Multibooting/Partitions

[FreakOfNature]

So, as you can tell from the title, I have Windows 7 OEM. If it wasn't for Maya and game compatibility, I probably would be using straight Ubuntu. Since I only have one try to install Windows, I want to make sure I know exactly what to do. First of all, which do I install first? Does it matter? Do I have to create the partitions for both when I install the first one?

Basically what I'm going for is a W7 partition used almost solely for Maya (a little gaming too) and a Linux partition for literally everything else. This is my first build so although I've poked around and theoretically have an idea what I'm doing, I'm still not sure about the exact steps.

Oh, and one last thing, where should I go to see if my parts are compatible with Ubuntu?

 

[John_VanKirk]

Hi there, and congrats on taking the big leap and building your own!

Sounds like you want to dual boot Windows 7 and Linux. Fair enough. Check to make sure all your hardware components are compatable with win-7, and if so, they will all work with Ubuntu.

Set your BIOS up to boot from the DVD first, and install Windows-7 first. Choose the Custom (Advanced), add name, timezone, keyboard, language, then on the Windows Install dialog box, if there are any partitions on the disk, choose delete, until all is unallocated space, then create a partition for Win-7 the size you want, leaving the remaining unallocated (for Ubuntu, or to divide later for Ubuntu, documents, whatever). Go ahead and install Win-7. Takes a couple reboots.

When done, check in Disk Management and you should have a 100MB hidden MS reserved partition, your boot OS partition of xxGB, and unallocated space for Linux.

The Official Ubuntu book 6th Ed just came out ($25) which has 3 versions of Ubuntu 11.04, the latest version, on the DVD. When you use the DVD (or ISO download) to install Ubuntu in the second partition, it will recognize the Windows install, and along with installation will set up the boot manager so you have a boot menu choice of which to load.

Should be fairly straight forward. With your OEM version, if you make a mistake on installation, you can start over, returning to all Unallocated space. No problem. You just don't get any support from 'big brother' with that choice.

 

[FreakOfNature]

Best answer selected by FreakOfNature.