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how to make a system dual boot

 
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i have a system with windows xp sp-2, and i need to install and uninstall linux number of times in my system, without reflecting to my windows xp, i mean my windows xp should not cause any error whie doing this, because i have my important data in my windows, so which distribution of linux i should prefer, and how to do installation for that as per my requirements??

again my windows has my important data so it should not damage...
 
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Punit Jain wrote:i have a system with windows xp sp-2, and i need to install and uninstall linux number of times in my system, without reflecting to my windows xp, i mean my windows xp should not cause any error whie doing this, because i have my important data in my windows, so which distribution of linux i should prefer, and how to do installation for that as per my requirements??

again my windows has my important data so it should not damage...


If you really need to install and uninstall Linux number of times (I don't know why), then best approach is to use virtual machine. If anyway this is not possible and/or you want to do an installation on separate partition, then it can be done easily nowadays.

There are user friendly distros like Mint/Ubuntu etc. No matter which distro you chose, the safest thing is choose custom layout while partitioning. Never, ever use options like automatic, or use entire disk etc.

Secondly (rather it should be the first one), create a partition via windows first and make sure that no data exists on that partition so that you can safely install Linux on it.

You'll get plenty of step by step information regarding this (along with screenshots and all) on the internet.

However, the very first thing I would do is - take backup of all data on external disk. You never know what can go wrong At least I've never faced any issues during partitioning and never lost data, but still I will better be safe than sorry

I hope this helps.
 
Punit Jain
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thanks for your reply, actually i also think for ubuntu, because it's a desktop edition..
but again is there any possibilities to lost my widows if i install ubuntu, whereas my windows is already installed.
i mean is it matters that which os is already installed and which we are going to install to make the system dual boot..

because may of times it happens with me, when i installed windows7 over xp, both works good, but when i install xp over windows7, i always lost my xp..
 
Anayonkar Shivalkar
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Punit Jain wrote:because may of times it happens with me, when i installed windows7 over xp, both works good, but when i install xp over windows7, i always lost my xp..


Well, dual booting Windows and Linux is altogether different than dual booting two versions of Windows.

Installing Windows 7 over Windows XP obviously should not create any issues, but I'm not sure if you can install Windows XP over Windows 7. Personally I very rarely use any version of Windows at my home (less than 1% of the times) . Currently I'm using Windows 7 Home Premium + Linux Mint Debian Edition (dual booted).

Also, installing Windows over Linux is another tricky thing. There, you have to be sure that you know what you are doing (bootloader options etc.).

Similarly, when you want to remove Linux from Windows + Linux dual boot machine, you also need to reinstall bootloader for Windows.

I hope this helps.
 
Punit Jain
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so probably i can install ubuntu on windows, but if i uninstall ubuntu from my dual boot system, i need to again re-install my windows bootloader, isn't it???
if yes than how do i do this??
i mean how i re-install windows boot loader..?
 
Anayonkar Shivalkar
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Well, generally this is what I do:
1) Take backup of everything from Linux partition to another partition/drive
2) Boot in Windows. Go to disk manager and delete the Linux partition. Create new partition there and format with NTFS.
3) Reboot machine. This time, you'll have to boot via dvd (Windows XP or 7) and chose corresponding options like repair etc. and give respective commands.
Windows XP - fixboot, fixmbr
Windows 7 - bootrec /fixboot, bootrec /fixmbr

Please make sure that all your data is backed up properly before doing such stuff. Also, go through some online tutorials about how to do this.

I don't remember those exact steps now, for it's been a long time since I uninstalled Linux

I hope this helps.
 
Punit Jain
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okay..thanks...
 
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Punit Jain wrote:but again is there any possibilities to lost my widows if i install ubuntu, whereas my windows is already installed.


Normally, if you're careful while installing Linux to not delete your Windows partition, it shouldn't be a problem.

But I'll repeat what Anayonkar has already said two times:

Anayonkar Shivalkar wrote:However, the very first thing I would do is - take backup of all data on external disk. You never know what can go wrong At least I've never faced any issues during partitioning and never lost data, but still I will better be safe than sorry


Anayonkar Shivalkar wrote:Please make sure that all your data is backed up properly before doing such stuff.


 
Punit Jain
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Normally, if you're careful while installing Linux to not delete your Windows partition, it shouldn't be a problem



okay..thank you...
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