My wife has just got the above laptop and wants to install Ubuntu 11.10 on it, it already has Windows7 on it (YUK!) to make it a dual boot.
The problem is I don’t know what to do next. The screen has come up with some options;
*sda1 (ntfs) *sda2 (ntfs) *sda3 (ntfs) *sda4 (fat32)
208.7MB 231.1GB 18.6GB 108.2MB
Device Type Mount point Format? Size Used
/dev/sda
/dev/sda1 208.7MB 69MB
/dev/sda2 231116MB 41813MB
/dev/sda3 18623MB 15925MB
/dev/sda4 108MB 33MB
New Partition Table Add… Change… Delete Revert
Device for boot loader installation:
/dev/sda ATA ST925031AS (250.1GB)
/dev/sda1 Windows7 (loader)
/dev/sda2 Windows7 (loader)
/dev/sda3 Windows Recovery Enviroment (loader)
/dev/sda4
Quit Back Install Now
I dont know what to do next as I dont want to screw things up…
Any ideas??
Lets take a look at the partition table as it stands … boot to a LiveCD, open a terminal and run:
sudo fdisk -l
and post the output
and tell me what drives you can see in Windows and their sizes
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders, total 488397168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xc6d5f87e
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 2048 409599 203776 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2 409600 451809279 225699840 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3 451809280 488183807 18187264 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda4 488183808 488395119 105656 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$
OK, two things …
-
For a “proper” installation, you would need to create at least 1 partition, but your drive already contains the maximum number of primary partitions (4) … so you would need to loose 1 and create an extended partition, then create logical partitions inside it… can be done, but awkward.
-
How important is it that she has a “proper” installation ?
What I’m wondering is whether it would be better to do a WUBI installation … where Ubuntu installs “inside” Windows, and can be removed from the Windows Add/Remove control panel applet if she decides she doesn’t like it.
You also have to consider that a “proper” installation will entail resizing the partitions … and ANY partition manipulation carries a small risk of corruption (rare, but needs mentioning) … so on the off chance things went wrong, would you be in a position to re-install Windows7.
If not … a WUBI install would make more sense, as it doesn’t change the partitions at all.
Would an installation Windows have any affect on Ubuntu? would it slow it down at all?
Hmm … I can’t say for sure, I’ve never done a WUBI install … but technically though it is installed inside Windows it doesn’t actually run inside Windows … as I understand it, it installs to a virtual drive which is stored in a folder in Windows and adds itself to the Windows bootloader … so If you select Ubuntu at bootup Windows never gets loaded.
That said, as it’s running in a virtual drive, and the virtual drive is on an NTFS file system, there probably is a small overhead.
Downsides to a WUBI installation … from what I gather they cannot be dynamically resized so you are stuck with the amount of space you initially allocate for it.
They cannot be moved … ie. if you ever decide to go FULLY Linux, it will be lost when you remove the Windows partition.
Technically, though the contents of the virtual drive are running on a proper Linux file system and therefore are safe from viruses and malware … the virtual drive itself is still on an NTFS file system, so it’s possible that a virus/malware could corrupt it, though unlikely it could access it … if you get what I mean.
In other words … whilst running Ubuntu from the virtual drive, you would be safe from viruses/malware
When running Windows it is possible a virus/malware could corrupt the virtual drive … NOT access it though.
I’ve done a wubi install.
Hopefully Jenny will like will like it enough to scrap windows completely ;D
Then I’ll do a proper install…
And now I’ve had time to get a proper ‘hands-on’ with Windows 7 - I HATE EVEN MORE!
It’s so b***** difficult to find where stuff is in this version of Windows.
Actually as far as Windows goes (and granted that isn’t far), I quite like Windows7 compared to the others (XP/Vista/etc.).
