Upgrading Dual Boot System (Ubuntu 6.06 to Ubuntu 7.10)
 

Hi All,

I am using a Dell Optiplex GX 620 PC. I have two hard drives, a 250Gig and an 80Gig.

The company I work for is moving to open source but is having trouble with their 'custom' version of Ubuntu (6.06). I would like to remove their version and upgrade to 7.10 (I know there is a newer version out but I have the 7.10 ISO).

My system is currently as follows. The 250G HD contains my winXP installation. This has a C: drive 10G and D: drive +-240G (my data drive)

The second 80G HD contains the old 6.06 Ubuntu installation. Due to limits placed on the 'custom' 6.06 installation I am unable to upgrade using apt-get.

I have therefore downloaded 7.10 and would like to replace the old 6.06 version. Before I do this, a couple of questions.

Upgrading to 7.10 on the 80G HD should not be too difficult, I guess I just need to point the install to the 80G disk and hit install. Is this the case?

Secondly, where will ubuntu put the bootloader? I didnt do the original installation (and have moved offices since then) so I am not sure where it currently resides. I understand that dual boots usually have the bootloader installed before winXP on the disk so that when the pc is started the option is given for either winXP or Ubuntu.

Finally, I cant afford to overwrite my winXP installation. What can I do to make sure this does not happen?

Hope this all makes sense, and thanking you in advance for all your help and suggestions.

Kind regards,
Wesley

Best option: disconnect the XP drive prior to installing. Of course, this means your Windows install won't get added to GRUB but it's easy to do that manually.

Be sure to set the Ubuntu drive as the boot disk in BIOS so GRUB can still be found after re-connecting the XP drive.