Dual Boot Advice

Hiya

Getting ready to do a dual install of Windows XP and Ubuntu on a new blank drive. As near as I can figure....I install XP first using as much space as I want to give it (half the drive). Then afterward, I install Ubuntu on the remaining half. Seems simple enough. But which handles the boot startup sequence? Most of what I read says I do something with GRUB and it handles the boot choice when I turn on the power each day. But I also read that I should let windows handle this procedure since windows updates will overwrite things occasionally and I could lose GRUB settings or something to that effect.

Anyway....lets say I have reached the point where I have XP installed on half the drive. Now I am installing Ubuntu on the remaining unformatted space on the drive. I've installed Ubuntu once before all by itself...and it went smooth. But I assume because this is a dual boot drive, I will need to do something different? And what about this GRUB versus Windows thing about which controls the boot sequence?

Not looking to do anything fancy. Using defaults whenever possible for both systems.

Dual Boot Ubuntu and Windows - Community Ubuntu Documentation
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WindowsDualBoot

In a dual boot situation I would include 3 partitions, one for each OS and another for file storage. That way you'll be able to get at all your data from either OS.

And I agree with the article spywareDR posted. I've always let linux handle the dual boot menu and the newer distros don't make any mistakes like the older versions.

That being said, instead of dual booting, I recommend running Ubuntu as a VM on top of XP. I've been doing it this way for about 3 years now and there's several advantages.

No dual boot menu to deal with. Reinstalling either OS means dealing with the dual boot menu. That's eliminated with virtualisation.

You don't need separate partitions for your VM/s, they're just stored in folders. So backing them up consists of creating another folder and copy/paste the VM files into the new folder.

It's considerably easier to try out different distros of linux or different configurations of Windows, and save them all. The ones you're not using aren't in the way, they can be stored and even booted off and external hard drive. And it's easy to find pre-made linux VMs on the web, just download, unzip and fire it up.

http://www.vmware.com/appliances/directory/cat/508

And for security: I've been surfing with various linux VMs on top of XP and Win7 hosts for about 3 years with no problems to my host Windows OS. No viruses, no trojans, no drive-by malware installs, just care free surfing.

I've gone completey to VMs. I've got a VM of XP that I use for work and my current flavor of the day linux distro I use for surfing, listening to music, watching vids and movies. This leaves my host OS running nothing but VMware, anti virus, and a firewall. There's really nothing to mess it up, Everything I do is done on one of my VMs, and if anything goes wrong with one the them, it's just a quick copy/paste out of the backup folder and I'm up and running again.

http://www.vmware.com/products/player/

I am a little late to this thread however when I installed Ubuntu as a dual boot system, I put it on a separate hard drive. The advantage of this for me is that if I have a problem with either XP or Ubuntu or if one of the hard disks fail, I just need to unplug the bad drive or the one with the corrupt OS (usually XP).

If this is something that you want to do, follow the instructions here:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...ot+Hard+Drives

While it takes more to set up it does provide an extra layer of security in making sure that you have a computer that you can use.

Doc

Dear Doctor,

I'm a computer and I have a problem of twin personalities. One is erratic, unpredictable, can't get up in the morning, falls frequently, acts as if drunk, often doesn't play well with others, often breaks body parts, sometimes doesn't go to bed at night. The other is easygoing, predictable, likable, smooth, and fun to be with.

What do you suggest? Should I send one of my personalities to another computer or on a permanent vacation?