Dual Boot?

[Hawk]

I have a version of Linux Mint installed on an old lappie along with XP Pro. It is set up as a dual boot with XP on one partition & Linux on the other. It is working well at present the way it is but I am wondering if I am doing it correctly?

 

I am a "Noobie" as far as Linux is concerned but I am trying to learn as I go.

 

Is there something I should know about a dual boot system that I am doing incorrectly. For example, should I just have Linux Mint without XP? If I did that, I would need to have to boot from Linux instead of XP if that is possible.

 

To get to the point, how should I set up Linux on this puter? It only has a small HDD ( Less than 40 gigs) so I don't have a lot of room to work with.

 

Your input would be appreciated.

 

Regards,

 

Hawk

[terry1966]

not really sure what your asking here hawk.

 

if you have both xp and linux on the pc and get the option to choose to boot into both on start up and use them, then yes you have done everything correctly, it's really that simple.

 

with just a 40GB hd i'd probably not worry about having a separate home partition for linux, like i normally always use.

 

i'd partition it like this.

 

20Gb for xp

1GB for swap

19GB for mint.

 

install xp first followed by mint, make sure boot loader is set to be installed and boot from root partition, that way you won't change anything to do with the mbr of the hard drive so when / if you delete the linux install your windows os will carry on booting and working as normal.

 

there really isn't any "proper" way to install linux or partition your drives, just as long as it all works when your finished.

 

minimum partitions i'd usually use with a slightly bigger hard drive than yours would be.

 

swap :- used for memory

root :- os partition

home :- data partition.

 

but others create more partitions during their install's things like

 

boot

tmp

usr

var

 

but to be honest you won't go wrong with using just swap,root and home partitions. the biggest benefit with splitting the root and home is that when you upgrade your os to a newer version, different distro you will not lose any of your data which is stored on the home partition.

 

hope that answered what you wanted to know.

 

[Hawk]

 

 

if you have both xp and linux on the pc and get the option to choose to boot into both on start up and use them, then yes you have done everything correctly, it's really that simple.

 

 

Thanks terry. That is the way I have it configured & it works great. I wasn't sure if I was doing it right. The other info you provided is also very helpful but it is working well the way I have it set up at present so as the old adage states "If it ain't broke, don't fix it".

 

Thanks for your help terry,

 

Regards,

 

Hawk

[terry1966]

 

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it"

simple rule, and even i'm guilty of breaking it, but that really is the plain and simple truth.

 

if it's working then just use and enjoy it.

 

[iamgeorgeareu]

if it's working then just use and enjoy it.

Hogwash...you will never learn anything that way! Break it and then fix it. Repeat that a dozen or so times and you will be amazed at how much you have learned.

[Hawk]

Hogwash...you will never learn anything that way!

 

Break it and then fix it. Repeat that a dozen or so times and you will be amazed at how much you have learned.

 

 

Been there....did that...more than once! Have you?????

 

Regards,

 

Hawk

[duanester]

That Ubuntu/Mint OS is pretty automated, Simply run the cd, It'll ask how much space you want to use,Then simply move a slider.

 

 

Obviously you know how much space to sacrifice from Win os?

 

skip to 3 minutes, Also imagine it's xp and not Win 7.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLdqNVusyIo

[Hawk]

Also imagine it's xp and not Win 7.

 

 

 

Yup...XP Pro.

 

Regards,

 

Hawk

[nigsy]

Hogwash...you will never learn anything that way!Break it and then fix it. Repeat that a dozen or so times and you will be amazed at how much you have learned.

 

[Hawk]

Very helpful nigsy.

 

Regards,

 

Hawk

[Bruce]

While I can say I learned most of what I know about Linux from tinkering with it, I can honestly say I have never been able to really "break it"

 

When I first started using it many times I thought I had broken it. I didn't take long for me to know that it is damn near unbreakable when used the way an operating system should be used. That said unless you do something silly like wipe out the whole of the / directory then you really can't "break it". Now you can indeed break individual software applications but even usually that isn't broken but simply bad settings in a users home directory. Or bad configuration files but those are usually limited to services and not simple applications.

Edited November 1, 2013 by Bruce

[Hawk]

Thanks Bruce....I consider your post helpful as the ones by terry & duanester. I am a "Nooby" with Linux but I intend to learn. It is helpful to know that it is virtually unbreakable.

 

Regards,

 

Hawk

[terry1966]

unbreakable as in you can always fix the problem you usually caused in the first place but sometimes it's just easier and faster to do a re-install and start over than actually find the fix.

 

done that lots of times, broke something then just did a re-install only because it was faster and not because it was unfixable, especially when i first started using linux for more than just the basics like browsing.

 

[Hawk]

 

 

done that lots of times, broke something then just did a re-install only because it was faster and not because it was unfixable, especially when i first started using linux for more than just the basics like browsing.

 

 

 

 

You read my mind terry. It is a wet dirty day here & I think I will do just that for something to do. I'm going to format the lappie & put XP back on, see if my backup works the way it should & then put Mint back on. May have to do some work arounds...not sure yet...time will tell.

 

Regards,

 

Hawk