Need help Reinitializing Dual boot Ubuntu & 7
 

Hopefully I am in the right place.
Been using Ubuntu 9.1 with windows 7 for about 6 months, and want to redo the whole drive. I have downloaded Ubuntu 10.10 on disc, as well as Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit disc.
I am not a programmer, so if you choose to help me, know that you will need to crank it down close to earth.
Have i3 processor, with 4GB ram and a 1 TB SATA HD on a Gigabyte S-series MB. Want to use windows only when compatibility makes it a necessity.
Want to wipe the drive clean, and start from scratch. Though I have backed up all files, I am a bit unsure on how to best configure, and proceed.
Any help would be appreciated.

To be easy for you, boot from windows 7 cd/usb go through the installation process, use the whole drive.

I forget if you can resize a partition in the installation of Ubuntu, someone correct me if you can.
If you cannot this is a way to partition the HDD:

After completing the installation, boot from the Ubuntu cd/usb select the 'Test drive Ubuntu' to run it live. While in the Ubuntu desktop, open terminal type sudo apt-get install gparted this will install Gparted, next type sudo gparted to open gparted (or you can go to System > Administration > Gparted).
Once Gparted is open it will scan the disks, right click on the hard drive (/dev/sda or /dev/sda1) and select Resize/Move. You can either move the slider from the right side (or just type the size in the box) until you reach the desired size (The "New size (MiB):" would be the Windows 7 Partition, the "Free Space Following (MiB):" would be the size to install Ubuntu on. When you are done Click on "Resize/Move" to close that box, then click on the green arrow, on top, to apply all actions. (This will partition the HDD into 2 partitions)

Note: while making the partition size they are in Mib, so 150000 = 150GB

Reccomendation for Partition sizes if you are only going to use Windows 7 for compatibility issues, I would set the windows 7 partition size to 150000 Mib to 250000 (you can always access the Windows 7 partition from Ubuntu, but you would not be able to access the Ubuntu partition from Windows 7) So if you want to store alot of music and videos that can be accessible from both, make the Windows 7 partition bigger.

You can now install Ubuntu and select the unpartitioned space to install, when it gets to that step (the Windows 7 partition should be labeled 'Windows 7' or something like that).

Thanks for the prompt reply.
Should I format the disk first?
Should I go 32 bit or 64 bit with Ubuntu?

You would be able to format the disk in the installation of Windows 7.

As for 32 or 64bit:
This would depend on what you use the computer for, if you do a lot of scripting programs running 64 bit may help with the performance. However, 64bit may have some compatibility issues with some of the drivers for your computer. In a computer used for personal purposes the 64bit will not make much noticible difference (eccspecially if the RAM is 4GB). In a server, 64bit is the way to go.

In the 32bit you will be able to use 3.7GB of the RAM.
In the 64bit you will use all 4GB of the RAM

My laptop I have Ubuntu 10.10, with 4GB RAM and 64bit processor. I installed 64bit, then installed 32bit, didn't notice much difference myself, but I just use it to write and test scripts to run on my server. In my server I have installed Ubuntu 10.10 64bit, with 12GB RAM and 8 processors, tried 32bit first, then installed 64bit, 64bit made a big difference here.

What is the main purpose you will be using your computer for?

Just personal stuff, I think 32 bit is the way to go.
Thanks a bunch!
Your Minnesota neighbor is ready to launch.
Here goes nothin'
See you on the other side, hopefully.

OK.
Followed the instructions here.
When I tried to load gparted live from the Ubuntu CD I burned, it failed to load. This glich makes me nervous about my choice of Ubuntu as my window to Linux. So now, I need a partition utility and a good OS for Linux. Any suggestions? Remember, I am not a programmer.
Dead in the water right now. Help is appreciated.
George

Was it giving an error when you tried loading it?

Maybe reboot the computer back into ubuntu live, and the error would go away.

Other linux distros:
Fedora is good, or you can go more user friendly and try linux mint, pinman linux.

No, no error message either.
Have tried the reboot thing. My CD's are 700mb, with a 690+mb file, does that play?? I don't know. I am at a loss. But I guess that is pretty normal. It just sucks to be down and off line! Want to make the right choice. Is that possible???

Wow! you have been sooooo helpful.

Sometimes a little hand-holding is all you need to try different things. Thank you, and all that have considered a solution.

Wanna' Linux, need a way. Jump in! That's what it's all about, right? This ain't no Hokey Pokey!!!!


