How to install Ubuntu Linux by dual booting it with Windows

Previously I had given you an overview of Ubuntu Linux. Now today lets try to install it on your hard disk. Don’t worry if you are a newbie and are running Windows. I’ll show you how to install it alongside with Windows. This means your Windows partition and all your data will remain intact and you also get the advantage of trying out Linux. After starting your PC, you’ll get an option to choose between Windows and Linux. Just select your choice through arrow keys and press Enter key. That’s what we’ll be doing here. But to achieve this we just need one thing and that is one free partition on your Windows. That means one of your drives like D: or E: should be empty and don’t contain any data. If they contain any data then you can move it to some other drive.

So lets start our adventure:

1) Insert your Ubuntu CD and boot from it. If you don’t have Ubuntu’s CD then you can order it for free from here. Or you can download from here. Now select the option of “Try Ubuntu without installing” and press Enter.

2) Now you’ll get a screen like this. Double click on Install.

3) Now just enter the appropriate information as asked by the installation process.

4) On this screen which asks for “How do you want to partition the disk? ” Click on “Manual”. We select here manual because we want to manually give the information related to partitioning and all that.

5) Now select the partition which you emptied previously. You’ll need t identify that partition by seeing its size and free space. You’ll not get here as C: or D: like in Windows. Now make two partitions from this, use one for / (root) and use another for “Swap”. / is where Ubuntu installs all the files for its funtioning. And swap is like page file in Windows. 2 GB of swap is enough.

6) After this whole preocess Ubuntu will ask questions like your Name and what password you would like to set. Password is compulsory in Ubuntu, you can’t get away without it like in Windows. And yes, remember your password as you would require it everytime you logon to Ubuntu.

That’s it now Ubuntu will install, time will depend on your PC’s configuration. After rebooting you will see “Grub” i.e. its a menu which asks you to which OS you want to start. Select your preferred operating system and press Enter.

This is how you can get the best of both World. Even if you have any problems in Windows you can always start Ubuntu and continue your work. Welcome to the beautful World of free open source software (FOSS).