Ever want to try out linux but want to make sure you have windows also just incase you get frusterated? Well we are here to help you!

Advantages

• See what they hype about linux is about.
• Be able to run both windows and linux programs!
• Windows will probably run smoother after a fresh install. It has a tendency to slow down after awhile.

What You Need

• Windows Installation CD (sorry we dont have a link for ya)
• Ubuntu CD (its free! Just download and burn it!)

Steps

1. Backup any data you will want to keep(we will be erasing everything!)
2. You may want to download all the drivers for your computer incase windows fails to recognize them on a reinstall. Go to support.’manufacturer here’.com so for dell you go to support.dell.com. If you need help let us know what computer you have over in the forums.
3. Insert your Windows CD and reboot your computer.
4. Hopefully your computer will boot off the CD if not look at your computer during its boot up and look for the boot menu option.
5. When it asks you to press any key, press a key.
6. If it prompts you for an option to repair, don’t do this(i think the key is escape, the bar at the bottem of the screen tells you the options.)
7. Now you should see a screen similiar to this:
8. For each option other then “unpartitioned space” choose Delete(D), Continue(Enter), and then Delete(L)
9. Now you should be left with just unpartitioned space choose Create(C)
10. It will now tell you how many megabytes your hard disk is, you can choose anything you want as long is its greater then 5000, however i recommend you only use about 1/3rd. Mine is 31997 so I am going to use 10,000. Hit enter once your done.



11. Now you should only be left with “unpartitioned space”.



12. Choose Install(enter) and choose Format the partition using NTFS File System (Quick) and press enter.
13. When your computer reboots do NOT press a key to boot from a cd if it prompts you too.
14. The windows installation will ask you for a few basic things
15. Once XP Is done installing lets insert your ubuntu disc and reboot.
16. If you had to go into your boot menu to boot from a cd you will have to do it again.
17. Now click Install
18. Now just go through the simple menus hitting forward until you get to the the fourth menu “Prepare Disk Space”
19. Choose Manual
20. Click on Free space and then go to new partition, for the size enter what you want. We recommend you use another 1/3 of your space.
21. For the mont point type /



22. Now click on Free Space agan and use 1000 for the size, and where it says “Use As” choose swap



23. Your partition table should look as follow:



24. Now you can click forward, give it any information it will ask and after a screen or two it will start installing!
25. You can click around during the install and you will even find firefox to browse the web if you are bored!
26. After the install it will ask for a reboot, just choose reboot and take the cd out when your computer boots up it will give you a choice to boot into Ubuntu or Windows!

If you followed our guidelines you still have a third of your hard disk not used. Please stay tuned and we will show you how you can turn that into a place where you can put both your important windows files and ubuntu files incase either OS should crash on you. This makes recovering much easier.

Anyways now that you have linux installed! If you feel lost we are dedicating this week to doing things in linux! But you can always ask us in the forums if you want a quick answer.

Random Posts

• Create your own Noise Cancelling Headphones!
• Get Great Deals!

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 9th, 2007 at 12:00 AM and is filed under Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.