Recovery Discs Same as Clean Install ?

[guitarfiend]

I've been wanting to do this thing that I've heard about on this site for some time now,called a "clean install". I've heard though,that the recovery discs that you make yourself when you get a new pc are not the same thing as a clean install.I've also been wanting to start to dual boot WIN 7 with Xubuntu.But,now,I've also read that Win 7 (Home Premium) does not play well with dual booting.

AND.....I also can't figure out how to do this md5sum thing to check the Xubuntu disc that I made because Windows is not accepting the commands that I'm being told to enter into the command line terminal.Any advice would be immensely appreciated,folks.I'll check back later for answers.Again,thank you.

 

[AddRAM]

You are correct.

Using Recovery Discs and a clean install are not the same thing.

Using Recovery discs will put it back to the factory state, if the pc was made by Dell, HP etc

On the other hand someone can do a clean install and make recovery discs too, depends on your situation.

No need to dual boot, just run Xubuntu off a flash drive, believe me, you won`t use it that often.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Dual booting usually isn't a big deal but with Linux if there is a 100mb system reserved will be an issue but this is the same for any version of windows not spastic to home premium

You could also have a factory system restore partition as well which might also be an issue,

Clean install would hopefully get rid of both if done properly and all you would have is the C drive with windows on it,
You might have better luck dual booting Linux because it can take control of the boot loader

Is it a good idea not really you'd be better off using Linux on a usb as said or in a virtual machine with VMWare....
Mostly because of the linux grub to take control of the boot loader.
That I know of that is not easily removed and salvage the windows install.

The third safest way to dual boot linux is installing it on it's own hdd/ sdd with no other drives connected
Use each separately but it is a little tough to do that on a laptop so usb or vm is the best way