There would be probably zillion other pages on the blue nothing with similar instructions. Yes. But nothing beats doing these things yourselves … blundering through some and still coming out on tops and saying … whew!! I did it!! (ofcourse a little help from Google doesnt go unappreciated)
A lot of users go about the right way installing a dual boot system.
- Take backup of your existing data
- They will plan and create partitions
- They will first install Windows (WinXP in my case) on one drive
- They will then install Linux (Ubuntu here)
- Then relax, and configure both the OSes as per their desires
This is the simpler version of doing it. Its the real man’s way … a no-nonsense approach to getting things done.
And now there is my way. I have been using this laptop for about 8 months now … running it on Ubuntu. So after roughly about 8 months, I have a 5Gb home folder, some customized applications, some handy scripts, an up-to-date system … and with what internet speeds are in India, I do not wish to re-update my system again. So I decided, that I will try to rescue the Linux after losing my master boot record (MBR). So this is what I did –
- Installed WinXP on my 8GB FAT32 partition
- Put in an Ubuntu LiveCD and booted through it to Gutsy Gibbon
- Started grub and wrote that on the MBR. Now the windows was gone … sigh!
- For more detailed instructions, please visit Recovering Ubuntu after installing Windows
- Started my actual Linux (whew!) and edited the grub configuration file
- Made a manual entry for windows in this and booted
- This is not easy as it sounds
- You need to know on which partition of your hard drive was windows installed (for me it was /dev/hda4) … the grub entry which corresponds to this is (hd0,3) … keep that in mind (minus 1)
- This was the exact entry
title Windoze XP
rootnoverify (hd0,3)
makeactive
chainloader +1
It works!
Why did I install Windows again? … to play games :-)