George

Sorry it took longer for me to respond, I have been really busy with work yesterday and today. Maybe if you try to go through the installation process and get to the point where you select the partition, you may be able to automatically resize the partition, I thought that if there is no partition open, it is either whole disk, or manually put the partitions in. Which isn't that hard to do. I haven't had the time to try it out, but I did look at a picture found on Google, and it looks like you can automatically resize the windows partition, by sliding a bar.

If that doesn't work:

Are you able to start the computer into Windows 7? If so, you can install easus partition manager home ed.
http://www.partition-tool.com/personal.htm

This will allow you to shrink the windows partition while in windows.

Yeah, my job gets in the way of my life sometimes too.

OK here's the deal, With Easeus, I have partitioned an Hitachi 1 TB drive as follows:

OOps!? Do over

First, installed Windows 7 from licensed disc ,used Easus to partition, then installed Ubuntu on 655 MB partition from flash drive download ran live and installed on 655 MB partition.

This is a partial readout from EASUS:

Partition: File system Size Status Type
*: System Reserved NTFS 100 MB system Primary
C: NTFS 266 MB Boot Primary
*: NTFS 655 MB None Primary

The problem is that when I boot the system, it automatically goes to Windows. It formerly gave me the option of which OS to boot into, and the default was Ubuntu. Right now, I cannot access Ubuntu unless I boot from a CD or USB download. Man, this is getting more difficult as I go on. But I still have electrons to access, and theoretically, since I'm not dead, I am stronger,......right????? AAAARRRRGGGGHHH! Help!!! Anybody!

Can somebody get me back to Kansas?

To me it sounds like Ubuntu wasn't installed correctly. Ubuntu can't be installed on a 655mb partition. Mine is over 4GB not including any documents. Also the format Ubuntu uses is EXT3 not NTFS.
Print everything from Easeus part manager. I have my laptop to boot from Ubuntu, win 7, Backtrack and Fedora. I can compare printout.

How I did it was install BT4 first, booted Ubuntu live used Gparted to create 4 partitions, then installed win7, fedora, then Ubuntu. Now it boots off the Ubuntu grub loader to choose os.

Yeah, This order of magnitude thing sometimes slays me. I still marvel at the number of zeros we are talking about. I had a PC in the 80's when a Seagate 20 MB HD was the standard.
Change those MB's to GB's. It is a 1 TB drive.

I am attempting to try your recipe for things. This BT4 has some options for download. I chose BackTrack 4 R1 Release ISO
Last Update: 08.05.2010
Name:: bt4-r1.iso Size: 2000 MB
MD5: f393714a97862398ec2eaba1a5157784
2010

This is definitely uncharted territory for me. I figure I will eventually get this dual boot thing going. Am unclear what this BT4 program does. I do know if it requires writing code, I will need to go to the next contingency. (I think I am on plan E). I am downloading under Windows. Will I be able to duplicate your procedure?
This 2 GB program is going to take an estimated 7 hrs to download. I thought I had a relatively large band width with my DSL. How does download rate of 70KB/sec compare with the typical?

Anyway, thanks for staying tuned. I'll let you know.

Sorry, I should have been a little clearer. BT4 is a Linux distro that mainly focuses on networking security. I would not recommend this distro to be used as a personal desktop. I was just stating how I setup my laptop to have multiple boot options for 4 different os.
What is the printout of your hard disk in eases partition manager.
You should partition the hard drive to have 2 partitions, one for win7, and then the other one for Ubuntu. The installation of Ubuntu will create the other partitions automatically.

I read a bit more about BT4, and saw there were some big brains that built that site. I did get it downloaded in Windows, ready to burn, but will defer to your recommendations and return to a more pedestrian architecture. Easeus partition manager gives the following output:

Partition, File System, Size, Status, Type

*: System reserved, NTFS, 100 MB, System, Primary
C: , NTFS, 266 GB, Boot, Primary
*: , NTFS, 655 GB, None, Primary
D: , Unformatted, 9 GB, None, Logical
*: , Unallocated, 8 MB, None, Logical

I cannot seem to reproduce a good tabular view for the data, but have separated fields with a comma. Apparently I have a D: drive of 9 GB that is unformatted. That would bring the total size of the disk to 1.03 TB. I built this PC from its components, and this was created without my knowing it. Does it have any use? Should I just leave it there, unformatted?

Also, I can get a Bootable CD from Easeus for $20. Would that have any value?

I am unclear about the File System, Status, and Type designations. I believe Easeus allows me to set those.

Again, my goal is to be able to access both OS's as easily as possible. As I had it set up before, I would need to reboot to change from Ubuntu to W7, and vice versa. Would like to avoid that, if possible.

Thanks again.