How to Dual-Boot Windows and Ubuntu 7.10

In this article you'll learn how to easily set up your computer to dual-boot Windows and Ubuntu 7.10. The article assumes that you already have Windows installed on your computer, and only need to install Ubuntu 7.10.

Step 1 (a.) If you are planning to install Ubuntu on the same hard drive as your Windows installation, first boot into Windows and run Check Disk on the drive. Be sure to select the option to repair any file system errors. Then skip to Step 2.
(b.) If you are installing Ubuntu on a second hard drive, install the drive if you haven't already. If you need to resize the drive (such as when you already have data on it), go to Step 2. Otherwise, go to Step 6.

Step 2 Boot up the Ubuntu 7.10 Live CD. Under System>Administration, open the Gparted Partition Editor. Choose the partition that you wish to resize. It is recommended that you have at least 4 GB for the Ubuntu installation. Select the partition and click the Resize/Move button. Enter the amount of free space to create. (If you are installing on the same drive as Windows, you have to create the free space at the end of the drive; Windows needs to be installed at the beginning of the drive.)

Step 3 Select the newly created free space and click the New button. Create a new primary partition, and choose ext3 for the file system type. Leave enough space to create a swap partition of at least 256 MB (see Tips below).

Step 4 Once you have created your ext3 partition, create a second primary partition in the remaining free space, and choose Linux swap as the file system type.

Step 5 Apply the changes. Depending on how large a partition you are resizing, this may take a while.

Step 6 Start the install from the Install icon on the desktop. Follow the on-screen directions. When you get to the Partition Editor, choose the option to Manually Configure if you resized an existing drive. Otherwise, choose the guided partitioning to use the new drive you installed. If you chose to Manually Configure the partitions, select the ext3 partition you created and click the Edit button. Set the partitions mount point to /. Then select the swap partition you created and set it to swap. Continue with the rest of the installation.

Step 7 Restart your computer after the installation is complete. You should now see a menu letting you choose to boot into either Ubuntu or Windows. The default is Ubuntu.