Dual Boot Windows 7 and Ubuntu

First iyou have to learn how to install it correctly to avoid seeing Grub(mandatory part of installation) be installed to the flash drive directly. You can partition and format the flash drive either during or before the actual install in case you plan to use a larger portion for data recovery or see a swap partition.

Once you have any Linux distro like ubuntu installed the drive will unavailable in Windows when plugged since Windows will automatically want to reformat the flash drive. Generally the distro will run as normal as if you had installed it on an internal drive as far as detecting all hardwares and connecting through a Lan or nic card without issue.

For a usb connection you may have a problem there however since a Linux equivalent driver may be required. The particular release number of ubuntu didn't make much of a difference however as far as going on and running. The problem I ran into was with the old dsl usb adapter nightmare for both the 64bit Windows and never getting any distro online until changing ISPs entirely. The long outdated RJ-11 dsl to usb went "out the door"! while the updated XFinity came in!

The Zorin OS 6.1 was just looked over recently is also a ubuntu LTS type release to consider as well as another like Puppy Linux for anything 16gb or smaller to be a via install. http://ostatic.com/blog/is-zorin-os-...er-than-ubuntu

For the larger more feature packed and Debian based form of Linux Mint a 32gb flash drive still saw a 4gb root without any swap partition note and a large NTFS data recovery partition. The prepackaged options to install some 200 apps made that a choice for seeing the entire flash drive that size turned into a Linux stick.

For you a 1gb swap with the rest set up for the root for the 12 or 16gb flash drive would work out easily for ubuntu there. Just follow the warnings in the guide about how the Grub install needs to be pointed at the flash drive however if not unplugging your main drive.

Hello Dark Nova am looking to do this on a 120GB SSD in one of my laptops for researching Ubuntu now if I want to install software either from Ubuntu or from the net what would you suggest as a useful size partition on the SSD - half to a quarter as I am not real sure of how much I shall see to put onto the Ubuntu partition?

Having said that I suppose I can increase the Ubuntu partition size with Partition Wizard in a Windows boot or can I?

John

I custom installed ubuntu 11.04 originally and later a few newer releases on 4gb and 16gb flash drives without any complex issues since that's a relatively small distro compared to others. The server distros tend to chew up more drive space then your typical live to install type smaller desktop flavors.

For seeing a small to medium install on your 120gb SSD a small 15gb - 20gb root partition(main file system) should provide you adequate play space for adding on Linux apps as you go along. That would also allow you to add a small swap partition while not actually needed in most cases.

Night Hawk said:

I custom installed ubuntu 11.04 originally and later a few newer releases on 4gb and 16gb flash drives without any complex issues since that's a relatively small distro compared to others. The server distros tend to chew up more drive space then your typical live to install type smaller desktop flavors.

For seeing a small to medium install on your 120gb SSD a small 15gb - 20gb root partition(main file system) should provide you adequate play space for adding on Linux apps as you go along. That would also allow you to add a small swap partition while not actually needed in most cases.

Thanks Night Hawk I'll just make up a say 30GB partition for the Ubuntu as the machine is only for testing anyway. :)

That would suffix! You really don't want one too big if you are not loading a ton of things since ubuntu is relatively small to start with but not the smallest distro at the same time. You'll generally find a Windows volume will fill up much faster over time and why you would want to leave more drive space for that.

Night Hawk said:

That would suffix! You really don't want one too big if you are not loading a ton of things since ubuntu is relatively small to start with but not the smallest distro at the same time. You'll generally find a Windows volume will fill up much faster over time and why you would want to leave more drive space for that.

Ok amte I might just downgrade that to say 20GB or even 15GB as I don't intend using it on a regular basis just that I am working on a little project now that involves Ubuntu and am wondering just what I can do with it in emergency situations like a Windows crash / non boot.

You can always run ubuntu on a VM as well as looking over other distros as well. When you have any concern about splitting up a drive this allows a preview of another OS before proceeding.

One thing I found was a dislike for the Wubi and found ubuntu could be added into the 7 BCD using EasyBCD and the NeoGrub options. This works out well when seeing ubuntu installed on a separate drive however and then making sure to check off the "Grub isn't installed in boot sector" box to prevent the 7 mbr from being overwritten when dual booting across separate drives.

When custom installing distros, ubuntu first tried, Linux Mint, Linux Mint Debian presently, and other like Puppy Linux to flash drives the Grub installer always seems to pick up on the host drive's 7 and adds an entry seen when booting live from the data recovery stick being made up. There you may see Grub takeover if not using the Wubi option.

VM now this is getting me all confused I'll have to look that one up. Have seen it mentioned bt haven't really taken much notice of it. Will get here in the end I guess:)

John, if you want a challenge, try this:
Dual Boot - Windows 7 and Linux

Golden said:

John, if you want a challenge, try this:
Dual Boot - Windows 7 and Linux

Ok mate I will as soon a I get done with a little project I am on - plus staff shortages at work (hospital) isn't helping much as I am getting a load of broken rosters including flipping nights and time wise it's real confusing.

I have a Linux Mint I made a fair while ago now but I guess making an up to date one wouldn't hurt eh?