Want to run a Linux distro and WinXP on the same system

[hube235]

I've been checking around the Linux distros lately and many of them have caught my attention, (the beryl pluggin is especially useful looking). I was wondering, in an AMD AM2 system, if I dedicated one hard drive to one operating system and the other OS to another drive, will I be able to run them without problems if I assign whichever drive as boot drive?

For example, if I want to run WinXP, I'll boot from HDD A
for a linux distro, I set the boot priority to HDD B

Will that work?

 

[Fayd]

to my knowledge, xp will only boot from a specific drive in the group.

install xp first, to be sure.

then install linux. it will overwrite XP's default bootloader, and give you the option to boot either windows or linux.

 

[Red Squirrel]

If you just want to mess around, with both, at the same time, get VMware. You can have your production XP box running as well as a Linux box running, on the same physical machine. They'll both have their own IP and such too. This way you're not messing with your boot loader.

http://www.vmware.com/products/server/ And the price is great, its free. For more robust stuff you can get the workstation version which has more options but costs.

 

[timzak]

Why not unplug the XP drive, install Linux on the 2nd drive, plug XP drive back in, then use the motherboard boot manager. I guess it depends if your mobo has a boot manager. On mine you hit F11 when you turn the computer on and you get a menu with all drives (floppy, cd, hdds) and you select which you want to boot from. This way the linux boot loader doesn't touch your XP drive and you can still dual boot.

Fayd's method will also work fine. Just make sure you install XP first, then Linux. Linux bootloaders are more friendly/tolerant of other OSes than Windows is.

 

[BobDaMenkey]

I've got pretty much what you're wanting running in my system right now. I've got 3 HDDs, one with XP, one with Ubuntu, and a storage drive thats formatted as NTFS.

I just installed XP, then installed Linux. It set up a boot loader, that'll give you an option on which drive you'd like to boot into. Works like a charm for me.

 

[hube235]

Hmm, Thank you all for you input!!!

 

[hube235]

anyone else who would like to share their experience?

 

[TheRyuu]

I run Ubuntu off of VMWare.

Once you install VMWare Tools on it it really becomes easy.

I never really use Linux enough to warrant installing it on an extra drive (which I don't have ).
Only thing I really use Linux for is experimenting with it and compiling programs with GCC and other utilities that I just can't get to work on Windows (I know there's MinGW, but some times that doesn't cut it for me).

Sorry, but thats not exactly on different HD's.

 

[Nothinman]

I run Ubuntu off of VMWare.

Which won't let him play with Beryl until VMWare puts out a release with decent 3D support.

If he really doesn't care about Beryl and just wants to play with Ubuntu then VMWare is the best option by far, dualbooting sucks way too much.

 

[benjpw]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

I run Ubuntu off of VMWare.

Which won't let him play with Beryl until VMWare puts out a release with decent 3D support.

If he really doesn't care about Beryl and just wants to play with Ubuntu then VMWare is the best option by far, dualbooting sucks way too much.

Why does dualbooting suck?

 

[Nothinman]

Why does dualbooting suck?

Not least of all because you have to reboot to do things in the other OS so after a little bit you get tired of that and stick with the one you're most familiar with.

 

[IEC]

Originally posted by: Fayd
to my knowledge, xp will only boot from a specific drive in the group.

install xp first, to be sure.

then install linux. it will overwrite XP's default bootloader, and give you the option to boot either windows or linux.

Dual booting is fine.

You can do it by installing XP and then Ubuntu.

You can also do it by installing XP, unplugging the XP drive, installing Ubuntu, then using motherboard boot menu.

Lastly you can use VMWare to switch back and forth effortlessly

 

[Brazen]

In a shameless attempt at self-promotion, check this out: http://forums.anandtech.com/me...id=34&threadid=2073143

 

[donxvi]

I've got my old WinXP installation running in a virtual machine inside Ubuntu.
It's still installed on its hard drive and I've booted it natively once or twice while I was trying to get things going. Ubuntu was installed onto a separate hard drive. My mobo doesn't give me a startup boot menu option, but the two OS's boot loaders aren't aware of each other. I recall I had the WinXP drive unplugged during Ubuntu installation, and the mobo defaults to trying to boot that hard drive first. Overall, I'm pretty geeked up about it.
I followed the directions found here:
http://www.advicesource.org/ub...ith_Vmware_player.html

This guide was referenced over on ubuntuforums.org where I think I picked up some more tips. http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=380699

 

[porcorosso]

Just to add another alternative to the discussion --

http://wubi-installer.org/

I've actually tried this under WinXP and Vista. The Wubi installer will either automatically download Ubuntu and install it for you (best used with a solid, fast Internet connection) or it will work with a local copy of the .iso of one of the "generic" versions of Ubuntu. (NOTE: It will NOT work, yet, with the Live CD version of the OS.)

Wubi is installed like an application. Ubuntu goes on to a virtual disk on the Windows system, not on a separate partition. You wind up with a dual boot system, with the difference being that it uses the Windows boot loader, instead of GRUB, meaning an easier removal of Ubuntu if you decide to do that. (no changing back and forth between boot loaders / no loss of the boot loader if you repair the Windows MBR for some reason) The Ubuntu installation is able to get access files in the rest of the Windows file system.

Pretty cool idea. Worked like a charm on the two systems on which I tested it. Notice that Ubuntu does NOT run in emulation here. It is a true dual boot system, just without any repartitioning or changing of the boot loader. Also note that it is danged easy (like with a VM) to do a backup of the Ubuntu operating system that gets installed. You just copy a single file to the backup target.

They are also working on a method for converting the virtual disk installation of Ubuntu created by Wubi into a standard (on its own partitions) installation.

But, yeah, virtual machine installations can be pretty cool because they obviate the need for rebooting to switch between operating systems. But VMs also tend to impose a few restrictions on hardware availability (to whichever OS is running in the VM), and the do run a little to a lot slower, depending upon the hardware.