How to dual boot Windows XP and Linux (XP installed first) -- the step-by-step guide with screenshots

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James Bannan03 March 2009, 8:00 PM

Related how-tos:

How to dual-boot Windows XP and Linux, on a system where you have already installed XP. Easy step-by-step tutorial that doesn't assume prior knowledge of Linux.

Page 2 - Install Ubuntu

We'll assume that XP has already been installed (either via an OEM or self-installation). We'll further assume that XP has been installed to a single NTFS partition which takes up the whole disk.

One interesting thing to note though - Ubuntu is happy to read NTFS partitions, so a potential configuration option is to either create a 2nd NTFS partition which will house data for access by both operating systems, or simply a 2nd hard drive, again formatted with NTFS.

Install Ubuntu

You'll need the latest desktop ISO of Ubuntu (9.04). You can choose a list of download mirrors from the Ubuntu website, or use this link from Planetmirror. Download the ISO and burn it to CD to create bootable Ubuntu CD.

Boot the XP machine from the CD and select "Install Ubuntu" from the boot menu.

Once the Live CD has loaded, on the Welcome screen choose your language and select Forward.

On the "Where are you" (timezone) page, select your location and then Forward.

On the next screen, choose the appropriate keyboard layout and then Forward.

Continue to page 3: Make room on the disk for Ubuntu: Page 1 Intro; Page 2 Install Ubuntu; Page 3 Make room on the disk for Ubuntu; Page 4 Set up Ubuntu

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Kimi:

Partitioning part is too short. It must be detailed bacuse
it's the most important for a healthy drive management.

29 February 2008, 8:32 PM (5 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

meox:

yeah.. true a healthy drive is really important.. (downloading linux ubuntu 7.10 gutsy gibbon... hope everything goes well..) also sweet tutorial cause i
use windows for programming but linux is awesome!
:)

29 February 2008, 8:47 PM (5 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

binger:

I had XP running fine on my laptop with a SATA hard drive and a IDE cd/dvd drive. I resized XP and installed Ubuntu Feisty Fawn. Everything went great installing and being able to dual boot. But my DVD/CD drive was gone! in BOTH OSes. the hardware wasn't even found in XP's device manager, and I could't find a trace of it in Ubuntu command line lspci/dmesg/etc. I confirmed it was not a bad drive, because I bought a new one, and same thing. Also, I can boot to the CD/DVD drive fine. HELP! does this have something to do with GRUB? MBR? or the scsi/ata drivers in Ubuntu? Why does linux effect hardware in XP?

29 February 2008, 8:32 PM (5 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

Dave:

I managed to install everything, got into Ubuntu, set up my 'root' but as soon as I tried to set anything up in the 'usr' directory (I need to use linux for work) it just said 'permission denied' so I tried to log in as root, it said I couldn't log into root from here, so I re-booted and now it just says 'GRUB ERROR 21' at boot up. I found this page and this but none of these things work, or I didn't understand what the hell they were talking about (I'm a C++ programmer, and have used command line linux before) - is there any way I can just get a command line up like you can in Windows recovery mode? Is desktop linux usually this fragile? It booted about twice before self-destructing.

29 February 2008, 8:32 PM (5 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

Corey:

I installed another Distro of Linux on my computer.

Unfortunately the version I installed dint give me any kind of bootloader. Disc or otherwise.

Where can I find a step by step guide on how to boot Linux now that I have it without a bootloader?

I've tried to find one, and they all assume I know waaay more than I already do. I am very new to using multiple OS' and partitioning. D:

29 February 2008, 8:32 PM (5 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

andrej:

http://public.planetmirror.com/pub/ubuntu/releases/7.04/ubuntu-7.04-desktop-i386.iso

this link works not. well, the link works, but the file seems corrupted.

try this instead

http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download

29 February 2008, 8:32 PM (5 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

Majkl (New user):

Hi, Tierro,

YES, Mandriva can dualboot perfectly and YES, there is a neat bootloader. At least myself I had the Mandriva spring upsplash screen appearing with a couple of options such as Mandriva - Mandriva safe mode - and Windows XP. If you are not touching the Win partition, toy are taking no harm. And YES, you can read the Win data from linux.

One remark: from Linux you can read ALL the Win files, even the hidden and system ones. Make sure you do not touch your C: too much - I had difficulties booting up Win after I moved the NTLDR and booot.ini (basically Win booting files) on C:/ to a different folder. Make sure you have a backup copy of every system-looking file that you are touching.

