Dual Boot Windows 7 and Ubuntu in Perfect Harmony.Windows 7 and Ubuntu, despite their opposing missions, can get along like best pals on a single computer.Heres how to set up a dual boot system that lets you enjoy the best of both worlds in perfect harmony.By default, Windows 7 takes over your boot up process and wants to be your only OS, and Linux treats Windows like a weekend hobby you keep in a shed somewhere on your hard drive.But Ive been dual booting Ubuntu and some version of Windows 7 for nearly a year, and Ive learned a lot about inconveniences, annoyances, and file sharing necessities, and now Ill walk you through how to set up your systems to achieve a peaceful union of your dual boot OSes.Both with Windows 7 already installed, and with a clean system ready for a new dual OS existence.Follow through this guide, and Ill explain how to rebuild a system from the ground up with Windows 7 and Ubuntu, with either a backed up and cleaned out hard drive recommended or Windows 7 already installed.Can T Install Windows Over Ubuntu Software' title='Can T Install Windows Over Ubuntu Software' />When were done, you can work and play in either operating system, quickly and conveniently access your documents, music, pictures, and other files without worry or inconvenience, and boot into either system without having to worry about whether Windows is going to get mad at you.Plus, when Ubuntu 1.Windows 8 come along, youll find it much easier to install either one without having to start over entirely from scratch.What youll need. Windows 7 installation disc For clean installations, either a full installation copy or an upgrade disc is needed.If you own an upgrade disc but want to start from scratch, theres a way to do a clean install with an upgrade disc, though thats a rather gray area route.Then again, theres probably not a person on this earth that doesnt have a licensed copy of XP or Vista somewhere in their past.Ubuntu 9. 1. 0 installation image You can grab an ISO at Ubuntu.Alternative download options to reveal a usually very fast Bit.Torrent link. Youll want to get the ubuntu 9.AMD or Intel systems despite the name.Blank CD or empty USB drive Youll need one of these for burning the Ubuntu ISO, or loading it for USB boot.If youre going the thumb drive route, grab UNet.Bootin for Windows or Linux, plug in your USB drive, and load it with the downloaded ISO image.All your data backed up Even if youre pulling this off with Windows 7 already installed and your media and documents present, youll want to have a fallback in case things go awry.Which they shouldnt, but, naturally, you never know.Free time Id reckon it takes about 2 hours to pull off two OS installs on a clean system more if youve got a lot of data to move around.Setting up your hard drive.If youve got nothing installed on your system, or youve got your data backed up and youre ready to start from scratch, youre in a great positionskip down to the Partition your system section.If youve got Windows already installed, you can still make a spot for Ubuntu, though.Only If Windows is already installed Youre going to shrink the partition that Windows 7 installed itself on.Before we do that, clean out any really unnecessary applications and data from your system we like Revo Uninstaller for doing this.Also, open up Computer and take note of how much space remains on your main hard drive, presumably labeled C.Head to the Start menu, type disk management into the search box, and hit Enter.Windows 7 probably put two partitions on your hard drive one, about 1.Can T Install Windows Over Ubuntu Software RepositoryThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons AttributionShareAlike 3.Unported License.The screenshots in this tutorial use Ubuntu 12.For Unity desktops You should install Unity Tweak Tool, which is available in the Software Center.This will let you change the behavior of windows and settings.MB in size, holding system restoration data.We dont want to touch it.Right click on the bigger partition to the right, and choose Shrink Partition.After a little bit of hard drive activity and a Please wait window, youll get back the size you can shrink your Windows partition by.If the space Windows offers doesnt jibe with what your Computer view told you was remaining, you might need to hit Cancel, then head back and defragment your hard drive, and take some of the steps laid out by the How To Geek.Run the Disk Management tool again and try a Shrink Volume operation again, and free up as much space as you can.Partition your system Youre aiming to set up a system with three partitions, or sections, to its hard drive One lean partition for the Windows operating system and applications running from it, another just big enough partition for Ubuntu and its own applications, and then a much larger data partition that houses all the data youll want access to from either one. 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Documents, music, pictures, application profilesit all goes in another section Ill call Storage for this tutorial.How do you get there Were going to use GParted, the Linux based uber tool for all things hard drive.You could grab the Live CD if you felt like it, but since youve already downloaded an Ubuntu installer, you can simply boot a live, no risk session of Ubuntu from your CD or USB stick and run GParted from there.Once youre inside Ubuntu, head to the System menu in the upper left when you get to a desktop, then choose the Administration menu and GParted under it.Youll see your systems hard drive and its partitions laid out.Youre going to create partitions for Linux and your storage space, but not Windowswell let the Windows installation carve out its own recovery partition and operating space.On my own system, I give Windows 1.GB of unallocated space, and Ubuntu another 1.GB of space right after it, with whatevers left kept as storage space.Then again, Ive only got a 1.GB hard drive and dont run huge games or applications, so you can probably give your two operating systems a bit more space to grow.Click on the unallocated space and hit the New button at the far left.In the Free space preceding section, click and hold the up button, or enter a number of megabytes, to leave space for Windows at the front.When youve got the space preceding set, set the actual size of the Ubuntu partition in the New Size section, and leave Free space following alone.Choose unformatted under file systemwell let Ubuntu do the format itself and hit Add.Back at the main GParted window, click on the space to the right of your two OS spaces, hit New again, and set the file system as ntfs.Give it a label like Storage, hit Add, and at the main GParted window, hit the checkmark button to apply your changes.Once its done, exit out of GParted and shut down the system from the pull down menu in the upper right corner.If Windows is already installed If youve shrunk down its partition for free space and booted into a live Ubuntu or GParted, click on the Unallocated piece next to the two ntfs partitions that represent your Windows 7 installation and system recovery tools.Create a 1. 5 ish GB unformatted partition, and give it a label like Ubuntu.If youve got a good deal of space left, format it as ntfs and label it something like Storage.If you can just barely fit the Ubuntu partition, you can just keep your media files in the Windows partitionuntil you can remedy this with a full wipe and install down the line.Experienced Linux geeks might be wondering where the swap space is goingbut dont worry, well create one, just not in its own partition.Installing and configuring Windows.Grab your Windows 7 installation disceither a full copy or modified upgrade disc, and insert it into your DVD drive.If your system isnt set up to boot from CD or DVD drive, look for the button to press at start up for Boot options or something similar, or hit up your system makers help guides to learn how to change your boot order in the BIOS settings.Follow through the Windows 7 installation, being sure to choose Custom for the installation method and to point it at that unallocated space we created at the beginning of your hard disk, not the NTFS formatted mediastorage space we made earlier Work your way through the Windows 7 installation, all the way until you reach the Windows desktop.Feel free to set up whatever programs or apps you want, but what we really want to do is set up your Storage partition to house your pictures, music, video, and other files, and make your Libraries point to them.Hit the Start menu, click Computer, and double click on the hard drive named Storage assuming you named it that earlier.In there, right click and create new folders or hit CtrlShiftN for the files youll be using with both systems.
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