New PC (->dual-boot)- Get Dell to partition for me?

gears · 10-03-2007, 08:27 AM

Greetings Forum,

I need a new PC and wonder if there is any drawback in getting Dell to create an empty partition at the factory, as offered in the "Build-your-system" process.
(partition will of course get some Linux distro installed once home).

Should I be better off partitioning with a LiveCD and run Qparted on my own..?

May Tux be with you, always.

pixellany · 10-03-2007, 08:35 AM

Not sure it matters---A new system will not be fragmented and will not have any of your data on it. Thus it will be easy to re-size the Windows partition.

I would do it myself--if for no other reason to be comfortable with the tools and get it exactly the way I wanted.

I wonder if Dell will sell you a dual-boot system?

Slick666 · 10-03-2007, 10:22 AM

If your going to get a dell get a dell with Ubuntu.

Now before a flame war erupts over which distro is better hear me out. Whether you like Ubuntu or no the hardware offered in those systems are Certified to run under Linux. So if Ubuntu will run on them then of course Debian will and you can infer gentoo or slackware or almost ANY linux distro will run on them.

So if you are going to buy dell checkout there Ubuntu line. If anything you won't have to pay for winblow and support commercially available linux.

gears · 10-03-2007, 10:38 AM

Slick,

Well, thanks but I *do* need the XP part for work projects, running some Adobe apps natively.

timmit · 10-03-2007, 10:57 AM

This question really comes down to this: do you trust yourself or some random Dell employee to handle your computer :-)

There are plenty of free, intuitive GUI partitioning tools out there if you decide to do it yourself.

jay73 · 10-03-2007, 01:04 PM

Why bother with partitioning if you can have it done for you? Besides, it seems to me that a resized windows is more prone to dual booting issues than one that was installed to only part of the hard drive. That's just my experience.

Slick666 · 10-03-2007, 08:07 PM

gears,

If you need windows to do specific tasks I would recommend you do what I do. I use the OS I want use a virtualization technology to boot windows do what I need to do. You'll have a Core2 based computer so you will have 64 bits and Hypervisor hardware support so it should virtualize with no problem. you can also do some tricks ith virtual machines that you can't even begin to with navive booting Windows.

Do what works for you but that works well for me.