10 June 2008, 10:07 PM (4 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

tierro:

Now, i don't have a doubt your tut will not work. But i'm not going to do this yet, because i am not sure if Mandriva Linux can also be dual booted with Windows Xp. (Is there a good bootloader? Will it handle the NTFS partition of XP?)

So let me know, Tierro

Send me a mail

verkeerslicht[## AT ##]gmail[## DOT ##]com

29 February 2008, 8:32 PM (5 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

Alex K:

I put the disc into the cddrive and it starts loading the cd, and a window appears that says: Launching Browser, Please Wait..." the window disappears, and nothing else comes out.

29 February 2008, 8:32 PM (5 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

Boberick:

I followed the tutorial and I lost all my xp!!!

I can reinstall XP and try again but does any one know why this might have happened?

Thanks

29 February 2008, 8:48 PM (5 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

Anonymous-999:

I installed XP on my new assembled PC.
Expecting to install a Linux, I partitioned the HD
into C (200GB) for Windows XP and the rest as D(120 GB- not sure about the name).

Now the Windows XP does not see the patition other than C.
How do I insatll Ubuntu on the partion D I prepared during
the XP installation ?
The Ubuntu CD does not see the D partion either.

Thanks for help.

29 February 2008, 8:32 PM (5 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

Anonymous99:

did you forget to format your new partition in windows?

29 February 2008, 8:48 PM (5 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

Dexter:

It seems like I can't connect to the internet on Ubuntu. I'm trying to get on the wireless network at home, but it does not seems to connect for some reason. The system can find my network card, so that's not it. Could it be that my network card driver isn't working, because this is Ubuntu instead of Windows XP?

My network connection is as far as entering the passphrase. A while after that, the button 'Login to Network' comes up, but when I click it, my computer still won't connect to the internet.

I haven't tried Windows yet, by the way. I installed Ubuntu next to Windows XP Home and first thing I did was booting Ubuntu.

29 February 2008, 8:32 PM (5 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

[Focus]:

the tutorial says that you can remove the savedefault value from the ubuntu so that XP will be the one to automatically boot. another option stated in the tutorial is the ability to hide the GRUB loader.

now, if i do both: make XP the only default, hide grub at the same time (and possibly set xp to the first position), how would i be able to load ubuntu?

29 February 2008, 8:32 PM (5 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

trigger:

i have windows xp installed on my system and i want to install likux kubuntu 7.04 on my system as the 2nd boot. but it seems that it wont install. i followed the intructions but still it wont. i need help from you guys! thanks!

29 February 2008, 8:49 PM (5 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

McKenna:

Having a problem with kubuntu 7.10 live cd, boots fine and I get the menu to start kubuntup.

I get a box appear and it says loading kernel gets to 100% and then my system sits there doing nothing and my monitor goes to standby. Have ben told by another forum to shut off splash and quiet in the f6 menu and I can see where it seems to stop which is at;

*running local boot scripts (/etc/rc.local) [OK]

Anyone know of this problem. I downloaded the iso a couple of days ago, and burned it to disc with image burn

29 February 2008, 8:49 PM (5 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

Henrik:

Hello McKenna

Have exactly the same problem as you had 72 days ago. Did the problem solve?
Need some help with this.

29 February 2008, 8:49 PM (5 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

taqeem:

hello everyone
i had a little problems with grub
i need to change the grub everytimes i turn on the computer
help me please

29 February 2008, 8:32 PM (5 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

Mauricio:

Hello, sorry I need some help.
I have a hp laptop pavilion dv8000 which uses xp media center and I want to install ubuntu 7.10
So when I am installing it has no problems
but never run the ubuntu neither appear the menu to choose the os to run
After have tried a lot of different possibilities I finally try installing ubuntu alone but then when is trying to load appears a message telling that the partition table is wrong and nothing else happened
Have some one a possible solution?

29 February 2008, 8:32 PM (5 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

josh:

Hi. I follow the instructions on changing windows to default os but when I open my menu.lst file it is blank and I cannot edit anything. Any ideas?

29 February 2008, 8:33 PM (5 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

Susie:

I would like to install ubuntu on a 2nd hard drive and creat a dual boot. I understand I can do a dual boot using the same hard drive with a partition. Can I choose what hard drive I want to install this on?

29 February 2008, 8:33 PM (5 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

steved88998:

BEWARE! DO NOT USE THIS TUTORIAL WITH THE NEWEST UBUNTU VERSION (7.10)

It IS MISSING SOME STEPS for version 7.10

I have XP installed in a 60gig partition of my 250gb hd. When I get to the "Prepare disk space" screen, the screen looks different and only shows me 51% on slider bar.

