Windows 7/Ubuntu help!

[Bj]

Can anyone tell me if the recovery disks (not the repair ones, the ones that come in packs of 3, from HP) completely format the hard drive, even the linux ones it can't read?

wouldnt know

Though you can just use the OS install CD's to completely format your HD.

 

[dbeachy1]

Yes, the recovery disks from HP should reformat the hard drive and reset it to a factory-new condition regardless of what data you have (or don't have) on it. Recovery disks work by doing an image restore, which restores partition information as well as OS and program data.

 

[myles]

Ok, thank you everyone for your help! I'm officially burning my Ubuntu CD... I tried to install it using the partitions described above, but it deleted windows 7. The factory restore disks finally decided to work and I'm not flirting with danger anymore. Again, thanks for all the time spent helping!

 

[computerex]

Ok, thank you everyone for your help! I'm officially burning my Ubuntu CD... I tried to install it using the partitions described above, but it deleted windows 7. The factory restore disks finally decided to work and I'm not flirting with danger anymore. Again, thanks for all the time spent helping!

It's not that hard...Just make sure you install ubuntu last and you should be good.

 

[Ghostrider]

Ubuntu... Isn't that an African language word that roughly means "can't install Debian for the life of me"?

 

[insanity]

It's not that hard...Just make sure you install ubuntu last and you should be good.

I kind of disagree, just because installing Ubuntu first on a blank hard-disk gives you a lot more options in creating your partition tables. Super Grub Disk will recover and allow you to update and customize your GRUB loader. That said, for someone new to dual-booting and is doing a fairly straight forward partition it is probably easier to install Windows first.

 

[computerex]

Install Windows normally, don't worry about the partition tables at all, dump the entire thing, install windows on the entire drive. Then boot into Ubuntu with a live CD, using gparted (Partition Editor) resize the Windows partition, and in unallocated space create two partitions, one swap and one ext3. Install the system on the ext3, and set the swap partition for swap. That is all there is to it...The only thing is that resizing the partition is time consuming, but it is certainly easy to do.

 

[Hielor]

Windows 7 can also shrink the partition it's installed on using the "Disk Management" utility.

 

[Bj]

I kind of disagree, just because installing Ubuntu first on a blank hard-disk gives you a lot more options in creating your partition tables. Super Grub Disk will recover and allow you to update and customize your GRUB loader. That said, for someone new to dual-booting and is doing a fairly straight forward partition it is probably easier to install Windows first.

I don't think so,

Check out this step by step with pictures tutorial
how-to-install-ubuntu-9-10

The only difference at all would be in this picture;

Instead of 'no operating systems on it' it would have 1 green(?) colored side and one red-ish colored side with a slider bar in between them. Adjusting the slider bar changes the partition size. The only difference between a clean OS install and to set up multi-boot is 1 single ratio button.

Again, as computerex says, its not that hard at all. It only becomes difficult when you decide to manually set up partitions, even then its not too terribly difficult, you just have to know what you are doing.

 

[insanity]

Again, as computerex says, its not that hard at all. It only becomes difficult when you decide to manually set up partitions, even then its not too terribly difficult, you just have to know what you are doing.

I've never installed Windows 7 on a blank hard-disk, so I can only speak from experience with XP, but I remember that Windows will not move a hard-disk down in size once you've partitioned it, nor do I remember it creating an ext3 partition. Both of these things can be done in Ubuntu pretty easily.

 

[Hielor]

I remember that Windows will not move a hard-disk down in size once you've partitioned it.

Two posts above:

Windows 7 can also shrink the partition it's installed on using the "Disk Management" utility.

nor do I remember it creating an ext3 partition. Both of these things can be done in Ubuntu pretty easily.

Fairly certain that it still can't do that, though.

 

[eveningsky339]

I remember actually having some severe difficulties in installing Ubuntu not too long ago; ended up killing my Vista, which was actually somewhat of a blessing... but anyway, even with a completely clean hard drive, it wouldn't install. Had to boot from the disc and discovered that my hard drive was not marked as "Bootable". h: I checked the box and everything was fine. So much for three days of frantic re-install attempts.

 

[computerex]

Lol. That is my point. As far as I know partitioning is something people can deal with, but it is the bloody boot issues that act as the show stoppers. Installing linux last fixes that problem quite nicely. Otherwise you have to go through the process of restoring GRUB. It's not hard, but just a hassle that I like to avoid.

 

[Linguofreak]

Lol. That is my point. As far as I know partitioning is something people can deal with, but it is the bloody boot issues that act as the show stoppers. Installing linux last fixes that problem quite nicely. Otherwise you have to go through the process of restoring GRUB. It's not hard, but just a hassle that I like to avoid.

Yeah, though TBH, you don't always avoid boot issues by installing Linux last, you just reduce the chances of boot issues from certainty to a coin toss. Even if you're not installing anything, I've found that a repartition can eat a boot loader.