Manually Setup a Dual Boot with Ubuntu & Windows 7

This video is a response to some questions I have recently received concerning setting up a dual boot system.  I have covered this topic in two other videos/blog posts.  However, both of those videos approached this goal by two different methods as does this video.  Previously we setup our dual boot with 'Wubi' and by using the 'Side-by-Side Install' method.  But what happens if you are using an older Ubuntu Live CD or a different Linux Distro entirely?  Those options may not necessarily work for you.  In this case you'll need to manually setup the partitions and let Ubuntu install to a new, empty partition.  So how do we do this?

There are a few things you need to do first.  And these are good things to do even when setting up your dual boot via the ways we have already covered.
#1- Defrag your computer.
Why? Easy! When you use your computer on a daily basis files and data become fragmented.  This simply means that the data is becoming somewhat scattered across the free space of your hard drive.  This adversly effects your hard drive in that it may slow down read/write times of your drive in relation to your computing tasks and it can take up excess hard drive space.

By running a defrag on your hard drive, a lot of this fragmentation will be cleaned up.  So in short, even if you have no plans to dual boot; running a defrag every once in a while is still a good idea.

#2- You'll more than likely want to have Windows installed first. The installation of GRUB tends to play along better if it can see Windows first.

#3- If your Windows install isn't a freshly installed version, you will want to backup any important data on your Windows machine.  Just in case things go south or you accidentally format the wrong partition, etc.  Believe me, things like this can happen if you're not cautious during these installs.

If you're good to go with the precautions mentioned above, then follow along with the video:





Manually Setup an Ubuntu-Windows 7 Dual Boot

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How To Remove Our Ubuntu Wubi Install!

So if you followed along with our last video on how to use Wubi you'll know how easy it was to install our dual boot setup using Wubi.  But what would happen if down the road a few weeks or a couple of months you decide you need to reclaim the used hard drive space for other needs and wish to remove Ubuntu.  How hard is that to do?

If you have ever removed a traditional dual boot partition you'll remember that on occasion things don't always go as planned during the removal and you may end of with a bad MBR or no bootloader, etc.  The fix for this can be rather simple or you could end up with a non-booting system.  This is where Wubi shines, because this isn't the case with a Wubi install.

Should you decide to wipe your Ubuntu install (installed with Wubi) all you need to do is boot into Windows. Once in Windows, jump into the Control Panel and hit up the 'Add/Remove Programs' applet.  Find Ubuntu in the list of installed software and select to remove it.  After a short removal process, it will be gone.  Simple as that.

So be sure to watch the video below:

How To: Uninstall Ubuntu 11.10 with Wubi

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How to Install Ubuntu using Wubi!

In this video we will cover a quick and easy way to setup a dual boot system using the Wubi Installer. If you have never heard of the Wubi Installer, you may be wondering what it is.  Wubi is essentially a small application that grants the user the ability to start the Ubuntu install from with the Windows operating system. The magic doesn't stop there though.  At any point later, if you decide you want to wipe Ubuntu to reclaim the used hard drive space, or in attempt to wipe the drive and move solely into Linux from Windows, you can simply boot into Windows and remove the Ubuntu installation just as if it were a native Windows application from within the 'Add/Remove Programs' option in the Control Panel.

The Ubuntu installer has certainly gotten a lot better about keeping the 'confusion-factor' down for new user's when it comes to setting up a multi-operating system setup.  But Wubi takes just about all of the mystery out of it from the get go.  So be sure to checkout our video:

How To: Dual-Booting Ubuntu 11.10 with Wubi!

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Let's Dual Boot!

Our latest video has gone live and it covers the topic of setting up a Dual-Boot system.  We will cover what dual booting is and why it is handy for those who like to play around with other operating systems without wanting or having the ability to sacrifice your existing partitions, data, etc.

At one point in time, dual booting tended to be a rather daunting process and could easily overwhelm those new to the concept.  However, it has become so common place (especially among Linux user's) that the process has been somewhat streamlined and is not all that different from performing a clean install on a fresh hard drive.  In this video we will be using Ubuntu 11.10 to setup a dual-boot system with Windows 7.

So, with that said; checkout our latest video:



Dual-Booting Windows 7 and Ubuntu 11.10

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