Help with installing Linux

[thenetheremperor]

I want to install Ubuntu onto my PC. But, I need Windows for gaming and my boot SSD is almost full. I want to put Ubuntu on a partition on my D: drive, where my documents are stored. Can I make a 250GB partition on it, install Ubuntu there, have my PC boot automatically to Windows unless I press the "Boot Options" button to choose my D: drive? I want to ask here first so that I don't accidentally delete the data on my D: drive

[Matty2hatty]

You can dual boot on 1 drive, not sure about between 2.

[thenetheremperor]

Just now, Matty2hatty said:

You can dual boot on 1 drive, not sure about between 2.

I don't want to use GRUB etc. I just want my PC to boot to Windows unless I press F2 to change to the D: drive.

[MrHSX]

I have tried dual booting on two separate drive with Windows installs on both drives. I don't see any obvious reasons the Ubuntu dual boot not working...

[thenetheremperor]

Just now, MrHSX said:

I have tried dual booting on two separate drive with Windows installs on both drives. I don't see any obvious reasons the Ubuntu not working...

Ok thanks, I'll try it later

[XDroidie626]

Just now, Matty2hatty said:

You can dual boot on 1 drive, not sure about between 2.

you can easily

To dual boot you must first install windows, if its on two seperate drives then just remove the second drive before doing this.

If you wish to put both OS on 1 drive you have two options, 1 is to use Wubi which is an .exe that installs ubuntu, this method affects performance on Ubuntu though.

If your going to run it correctly with an .iso file, you need to partition Windows correctly so you still have space left on your drive.

For dual drive configs, install Windows to drive A, but remove drive B.

When Windows has installed, remove drive A and reinsert drive B, then install ubuntu, when you have installed both reinsert both drives.

Once this is done GRUB should detect both OS.

[Half-Shot]

You will have to use GRUB but you can make GRUB default to Windows.

 

It's a pretty simple process of installing Ubuntu and making sure to select the larger drive.

 

On a personal note, if you want to try to use Ubuntu for your non-gaming things, you'll find it easier to make Ubuntu the default and only boot Windows when you want to do some gaming. Otherwise you fall into the trap of basically installing it and almost never using it because you'll have all your work on Windows.

[thenetheremperor]

23 hours ago, Half-Shot said:

You will have to use GRUB but you can make GRUB default to Windows.

 

It's a pretty simple process of installing Ubuntu and making sure to select the larger drive.

 

On a personal note, if you want to try to use Ubuntu for your non-gaming things, you'll find it easier to make Ubuntu the default and only boot Windows when you want to do some gaming. Otherwise you fall into the trap of basically installing it and almost never using it because you'll have all your work on Windows.

Ok, thanks! I had two OS on one drive on my old PC and had it default to Windows, and didn't fall into the trap of "forgetting Ubuntu is there". Anyway, there's some Linux only programs which I need, so I'll have to use Ubuntu anyway.

[Zvon]

You could disconnect your SSD and then install Ubuntu on your HDD. This will result in GRUB not seeing Windows anywhere, so it will not overwrite the bootmanager on your SSD and it will only be used to boot into Ubuntu. Then when you reconnect your SSD you will go to BIOS and both drives should be bootable so you will just have to set your SSD as your primary boot device and you're done. Then when you'll want to boot into Ubuntu you will just have to press F2 (or whatever key you use to access boot menu) and select the HDD that you've installed Ubuntu on.

[FKC2004]

Just Use GRUB and tell it to boot to Windows by Default

[VicBar]

You should be able to install separately and boot acording to the Boot Options of the bios you prompt on boot, on one Drive you'll have the MBR and boot windows normally (C: I assume) and on the other (D:) You'd have a GRUB with only Ubuntu installed.

 

Although maybe a whole other configuration may be worth looking into. Depends of course on what you may need ubuntu for and how much you'll use it, but Having a ubuntu Virtual Machine may be a very good option. VMs are not so hard to run as they were before and ubuntu can be a very lightweight OS to run so It shouldn't tax the hardware too much.

The only restriction I can think of is if your CPU does not support Virtualization (few don't now a days). And maybe less than 1 GB of RAM to spare can be to little for a VM (again depending on what you use ubuntu for).

You can install a different Desktop Enviornment like Xfce or LXDE which are very lightweight (especially compared to the default ubuntu Unity), for a easy going Ubuntu VM envoirnment.

This way you don't have to spread you boot options across drives and get messy partition tables or boot sequences.