is plenty of free space for it. Will there be much messing with the MBR if I set the partition as the first drive? If I do that, will I have much trouble dual booting with Linux solely on the SSD?

I can't foresee any problems but any body with experience of something similar, let me know what kind of obstacles you hit.

Hopefully the hardest part will be selecting the flavour

Cheers!

Stuxnet

well I'd suggest you leave your setup as it is...windows OS on ssd and files etc on hdd...thats a wise setup.

And you can do the exact same thing for linux,

What Id do is create 2 more partitions on the SSD, you can easily do this in windows start>computer management >disk management right click c: and shrink

you want a 9 or 10 gb partition for the linux os
and a partition for "swap" usually double your ram size, up to a max of 4gb....but this partition isn't entirely necessary personal choice.

Then create a partition on the hdd for your /home linux partition, this is where all your files and what not get stored

You can prepare all these partitions before you even start to install linux, and then when at the installer, select the manual option to see all your system discs and partitions and format them to ext 4, and mount the 10gb partition as "/" this tells the installer the os goes here, select your swap partition as "swap" from the drop down menu, and finally select the other partition you created on the hdd and select its mount point as "/home"

finally mbr will get over written by grub menu if you leave the bootloader location to default, but this is fine, it'll pick up windows and add it to the boot menu....

hope that makes some sense

d31b0y

I have 16GB RAM so I think I might be ok for the SWAP partition (SWAP only gets used when it's running low on RAM right?). Good idea in leaving the Windows OS on the SSD though. I don't know why I wanted to move it. I guess I was thinking different OS on different drives but when its solid state, it doesn't really make a difference. I'll just trim down the install. Move any non-critical applications to the other HDD.

I'd forgotten GRUB does a nice job of overwriting the MBR. It's the other way around that is a pain in the ass.

Thanks for the input

Now the question is:

Ubuntu
Cent OS
Mint

I have Debian installed on my "server" and I've been using CentOS on a VM for a while. I haven't used Mint before but that's based on Ubuntu right?

Would I get more enjoyment out of installing something that I have rarely or never used before? Like Fedora? I like a challenge, but I also like to be able to get something to actually work
I guess it comes down to driver availability in the end.

Johnboy1951

You might consider making space on the HDD and not the SSD for Linux.
You could then write Grub to the MBR of the HDD, leaving Windows in control of the SSD.
Select which drive to boot by pressing the required key at boot .... often F12, F10, Del etc .... depending on motherboard.

I would advise against a Swap on the SSD.
If you think you need a Swap partition, regardless of setup, then put it on the HDD.

With each OS on different drives it is unlikely you will meet a situation where you cannot boot into one of them.

For personal use OS I suggest looking at
Mint
PCLinuxOS
Mepis

Stuxnet

depends what you want to do,
I find ubuntu quite bloated these days, it will run fine and well, but I think for me, when I dont really use it as a home desktop, it has alot of stuff I dont want.

Mint is an excellent distro based on ubuntu, for me, a bare bones netinstall of fedora does the trick