Dual booting Acer

[cleagarr]

Hi

I have this Acer: Acer Aspire One A150L Netbook, Linpus Linux Lite Version, 8.9-inch Crystalbrite TFT LCD, 1GB RAM, 160GB HDD, Intel Atom Processor N270 1.60 Ghz

I don't mind the Linux but there is an exam-marking program (I am a teacher) that needs Windows to run. I tried using Wine but when I run the program the Wine window comes up empty and un-clickable.

Is there a way of dual-booting the machine with Windows XP or Vista so I can use Linux for everyday / networking at school but Windows for the programs I need?

Do I have to partition the drive or can I run Windows from a USB? As you can tell I don't know much.

If this is possible I would REALLY appreciate help / step by step guidance.

[waterhead]

As far as operating systems go, Windows is very arrogant. It seems to think that it is the only operating system that matters! It must be installed on the first partition of the drive.

This usually means that Windows must be installed first, then Linux afterwards. You may be able to back up your current Linux installation, but I would use this opportunity to install a new version of Linux.

You need to plan on partitioning your drive with multiple partitions. One for Windows, and at least two for Linux. Specific instructions would depend on the type and size of your hard drive, and the Linux distro that you want to install.

If you would rather not mess with the current version of Linux that is installed, you can get a new hard drive. Use that for any "experimentation".

[Jonathan183]

You can setup dual boot, I suggest Windows XP rather than Vista ... although you should be able to setup Linpus as a dual boot you may encounter problems with Grub (bootloader) setup.

You need to adjust disk partitions and as waterhead said these things normally work out better if Windows is installed to the first partition of the first hard drive in the system.

Ubuntu easy peasy may be worth a look incase you run into trouble with Linpus.

My approach to the install would be:-
backup all data
download Ubuntu easy peasy
boot Linpus and install grub on the root partition of Linpus
boot from Ubuntu or PartedMagic and resize partitions to make room for XP at the beginning of the hard drive.
install XP
setup dual boot XP and Linpus (probably use Windows bootloader)

I would normally advise use of Grub bootloader rather than Windows but for some reason Linpus did not work here.

[darkrose0510]

You might also consider installing windows in a virtual machine, with Virtual Box or Qemu... then you'd also be able to move your windows install around different machines, so you could use it anywhere.