Installing Linux

[Azzah44100]

Hey guys, I have been looking into installing linux on my laptop. i was just wondering if its worth doing a dual boot or is it better to just do a fresh install ? if i back up my copy of windows (currently on the laptop) and then uninstall it is it possible to recover it if i screw up ?

Ifg anyone can help/ link a tutorial to something like that, that would be great.

[martward]

Personally I'd dual boot if I were you, since there are things you just can't do or are unnecessarily hard to do on Linux. I'd still reccomend to do a complete backup, since you can still screw up with dual booting. If you have an extra drive lying around I would recommend just cloning your current drive, so you can clone it back if you screw up. 

What linux distribution are you considering?

 

@Azzah44100 please follow you own topic

[Azzah44100]

Personally I'd dual boot if I were you, since there are things you just can't do or are unnecessarily hard to do on Linux. I'd still reccomend to do a complete backup, since you can still screw up with dual booting. If you have an extra drive lying around I would recommend just cloning your current drive, so you can clone it back if you screw up. 

What linux distribution are you considering?

 

I was thinking just to start out simple with ubunto? just simple tasks i dont plan to do anything major maybe a bit of coding and word proccessing for school, Can you recomend any ?

 

 

I have an External HDD will that work?

[BrettMW]

I was thinking just to start out simple with ubunto? just simple tasks i dont plan to do anything major maybe a bit of coding and word proccessing for school, Can you recomend any ?

 

 

I have an External HDD will that work?

 

Ubuntu is good, but I recommend Xubuntu. Essentially the same thing but comes with a much better desktop environment.

 

You could install Linux onto an external HDD. It runs fine off an External HDD (perhaps a bit slower) - I've done this a lot. Just boot from a live USB flash drive and install it onto the external HDD (remember to set the bootloader to install on the external HDD!!)

[martward]

I was thinking just to start out simple with ubunto? just simple tasks i dont plan to do anything major maybe a bit of coding and word proccessing for school, Can you recomend any ?

 

 

I have an External HDD will that work?

I personally use Mint OS, because I like the UI better (looks a little like an older windows version) but I have used Ubuntu as well and it's a great OS. Just google them both and see which you find the most pretty .

 

I always have an extra (empty) HDD lying around, so I can make a clone of my internal drive to this drive. So basically I could break it open, get the drive from the external drive and put it in my PC and I would have my entire windows install or I can clone it back to my internal drive in case something goes wrong. You can also use an external HDD or just partition you internal drive (though if something goes wrong you might lose all data on the drive). If you are not lazy like me you can just move your important files to the external HDD and re-install windows if somehow things go very bad. So basically your options:

 

- Partition internal drive and backup important files

- Partition internal drive after cloning it to an empty (external) HDD

- Install Linux on an external HDD

[Azzah44100]

I personally use Mint OS, because I like the UI better (looks a little like an older windows version) but I have used Ubuntu as well and it's a great OS. Just google them both and see which you find the most pretty .

 

I always have an extra (empty) HDD lying around, so I can make a clone of my internal drive to this drive. So basically I could break it open, get the drive from the external drive and put it in my PC and I would have my entire windows install or I can clone it back to my internal drive in case something goes wrong. You can also use an external HDD or just partition you internal drive (though if something goes wrong you might lose all data on the drive). If you are not lazy like me you can just move your important files to the external HDD and re-install windows if somehow things go very bad. So basically your options:

 

- Partition internal drive and backup important files

- Partition internal drive after cloning it to an empty (external) HDD

- Install Linux on an external HDD

Okay this is what i am going to do, i found a 250gb slim Hdd that will hopefully fit in my laptop, so what i will do is take the files that i need (school related and such) off the drive thats in there at the moment and then using my desktop put the .iso file for linux on the new driver before i install it into the laptop?

Will that work?

[Pinguin]

Copying the ISO on a harddrive won't do you any good. You have to create a bootable USB drive or burn it to a DVD.

[Azzah44100]

Copying the ISO on a harddrive won't do you any good. You have to create a bootable USB drive or burn it to a DVD.

Haha yep figured that out now

as my Laptop doesnt have a disk drive ill use a USB