THINGS YOU MUST KNOW WHILE INSTALLING UBUNTU AS A DUAL-BOOT SETUP

Installing as a dual-boot setup

       If you are already using Windows, chances are high that you won't take a plunging leap by removing it and installing Ubuntu on your machine. You want to have the best of both worlds and will finally shift to Ubuntu only when you are satisfied that it will fit your needs. Till that day you'd use Windows and try out Ubuntu only for a change.

       Any operating system requires a separate partition to be installed. This is the case because it might need files with the same name and path, and also because file systems might vary for different operating systems. While Ubuntu can read and write on Windows file systems (FAT32/ NTFS), it can't be installed on partitions formatted with any one of them. It's important that Ubuntu receives its own partition.

To partition or not to partition ?

   There's something unique about Ubuntu. While it's mandatory for any OS have its own separate installation partition, Ubuntu can be installed as an application over Windows. Thanks to the brilliant Wubi and sister teams at Ubuntu who hard to create Wubi, the Windows installer for Ubuntu. With Wubi, you can install Ubuntu onto the current Windows installation just as another software application. It will bring Ubuntu into the Windows OS selection menu and you can boot into Ubuntu right from there. Easy and intuitive, isn't it?

    However, there are a few problems with such a Wubi installation, which you should be aware of. Ubuntu installed via Wubi:

• Doesn't start if Windows didn't shut down properly od if its installation volume wasn't clean upon a system reboot.
• Will suffer disk performance, more so when the installation file gets fragmented.
• Put you at the risk of a broken installation thanks to updates and corrupting the Windows bootloader at times (this is the most dangerous one).
• Prevents you from hibernating your machine.

    Apart from these small problems, installing Ubuntu using Wubi is great as it allows you to test it on your real machine without problems and also allows you to remove it just like any other program. No hassles of partitioning, resetting the bootloaders etc. In case you want to remove Ubuntu some days later, just head to the control panel and uninstall Ubuntu. Now that's what we call 'easy'.

    However, if you don't want to face the problems mentioned above and still want to utilize and enjoy the experience Ubuntu promises you, partitioning is required. Don't fear, however, because it's  not very difficult to do so. All you have to know are a few basic facts about Linux partitions.

What partitions to make

   Before we get into details, let's talk about partitions required first. Linux, unlike Windows, can utilize more than one partitions to spread its contents and load. Although this is not mandatory, it allows you to extract better performance from the machine. The absolute requirement is the root partition which is denoted by ' / ' characters. All files on any other partition are made to reside within this partition alone. While Windows can allow you to have more than one 'drive' , Linux will give you the same functionality by putting the partition in different folders used as 'mount point' for those partitions (or volumes).
  Aside from the / partition, Linux will also strongly recommend creating a swap partition which does the same work as that done by the Windows pagefile.sys C: drive. It allows the OS to run programs whose memory requirements exceed the available amount of RAM. While there is a way to use the Windows method (use a file instead of a partition for paging), it is recommended to use a separate partition for the swap. It's possible to make other partitions like /var (for storing files which change frequently), /boot (boot files like kernel, ramdisk image, boot menu files etc), /usr (for installing most programs; it's similar to the program files folder for Windows) and any other to make the Windows partitions (NTFS partitions) available under Linux. However they are neither mandatory nor strongly recommended. we will show you the Ubuntu installation alongside Windows (using Windows 7 as example on my next blog) with creation of root ( / )partition and a swap partition.

Ok then time is ticking, so will tell you the "Installation steps for a dual boot setup" on my next blog.. Thanks for reading, keep supporting....