how do you dual boot?

[jonainmi]

hello, im kinda new to linux, and i would like to know if i can dual boot debian and XP, or even Vista for that matter.

If i can, how do you switch between the operating systems, or can you?

Sorry, dont know anything about dual booting...

//edit
Is this sompthing i should wait to do untill i know more about linux?
//end edit

Any help is apreacheated

Jon

[Daan]

Hi jonainmi,

It's really easy. What you should do is install a user friendly Linux distribution like Ubuntu or Debian on a computer that already has Windows installed on it. When you install Ubuntu or Debian on this computer (onto a free partition), the dual boot thing will be made for you. You than can choose between Linux and Windows when you boot up your computer. You cannot switch between them, only one can be used to boot up (so it's not really dual boot in that sense).

If you don't have a free partition available, you have to make one, but that can be tricky, so make sure you know what you are doing.

[devils casper]

hi jonainmi !!!

Sorry, dont know anything about dual booting...

you should read this tutorial first.....

http://www.devhood.com/tutorials/tut...utorial_id=405

<=== { casper } ===>

[Zelmo]

Most distros will now resize your Windows partition during setup, to give you room for Linux. You hardly need to know what you're doing at all.

An alternative to dual-booting is using a virtual machine, such as VMware. It will emulate a second computer running inside your real computer, and you can install any OS you want on the emulated computer. They have versions for both Windows and Linux, so you can install Linux in Windows, or Windows in Linux. Then you have both OSes running at the same time.
The caveat to this method is that the real computer's resources get split between it and the virtual machine, so each one has only half the CPU power, half the RAM, etc. It's the price you pay for not having to reboot to use the other OS.

[dhughes]

You have the choice of having both operating systems on one drive or you can put each on its own drive, either way will work. In either case Windows has to be installed first and if two drives are used Windows has to be on the master drive. Just make sure Windows is installed first and then install whatever Linux distribution you want after that.

If you choose to use the GRUB bootloader when you boot you'll see a black screen with blue box that has different OS options to boot to such as Debian, Debian (recovery mode), Windows XP etc. Select one, press enter and the OS of your choice loads.

It's actually quite easy to do.