When I select forward as this tutorial recommends, I get a ""Migrate Documents and Settings" screen that shows my xp partition. This is NOT mentioned on this tutorial and I was completely LOST. If you continue as this tutorial tells you, your whole XP will be destroyed.

I have searched and found MANY others who have WIPED OUT their XP partition using this tutorial with version 7.10

BEWARE! DO NOT USE THIS TUTORIAL WITH THE NEWEST UBUNTU VERSION (7.10)

29 February 2008, 8:49 PM (5 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

Anonymous94488383:

will not work for 7.10 Inconsistent screen shots

29 February 2008, 8:49 PM (5 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

AsdF:

This tutorial is missing 1 step but i dont think that someone who wants to install Ubuntu 7.10 wont be able to install it.

I installed without problem to my machine that is running Windows XP Home.

29 February 2008, 8:50 PM (5 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

qhawk:

I had to fix the boot sector using this step 6 of this guide, but then is worked fine. http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10877_11-6031733.html?tag=nl.e138

29 February 2008, 8:50 PM (5 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

Sergio:

I followed the instructions for the Vista/Linux dual boot since I had installed Vista on my orignally XP computer. I did a system restore to bring back XP since Vista was not exactly what I hoped. Now when I go to manage disks I see that I still have the healthy partition where Ubuntu was installed. How can I load Ubuntu since I apparently don't have GRUB anymore (it just starts the computer on XP without any list to choose which OS to run)? I have no way to access the partitions on which Ubuntu is installed that I know of. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

29 February 2008, 8:33 PM (5 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

Majkl (New user):

Hi, Sergio,

I think as you had Ubuntu running and reinstalled he XP, I think the XP took over completely, including the bootloader (it does not recognize other OSes, unfortunately). You may be able to work something out about the fixmbr and the Win recovery console - but clumsy as it is, I would personally consider reinstalling the Ubuntu.

05 September 2008, 8:53 PM (4 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

tez (New user):

hi all when i try to install ubuntu with windows xp already installed I get the ubuntu screen up press enter it loads the kernal then i get a blank screen. it is a disk from sourceforge. any offers

29 March 2008, 11:37 PM (5 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

tez (New user):

hi all. tried to follow the guide with a sourceforge disk. get the first page up press enter then it loads the linux kernal and I end up with a blank page. how long does it take to load. or do i need to enter a command.

29 March 2008, 11:47 PM (5 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

panos (New user):

plz help!
I ve followed the rules, ubuntu 7.10 works fine!
but when i try to enter windows a message appears: starting up!!
but nothing happens!? what's wrong? plz help me!!!

31 March 2008, 11:48 AM (5 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

Leandro Faraudo (New user):

I'm wondering if the partition manager will let me create more than 1 partition (my understanding it it creates only 1 additional when preparing disk space if I choice the firts option). Is this a choice in the "manually edit partition table?"

02 April 2008, 7:39 AM (5 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

Majkl (New user):

Hello, Leandro,

the partition manager will of course let you create as many partitions as yo wish.

If you have some Win OS partition on the disk already, you can resize it to get free space and then hit "create a new partition" as long as yo have free space. Anyway, you will need one partition created for the mountpoint (the linux space) and one gor swap.

17 October 2008, 6:30 AM (4 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

Bwalya Darius (New user):

These instructions are very much credible.Things worked so well even with ubuntu 7.10 Gatsy Gibbon.Thanks for the guide

03 April 2008, 7:00 PM (5 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

hsoJosh (New user):

I need Help RIGHT now !!
Im at the part where i have to change a value to 4 ??
Which value.. Its just a huge table of Algorithms or something..

10 April 2008, 3:09 PM (5 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

Majkl (New user):

Hi, Josh,

you are changing the GRUB boot options in the menu.lst, right? open terminal, peck in "sudo gparted /boot/grub/menu.lst", insert password at a prompt and when the file opens, look at the "default" parameter. Indeed, the line only reads "Default 0".

If you change this number incorrectly (i.e. if you type "2" by mistake), do not worry, you`ll get the splash screen as usual, only the default item will be different. You will have to chose Ubuntu and edit the menu.lst again.

10 June 2008, 10:23 PM (4 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

hsoJosh (New user):

I need Help RIGHT now !!
Im at the part where i have to change a value to 4 ??
Which value.. Its just a huge table of Algorithms or something..

