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How to install Windows 7 and Ubuntu side by side

This tutorial is fully relevant for the latest editions of Ubuntu and even Windows 8!

Windows 7 is out. Ubuntu 9.10 is coming next week. Do you know what this means? It's time for a dual boot tutorial. We have learned how to install Windows 7. We have learned how to install Ubuntu.

Today, we will learn how to install Windows 7 AND Ubuntu, side by side on the same hard disk, in what is known as a dual boot configuration. In the Ubuntu installation guide, I have promised you we would do this, so here we are.

What are we going to do?

We are going to do what a typical Windows user would do:

We will install Ubuntu on a computer that already has Windows 7 installed. We will have to accommodate space for our Ubuntu installation. To this end, we will use the GParted partitioning tool to resize (shrink) the Windows installation and create new partitions for Ubuntu.

After Ubuntu is installed, we will have to deal with an error - a typical case of unbootable Windows, a common problem that can occur when the Windows installation is changed. We will learn how to deal with this problem simply and efficiently using the built-in tools, fixing the Windows boot issue. In the end, we will have the two operating systems installed side by side in a dual boot configuration, both working happily.

This tutorial is critical for any Windows user considering running Linux alongside his/her installation. Not only will it teach the user how to interpret the hard disk layout and change it safely and smartly, it will also expose the user to a seemingly catastrophic boot failure, which we will solve. This exercise in dual-booting is as real as it can get.

Follow me.

Preliminary reading

To be able to fully enjoy this tutorial and follow all its minute details, you must invest...