Simple question about dual-boot

[dragon1964m]

Originally, my Dell had 3 partitions from the factory. Dell tools, Windows, and the system recovery partition. I deleted the recovery partition from inside Windows so it would become part of my "C" drive. Then I ran the Ubuntu 10.10 install CD. I used the disk utility to shrink the Windows partition. I kind of work backwards when I do this. I see how much disk space I have to work with (the size of my Windows install), I planned on 5 GB for swap and 45 GB for Ubuntu plus, 50 GB for the BT5 install. I made my Windows partition 100GB smaller. Now, I tell the Ubuntu installer to make a 5 GB swap file and a 45 GB Ext 4 partition. Once formatted, I make another 50 GB Ext 4 partition. (Both linux installs can share the same swap file). Now, I install Ubuntu 10.10 in the 45 GB space. And last I install the BT5 to the 50 GB space. The Ubuntu has the older version of Grub, I want that to be overwritten by the newer BT5 version of Grub. For me that has resolved any Grub issues. (Always install older before newer).

[GrumpyOldGuy]

BigNick - to answer the question you keep asking - as long as you do things right you won't lose your Win7 data.

1. Resize (shrink) your HD partitions in windows to make space for your BT install. There is a windows utility (I forget the exact name - some sort of "disk manager") that will do this for you.

2. Boot off your BT disk. Type "ubiquity" at the prompt (well, ok, I haven't done this in BT5 yet, so I suppose it might not be the same command - somebody speak up if it has changed).

3. Follow the so-simple-a-windows-user-can-do-it instructions. Just be sure to install BT to the empty space you created in step 1.

4. Reboot. You'll see GRUB loader instead of the Win7 boot process you are familiar with. It'll default to booting into BT (at least mine does) so whenever you want to boot into Win7 you'll have to pick that option during the GRUB loader process.

Voila. You now have a dual boot l33t h4x0r machine. And you still have your Win7 box and data available, just with slightly smaller storage on the disk since part of it is now devoted (and aren't we all?) to BT.

[Garg0yle]

so what you mean is that if install BT5 side by side with windows (swap install) i won't lose my windows 7 data, right ?

Correct if you use the installer included with BT5 you can install it to a separate partition.