Post by Deleted on Apr 8, 2015 0:02:27 GMT -6
Apr 7, 2015 23:34:13 GMT -6 @snarky412 said:
@wrabbit2000,@ninurta,@marlingrace,Okay, came across this as well during my hair pulling search on my Windows dilemma
Is it true, that if I were to install Linux, it will automatically partition the hard drive on it's own?
It will, but not for a dual boot. That will have to be done manually, which is just a matter of tinkering in the Linux setup screens before it actually starts installing - has to partition first anyhow, so I always set the partitions the way I wanted them from the beginning.
The way I do it may be kind of involved. I first boot Linux from either a USB or a DVD,and use Gparted from there to partition the hard drive. Then I shut down, and boot into the Windows install media, and install Windows. After Windows is finished installing, I boot into the Linux media again and install Linux, which installs the Grub bootloader, too. then I reboot into Linux and edit the Grub bootloader so that Windows is at the top of the list - that forces me to select Linux at boot if I want to use it, otherwise it boots into Windows.
If you only have one partition (Windows), and want more, you can boot to the Linux media (Live DVD or Linux on USB) and tinker with Gparted. You'll want to "shrink" the Windows partition, then create another partition or three in the resulting empty space.
CAUTION: Shrinking a partition actually moves all of the data to fit into the new partition (assuming there is enough space to hold it). That can be a time consuming effort. You WILL want to be sure that the computer is plugged in and not running off a battery. I had one die in mid-shrink, and it borked the drive. I lost the partition table and all of the data, and had to repartition and reinstall the operating systems. The biggest problem to me was the loss of data.
I usually create a 40 GB partition for Windows, a 20 GB partition for Linux, a 4 GB (depends on how much RAM you're running - a swap partition is the Linux version of the swap file windows uses... Linux just puts it on it's own partition), and then partition and format whatever is left for data storage.
When Linux has problems, you'll probably have to use the "console" (Linux version of "command line") to fix it. That method is very powerful, but it's also very aggravating at times. I thought I was done with DOS around 2000! Linux console commands are different from DOS commands, but there are references available online when one gets stuck. I don't think there is anything deep in the guts of Linux that doesn't have a console command to control it, but finding WHICH command you need and getting the syntax just perfect can sometimes be a little offputting.
On the positive side, there are more and more GUIs to get stuff done like installing programs (but you might have to dig into the console to set or reset repositories where software is found), and I have yet to plug in a USB device that doesn't work.
I initially used Linux in a Virtual Box, as wrabbit suggested, but never could get the box to go any larger than 800x600 pixels - which was just not enough screen real estate to suit me. I had a dinky little screen to work with that ignored the other 3/4 of the screen altogether. It did. however, allow me to get my feet wet in Linux, and drove me to an actual install of Linux just to get the benefit of more than just 1/4 of the screen area.
As a matter of fact, I just deleted my virtual ware about a month ago, and all of the machines to go with it. They are good for testing operating systems, but took up just as much space as an entire OS partition while delivering 25% of the visual output. The tradeoff just wasn't worth it to me when space got to a premium on the hard drive.