On Fri, Jun 6, 2008 at 10:37 AM, Karl Cunningham <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On 6/5/2008 11:48 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>>
>> I'm gonna take a risk and try to turn my kid's and wife's Windows 2000
>> laptop
>> into a dual boot Ubuntu/W2K laptop.
>>
>> Is there open source software to shrink the Win2K partition that is 100%
>> safe?
>>
>> Can it toast the Windows installation?
>
> I plan to install Ubuntu as dual boot with XP on my wife's laptop. Here's
> what I plan to do, maybe overkill but hopefully safe. Comments appreciated.
>
> 1. I already have a new, larger 2.5" hard disk.
> 2. Install blank 3.5" hard disk on a desktop machine and install XP there.
> 3. Install both 2.5" disks in the desktop machine using 2.5" to 3.5" IDE
> adapters.
> 4. Boot to Linux live CD and set up partitions on new 2.5" disk. Copy
> image of factory restore partition from old to new. (I'm not sure if the
> restore partition would work after doing this, but I figure it can't hurt).
> Set up boot sector on new disk.
> 5. Boot to windows XP on 3.5" disk and copy all files in windows partition
> from old 2.5" disk to new 2.5" disk.
> 6. Put new disk in laptop and make sure windows boots.
> 7. Install Ubuntu on laptop. If anything goes wrong original disk remains
> untouched as a backup.
>
> Another option is to only install Ubuntu on the new disk. Install
> Virtualbox (or other) and create a Virtualbox image from the entire windows
> partition on the old 2.5" disk. Boot to this in Virtualbox when windows is
> needed. My wife's laptop is maxed out at 512MB of ram so this might not work
> so well.
As a non-Windows expert, let me ask how sensitive a Windows
installation is to its hardware environment. Isn't it likely that
transplanting the disk from one computer to another will upset things?
I have done something similar by image copying the Windows
installation from the old smaller disk to the new larger one. The
Linux installer then recognizes the left-over space as un-used and
available for Linux. How well this works must depend on what silly
things Windows might have done with the original partition table.
carl
--
carl lowenstein marine physical lab u.c. san diego
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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