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Wanting to Create a Linux Partition on Windows 7

n0ct3m

Android Enthusiast
Jun 29, 2010
419
59
Mississippi
Title kinda says it all. I feel like I'm at the point where I'd kinda like to try Linux out, but the thought of setting up a partition and installing it makes me feel really small an unintelligent. Is there any good guides you guys know of or can any of you point me in the general direction to get this ball rolling for me?
 
If you just want to give linux a spin, and want to try Ubuntu, you can install it just like a normal program in windows, no partitioning required. Then if you don't like it you can just uninstall it from windows.

I've heard Ubuntu doesn't quite run 100% in that setup, but I couldn't tell the difference.

Or you can run it in a Virtual Machine, but it will probably put a strain on your PC that was and won't perform to it's best.

If you want to go all the way though, I did it the way SoulTerror explained.
 
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Okay, since it is HIGHLY unlikely that your system actually has unallocated space, setting up a new partition is actually really easy in Windows 7. Just follow Method One listed here to shrink your existing partition:

Partition or Volume - Shrink - Windows 7 Forums

Then, when you go to install Linux, you'll see the unpartitioned space (or the new partition if you right click and add a partition).
 
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Try a live CD, or usb. Don't even have to install it at all on your computer incase you hate it, OpenSuse, Ubuntu, whatever you choose.

Virtualbox is also a great way, like was mentioned

Also, if you do decide to dual boot, you don't need to use windows to partition your drive, the linux installer will give you that option, and will probably do a better job, because windows can't do anything right IMHO.

Linux has come a LONG ways in the last few years, but it still can be very difficult at times, be prepared to do a lot of reading and researching when something does go wrong, and it will. Wireless and Video cards seem to be the biggest pain in the ass now, but all in all it is worth it, you will enjoy not having to purge your computer of spyware,malware, virii every other day, plus the speed increase is incredible.

Enjoy!
 
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I would second the recommendations for running a live session from a CD, DVD or USB. You can run most linux distros in a virtual machine from within windows, but there is no need to do that or to install anything in the overwhelming majority of desktop distros these days. Instead, you can do a live CD, DVD or USB and boot directly from that medium. That allows you to run the program as it is intended to be seen without installing anything on the computer until you decide to do so.

First you need to access your bios and change the device boot order. Make sure your machine is set up to first boot from a USB, then from your optical drive and third from your hard drive. In this way the computer will look to those other two devices first when booting up for an operating system. if it doesn't find an OS in one, it will simply move to the next down the list until it does. I tried to attach instructions below to help you set your bios, but the file was just a little too large for the attachment limit. PM me your e-mail address and I'll e-mail you a copy.

Now that you have your BIOS set up, Live CD's are an easy and cheap way of testing a distro. However, short of installing it, I find that nothing works as well as a live USB, as those are able to reproduce an OS in close to native install performance. Most distros that allow for the creation of Live USBs call for a 2gb thumb drive, but I prefer to use a 4gb drive and give myself the room to try larger live DVD ISO files on the USB (this is good for large distros that come prepackaged with tons of extra software). Amazon.com is a good place to find cheap 4GB USB thumb drives (I went with Kingston) and they are very easy to reformat and reuse if you want to try different Distros. If you're interested in creating a live USB, download and use the following Windows based program, Unetbootin (it is also available as a Linux package):

UNetbootin - Homepage and Downloads

If you would still rather run live CD's and live DVD's, then download the following windows based program:

ISO Recorder v 2

Please note that some distros are not made to have Unetbootin create a live USB out of them. You can always create them manually if unetbootin is unable, just look for the method in that distros community forum. Sometimes your best option will be to run a live CD/DVD.

Also keep in mind that Most ISO files are large (between 500 and 700 MB's on average, with most falling in the +/-600mb range). Most offer download mirrors, but those can take the better part of an hour to download on a fast internet connection. Consider downloading a torrent client (I recommend http://www.utorrent.com/
 
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Do a search for gparted boot cd or gparted live cd. gparted is an open source utility that ships on a lot of linux distros and is similar to partition magic and the like, you can shrink your windows partition and then create a partition for linux. Its also useful for other things, upgraded a neighbors hard disk in his laptop by booting off of it and using dd to copy from one to the other then expand.
If you want to try out a linux distro under windows virtualbox is a good free program, however keep in mine whatever os you run under windows will be quite slow so you won't get a fair eval of the linux os. Windows memory management is designed wrong for virtualization so as the virtual guest os requests more memory windows just sends it out to swap and slows the whole thing down. running other os's under a linux host is a whole lot faster.
 
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Sigh.

Windows 7 has a built-in partition resize utility (in Drive management) that allows you to make even your system partition smaller (provide that you have enough free space to do this) so that you can then use your Linus Distro to install in the free space created.

While GPartd is good, it is not native to Windows, and every once in a blue moon it can actually b0rk your Windows install - best bet is to use Windows 7 drive management and make your system partition smaller, then install *nix into the free space that you created, once you decide that running *nix inside windows is a total waste of resources.... :D
 
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