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

)a((o:

Hi James, Sergio,

i have the exact same problem as Sergio described. But the alternative "safe graphics mode" doesn't get me any further. Can you think of anything else? (I have a dual-core Delll XPS M1710 with an 256 mb NVIDea card, i'm not sure if that's useful info, but i've only just begun to work to be a geek :-)).

I also have this live cd of Fedora Core 6 as a possible alternative, do you think the procedure you described for dual booting would work for Fedora as well?

Thanks in advance...
)a((o

donbrew:

I did the dual boot vista/Ubuntu successfully. for reasons of my own I now want to undo the ubuntu installation. Any thoughts on how to remove linux from the machine?

MClark92:

One way to delete the Ubuntu installation is to startup in the Vista installation CD or DVD and delete the Ubuntu partition. That works for me when I need to delete a partition and/or OS.

izu:

after installing linux mandriva2006 on a new HP laptop that already had vista running on it, everything went well for afew days and now its telling me "missing operating system". what does this mean and what can i do to remedy this?

JeremyD:

I'm at Disk Management, but when I open up the Shrink window, I cant enter an ammount to shrink by, but I can't actually shrink... 

Here's a screenshot of what it looks like.

Hans:

me too. the shrink option gray out just like Jeremy. I tried diskpart and it doesnt wotk too, i couldnt shrink with this error : The specified shrink size is too large. Looks like it all taken by Vista. I m using HP Pavilion dv2213 ntebook

Jay Lacher:

I have to say thank you for this page. I also have to add a couple of notes.

First I need to outline my drive setup. I have two physical hard drives. One is a 80gig SATA drive that holds Vista and another partition for software installs. The other is a 160gig IDE drive that holds my system image backups and data.

Strictly following the instructions set forth by this page I had total failures. It just did not work. Through half a dozen attempts of doing a Ubuntu install I finally found the fix. The instructions on this page are correct but in some cases needs to be modified.

My actual problem was probably a BIOS setting dealing with the drive priority for hard drive boot. I have Vista installed on the SATA drive (now also Ubunty 7.04)

Here is how I fixed, or got it working. I opened my case and physically unplugged the IDE drive and then followed the instructions posted here to a tee. It totally worked. I then reconnected the IDE drive and it still worked. All is now cool and I am running a fully sucessfull dual with Vista and Ubuntu 7.04, Fiesty Fawn.

Here is what I think happened. The unplugging of the IDE drive during the install was the key. My BIOS allows the selection of priorities for boot for same type drives. Even though Vista was installed on the SATA drive the BIOS priority was for the IDE drive. Unplugging the IDE drive resolved this issue and made the SATA drive primary. Everything went fine. When I re-connected the IDE drive the BIOS maintained the SATA drive as the primary boot hard drive. Problem solved. This could probably be solved without removeing the IDE drive and just going to the BIOS and selecting the SATA drive as the primary boot drive.

Hope this helps someone some where...

Jay Lacher
MS MVP Shell/User

bobby:

there a just too many issues with dual booting and one can not say that they exist a standard guideline that apply to all systems..so how do u know which guideline ur system falls into..why i would really love to try out Ubuntu..vista is working like a charm on my notebook ,and i don't want to disturb it by daubing into the murky water of dual booting...where anything can go wrong..when i have enough money i would definitely get a notebook dedicated to Linux..for now i guess i just have to stick with vista

Shudogg:

Because you are a noob and scared of change. You will be stuck on Windows thinking it is the only choice like 90% of the computers users out there. FORCE yourself to use linux for a few weeks, you wont leave linux. It is a real OS unlike Winjunk.

JeremyD:

Just becuase YOU don't like windows doesnt mean its crap. I've been using Windows since Windows 95, and I've been using Ubuntu for about a year now. And I've yet to discover the desire to switch over to JUST Linux. Linux isnt better than windows. windows isnt better than linux. its a matter of preference. And the sooner idiots like you realize that, the better off we'll all be.

Retlaw:

Although I feel you pain I hate to see someone make a blanket statement that is so ridiculous that most knowledgeable persons will realize you are joking. You are joking right? No one is that misinformed are they? If that is your stance than its a waste of time change your mind. Bottom line is that Windows as its place just like Linux. If you are more comfortable with Windows then by all means use it. But you would be hard pressed to backup such a blanket statement. Sorry to see that you are giving up on Linux but keep reading and there will eventually be an easier way for you to try Linux again.

SImonff:

Thank you all - Windows vs Linux discussions are so inspiring. It solved my dual boot-issue in a schnip :)

Andy:

Hi I bumped into a weired issue with dual booting Vista and Suse Linux. I have Vista installed on RAID configuration and I have 3 other hard drives in the system available for Linux. can you pint point me how to do dual boot with Vista pre-installed on RAID and I'd like to install Linux Novel Suse Enterprise 10 on another hard drive, please thank you

Jon Manness:

Has anyone attempted to dual-boot Vista and a Ubuntu 7.04 alternate such as Ubuntustudio with Vista installed first? Since Ubuntustudio doesn't have a Live CD, I'm not sure how well the text-based installation works with Vista.

Josh:

Everything was working fine up until I get to the screen where I'm supposed to click "Guided- use the largest continuous free space". There's no option for this on that screen. It just says Guided- the whole shehbang and Manual. I partitioned my hd just the way it says to, and it seemed to work. I have 95 gb just waiting for ubuntu. Was I not supposed to make it an f:/... was I supposed to keep it C:/... ahh, so confused.

Gav:

I'm dual booting XP and Ubuntu, and installed my system a little differently.

But, the idea of shrinking the partition in Vista was to create UNALLOCATED space for Ubuntu. ie. unused or blank space. If you made this space an f:/ drive, then its no longer blank or unallocated - its a windows ntfs partition called f: (and Ubuntu will be unsure of where to install itself, hence choice of only manual or 'whole shebang').

Perhaps go back and get it back to unallocated space again (resize or delete f: ), and the Ubuntu install should be more like the example. There will be unallocated space available, Ubuntu should detect it, and should offer the option of installing to it.

Good luck
(It took a while, but I eventually learned my way around Linux and now use it instead of XP - a bit of learning, a bit of occassional frustration, but very rewarding)

staf:

Hi Gav,

I have created this partition under Vista and when I want to install Ubuntu on this unallocated partition Ubuntu says this partition is "unusable". I've tried to format it with GParted as .ext3 but since it is "unusable" I can not do so.
Any idea what this can be? In Vista it is not possible either to format this partition as fat32 or even NTFS.
regards,
Staf

staf:

Hi Gav,
I wonder if you could help me. you wrote "...There will be unallocated space available, Ubuntu should detect it, and should offer the option of installing to it." That is the problem, Ubuntu does not detect the unallocated space. It marks this partition as "unusable". It is also not possible to format this as ext3 with GParted. Even in Vista you can not format this partition as fat32.
Do you know what to do?
thanks,
Staf

Mike G:

On my Compaq 6820s, which runs Vista Business, I am seemingly getting some frequently seen problem. There is a large C partition, which I have duly shrunk, plus some other smallish partitions (including an HP recovery one). Like others, when I get to the partitioning I see no option for "Guided -use the largest continuous free space". I have "Guided -use entire disk", which is a NO-NO, or Manua, which sees a large chunk of unusable space after the C disk (i.e. the result of the shrink).
This is trying to install the latest Ubuntu (7.10).
I believe that I have seen a request for how to deal with the manual option, but have not seen any obvious reply.

tim:

I'm scratching my head here. I've followed the directions on this site and others. I have Vista and XP. I shrank my Vista volume as directed, but when I reboot after the Ubuntu install I do not get a grub screen. Just the usual screen that lets me choose Vista or "Older version of Windows"(XP). Everyone says it should "just work" which is why I'm confounded.

holto:

tim do you care to give me a few details about your setup?

is it a laptop and does it have a service partition?

does it have a combination of sata and pata drives ?

when you boot with the live disc what are the partition values (ie hdb4, sda2 ect ect...)

also if you can boot into a linux live session,

then run, "sudo grub"

the prompt should change and then type "find /boot/grub/stage1"

post the results here.

Irshi:

hello guys...im a newbie to this linux environment...im on the process of downloading linux suse 10.2 ...can u people tell me is there any problem installing suse linux in one of my fresh hard drive which has a space around 29GB...i have 4 drives and the c: drive is having vista ultimate loaded into it and i want to install suse 10.2 in one of my free drive...since im a noob plz tell the correct procedures for doing it...also i want the clear instructions for dual boot guys...any help will be appreciated pals...

Shang:

If you are new for Linux, don't try to install in the PC, instead try VM or live CD first.

andrei:

Hi! sorry to drop in, but I had the same problem as tim on my laptop (already having Vista :( installed), while trying to install ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon from the live CD...
Actually, the GRUB was not properly installed (fatal error...) and even after downloading & installing the packages, the find boot/grub/stage1 command returned a "no such file" error.
Must I use another ubuntu distro (7.04 FF seems not to be supported any more)?

Thx in advance

Aluizio:

Hi,

I've been working for 2 years with windows XP and linux ubuntu in my laptop.

Now, I got a new laptop (HP dv6335, intel GMD950)with vista. I am following your steps:
1) Partition - OK
2) Downloaded ubuntu 7.04 and burned CD - OK
3) Boot with cd ??? Here is my question. Could you explain this step in more details?

Thanks, Aluizio.

Aluizio:

Hi,
Please, could anyone help me?

How can I Boot the Vista machine from the Live CD? The computer automatically runs to windows. When I try ESC or F1 to break it, I got many choices and I am not sure how to point to the CD drive for booting...

Cheers, Aluizio.

kenfo:

during boot (before any vista screen) you will see text to the pt of "press x to enter setup". you need to press that button at that time, then go into the bios and change the boot order of the drives so that the CDROM (or DVD) is listed before the hard drive. You can change it back later if you wish...when you reboot the pc, you may see a msg like "press any key to boot to cd"...do that to boot to cd...that's it! if there is no cd in the drive, pc boots normally.

bianconero:

hi everyone, i have already installed Vista first on my new Dell Dimension E520 computer, so now i want to install OpenSuse 10.2, i boot my machine (and i´m sured that CD/DVD ROM is first in order than HDD in the booting setup), but when the DVD of Suse boots and shows the menu, says something like "HDD booting..." and automatically boot Vista again, i can´t press any key, not even F1 for help or F2 for lenguage, nothing...

someone please help me?

PD: i´m from Venezuela, sorry for my vague english

Gokool:

Means, Put your .iso CD (image)of Linux into your CD/DVD Rom drive and restart the computer. That is boot from CD. :-) This will load the CD that you have put in the drive as supposed to Windows vista. You'll be on live CD mode until you go through the "Install" process by click on the "Install" icon on your desktop. This icon goes away once install it into your computer. Good luck.

lastrider:

Hi,

I was hoping you could advise me with your expertise. I already have 2 partitions for my 1 physical HDD and I wanted to be sure before I jumped into an installation.

I wish to keep these 2 partitions, without adding another, C: where Vista is already installed and D: which has a few programs installed under Vista and other general documents.

So I wanted to know when at the Prepare Disk Space section of the install, what would I have to do? As I mentioned I would like to keep it at 2 partitions, obviously installing Ubuntu onto D: but I wish to keep the files there as it contains some programs installed under Vista. Would these files be wiped? I could easily do I backup of the other files and move them over to the C: partition, but I don't wish to uninstall and install the programs in partition D:

Is this possible? or should I take the easy route and shrink D: and install Ubuntu onto the unallocated space?

akrthik:

Hello all,

I am a newbie and I tried the above mentioned steps for installing
ubuntu 6.06, but after installing I'm not able to see vista on
the grub. I'm sure i did not miss any of the steps. i fear I wiped off
vista, is there any way I can recover it?

Thanks

Alejadro:

Thanks James, your guide save my life because I didnt want to broke the brand new "vista" PC of my girlfriend.

Hint: before start installing ubuntu, make shure the ubuntu-live can recognize and 'see' the vista partitions (mount -a).

Nik:

I am trying to install ubuntu 7.04 on my thinkpad Z61t that cam pre-installed with Vista Business. I've followed all the steps given above (shrink the volume in windows and use the largest contiguous free space for installing ubuntu)
At the last stage of the installation process, the migration assistant does not show Vista/Longhorn. Does this mean Ubuntu does not see Vista installed in a different partition? If I continue to install will I be able to boot back into Vista? Anyone else seen this problem?
Unfortunately Lenovo didn't provide me with a Vista installation disk. So I won't be able to simply reinstall vista if the ubuntu installation doesn't work.

B-Roy:

If you got one of those vista anytime upgrade dvd's, which come with most pc's, you can use that to install vista. Just found out a few days ago that it actually is bootable and has all the vista installations on it. Then you could just use the key from the sticker on the bottom of the laptop to install a legit copy of vista again!

qwerty:

This is wrt pt.55 on pt.54 - The problem is same for me. The migration assistant during Ubuntu7.04 installation does not recognize the Vista Loader. I am installing it on a vaio laptop with a service partition and a C drive. I made a partition from C and tried installing Ubuntu as directed but got stuck up in the final installtion screen. Experts - any workaround

creyes-au:

I have a Lenovo laptop too and the migration assistant did not show Vista/Longhorn however I continued with last step and when I booted a I still saw 2 Vista OS (My hidden SW drive) and the installation one and selecting the last one I could boot to Vista without problems. In this tutorial at the end teaches you how to make Vista the default.

sergioS:

I followed your tutorial to the letter but I didn't get what it promised. I have Vista Ultimate already installed on one hard drive. I proceeded as suggested in the tutorial to install via a CD live Ubuntu 7.04 on the space freed in a second drive by shrinking with Vista Disk Management the previous partition on that drive. What I got on rebooting was:
"GRUB loading stage 1.5
GRUB loading please wait ....
Error 22 "
and it stuck there.
(Very hard to restore previous situation and getting rid of GRUB. I made it thanks to an image of drive C: previously backed up).
Now, I really would like to try again installing UBUNTU (and enjoy all the beryl stuff I have seen) but how to get around that grub problem? Thanks for any suggestion.

Steel Frog:

To resolve error 22, remove any USB stick(s) and other removable media from the PC when booting up. :)

Amadomon:

Someone PLEASE help me-- I am not a noob, having configured several dual-boot machines in the past, though always with XP/Ubuntu. I understand that Vista handles the MBR differently, and have followed all instructions to successfully shrink the volume in Vista--it shows up as an unallocated volume. However, when I then attempt to boot from a Feisty Live CD, the kernel loads but the hangs up with this error message:

BusyBox v1.1.3 (Debian 1:1.1.3-3ubuntu3) built-in shell (ash)
/bin/sh: can't access tty; job control turned off
(initramfs)

What gives? I can't seem to install Ubuntu into my unallocated volume. Please help-- Vista is a vast improvement over XP, but I want Ubuntu back, especially with this new Core 2 Duo chip! Thanks in advance.

Tony:

I get exactly the same problem.
Has anyone overcome this please.
Dell Inspiron 1420 notebook being used.

Arun:

I got the same problem with Dell Latitude D830. Hunting for solution now...

jj:

help!

Qwert Man:

If i just completely remove the ubuntu partition after doing this, will I be able to boot into Vista safely, or will that mess up GRUB? Please reply to me by e-mail (max@qwertycake.com), I don't check here often (there should be a posts RSS).

gus:

hi,
can't get online through ubuntu after successful dual booting vista and ubuntu. i think i've enabled my wireless connection in ubuntu (harder than partitioning) and still no connection. in vista the connection is ok. and guess what? my isp does not offer support for linux users. microsoft rules? not if i can help it. any suggestions? i'm looking at linux on-line help but so far no good.
gus

Biren Shah:

I am having the exact same problem.. Any help will be useful

Lee Jackson:

New laptop, 30GB free (unpartitioned) space - I can get all the way through to the final step but the migration manager(?) sadly doesnt see the Vista partition. Im assuming this is due to the ASUS recovery partition.

Cant aford to be sans laptop so no Ubuntu goodness for me today.

Sandeep:

i have tried installing ubuntu on my Compaq Presario F500 with AMD sempron 1.8 Ghz , Nvidia graphics card, 1 GB RAM, 80 GB hard disk. After the intial installation screen, the screen turns blank and only option left is to re-boot.
Please help!!!

frank:

i just installed the linux ubuntu on my laptop, vista came pre installed, i follow all steps in here, the problems is that when im trying to get in vista my system shows the winvista logo loading and after restarts again the systems.

Who can i solve it ??

Nicola Giosmin:

Thank you guys for this clear guide. In about 30 minutes I completed Ubuntu installation and now I
have a perfect working dual boot system. :)

You're great.

nicgios

Joe:

Hi

I recently bought a new laptop (HP Pavilion dv6386sc) AMD Turion™ 64 X2 Mobile Technology, 2048 MB, 160 GB, 15,4" og 2 GB RAM, which has a pre-installed version of Windows Vista Premium. I downloaded the lastest version from Ubuntu and then proceded to install Ubuntu, after I have left 15 GB of un-allocated space as per your instructions.

The installation went fine, and I was within the uBuntu operating system. I then after a while shutdown the laptop and rebooted in order to get to the dual boot window and test it. It however started immediately with Windows Vista, not providing me with an option to select which operating system I want to use. I have re-installed Ubuntu again, but my problem is still un-resolved.

I am not able to boot to Ubuntu, since the dual boot is not working.

How do I fix this? I am new to Linux and would really like to use it.

Look forward to some asistence and possible a solution to fix this?

Joe