10 April 2008, 3:09 PM (5 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

SLi (New user):

pfffft!
why ubuntu ?
why not OpenSuse? :)

26 April 2008, 11:53 PM (5 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

jasmeet (New user):

When i try to install Ubuntu on Dell inspiron 6400 I am not getting an option to resize hard drive

02 May 2008, 12:42 PM (5 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

jasmeet (New user):

When i try to install Ubuntu on Dell inspiron 6400 I am not getting an option to resize hard drive

02 May 2008, 12:48 PM (5 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

jasmeet (New user):

When i try to install ubuntu from the live CD i never got an option to resize existing partion. Just got an option to use the entire disk for installation. What should i do to make ubuntu partition

02 May 2008, 12:48 PM (5 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

Majkl (New user):

"When i try to install ubuntu from the live CD i never got an option to resize existing partion. Just got an option to use the entire disk for installation. What should i do to make ubuntu partition"

re you sure the liveCD is not corrupted? When downloading the ISO, you should allways check the MD5 checksum to make sure it is flawless. Whatever I have tried so far (Ubuntu 7.07, Mandriva, Fedora, Mint), it offered me Manual partitioning too.

01 July 2008, 8:21 AM (4 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

blade1312 (New user):

so does installing it need grub installed already or does it automatically do that.And can you install linux in a second hard drive instead of doing it in the same HD because i don't have alot of space in the primary one?

06 June 2008, 8:57 AM (4 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

nuuuurrrrrrrrr (New user):

NEED HEEELLLLPPP PLEEASe, i have 2 partitions, 1 with linux mepis antiX 7.2 and 1 with windows xp. i installed linux after, and installed the grub boot loader that the installation prompted me to install. however, now when i boot my computer the grub menu goes directly to the mepis boot menu where it asks me wat type of mepis i want to boot (lite, no net, etc). i cannot get to windows xp! i have read about changing the menu.lst file but i can never get to this file. there is no gedit folder or nano folder, i dont know if menu.lst file exists! when i try to execute 'sudo nano/boot/grub/menu.lst' it says that user is not allowed to execute /usr/bin/nano/boot/grub/menu.lst as root on localhost. i cannot access the /usr folder. maybe this problem is simply just to change that menu.lst file, jus help me find this stupid thing! thankss

15 June 2008, 3:42 PM (4 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

Majkl (New user):

Hi, nuuuurrrrrrrrr,

first of al, "gedit" is a command, not a folder. The menu.lst is usually stored in boot/grub/. It is a text file but cannot be updated unless you have the admin privileges.

Now, "sudo" gives you the privileges (will ask you about your password), "gedit" will edit the file, the rest is a route to the file itself. Instead of logging in as Roor, I suggest you try a Terminal command.

05 September 2008, 8:26 PM (4 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

nuuuurrrrrrrrr (New user):

i finally found menu.lst , i opened it and changed it, but when i save it, it says 'Cannot open file to write' i alredy have it openned in the leafpad/notepad app, so i dont kno what its saying! thanks

15 June 2008, 4:20 PM (4 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

Majkl (New user):

"i finally found menu.lst , i opened it and changed it, but when i save it, it says 'Cannot open file to write' i alredy have it openned in the leafpad/notepad app, so i dont kno what its saying! thanks"

Hi,

the menu.lst is a protected file, you need to open it as a Root. Open the Terminal, type "sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst" (or whatever the path is in your distro) and it will open for editing. Change the default OS, change the timestap (how many seconds the bootloader will wait for your decision) and save. Easy as this.

01 July 2008, 8:16 AM (4 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

mscir (New user):

I installed ubuntu to the 2nd hdd on a system with xp in the 1st hdd, no grub menu - always boots into windows. Ran the following commands, no joy:

sudo grub
root (hd0,0)
sudo (hd0)

suggestions?

18 June 2008, 4:58 PM (4 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

viking61 (New user):

please tell me how to open july apc cd i am new to this

22 June 2008, 4:46 PM (4 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

Adrian De Ratt (New user):

See my other post. The old double post got me on this one. Sorry about that Chief! (-:

24 June 2008, 8:39 PM (4 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

Adrian De Ratt (New user):

Hi there. I've found that the easiest solution to this whole trip is to physically disconnect all your other hard drives, before installing Linux on a separate hard drive completely. Then when you want to change OS's, change the boot order in the BIOS. This way you will never have any MBR/boot order problems what so ever, ever. I know some people will think this method a little extreme, but it's almost fool proof. And if you only occasionally change OS's (like me), it works like a dream. HTH. -Adrian

24 June 2008, 8:39 PM (4 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend