Hey there. As stated in the subject, I am a newcomer (potentially) to Linux. If this is the wrong place for this I apologize. I searched the forums (and all over the internet) for my specific issues/questions and most of the threads concurrent to hardware that I saw were here.
I've heard about the awesomeness of Linux for years. How the support is, how stable it is, how far superior to M$ it is; but, alike too many out there I've not taken the "plunge" yet. In fact, this week has been the first step I've taken at actually looking into it. Of course, like many others, I would feel more comfortable dual booting the system with Windows (as Windows is all I've used for the last, let's see, 15 years?). I have a couple games that I like to play through windows and am not quite sure how well my particular system and experience would hold up to running Windows through a VM. I've read so many articles and forum posts on dual booting that I think I can find my way through that part. My main issues: using ssd as OS, hdd as storage and partitioning.
I'll start out by listing the system I currently have shipping, then proceed with my concerns. I tried to research the parts I ordered to make sure they did have support for running Linux. System specs are as follows: AMD 890FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 motherboard, AMD Phenom II X4 3.4GHz CPU, radeon HD 5830 1GB 256-bit DDR5 GPU, 8GB DDR3 1333 SDRAM, 1TB WD caviar black HDD, 80GB Intel x25-M ssd, LITE-ON blu-ray burner/player, ASUS DVD burner/player.
I already know that I have to partition the ssd (mainly after installing Windows, disk management -> shrink partition etc.) and then install Kubuntu (after placing the CD in and formatting the space for it right?) Now, for disk optimizing I should leave some unpartitioned space, so I should have a total of 4 partitions right? One for Windows itself, one for the partition that Windows automatically makes (100MB iirc?), one for Linux OS and one for the unpartitioned for ssd optimization. Anyone know if I should allocate these partitions before any OS install (or is there a way to do it through one of the OS')? It's a decent sized ssd just for OS so I was going to do something like 40 gigs for Windows, 20 gigs for Kubuntu, and the rest as unpartitioned (though that seems like a lot of space to leave for optimization). I'm not 100% sure on lining up the blocks and whatnot so I'll need clarification on that.
Another concern I have is with the hdd for storage, does that drive need to be formatted for use as only storage, and do I need to partition it off respectively for each operating system? I'd really like to have the data accessible to both systems if possible, just as a sense of security. I've read the posts here about moving the swap and /home folders through dolphin to the hdd and read about moving the main Windows files but I'm not clearly understanding their coexistence and how they are accessible from system to system. I've read a couple posts showing how to set up ssd boot drives for single operating systems but not for dual, plus I've never run dual boot before so that's why I'm so unsure about what I'm doing.
Again, I'm not sure if this is the best place to post this since this IS the 10.10 pre-install forum, maybe it should go to newbie forums? Anyways, thanks in advance to all those who may have knowledge, suggestions, and acceptance. I know the usage of Windows and Linux together is not ideal, but we all have to start somewhere and this is where I choose to start. :P With the limited life of the ssd's I just want to make sure I'm as close to 100% surety as to what I'm doing before I just start hooking stuff up and installing stuff.
edit: formatted from wall o' text as per request, hope this helps
I've heard about the awesomeness of Linux for years. How the support is, how stable it is, how far superior to M$ it is; but, alike too many out there I've not taken the "plunge" yet. In fact, this week has been the first step I've taken at actually looking into it. Of course, like many others, I would feel more comfortable dual booting the system with Windows (as Windows is all I've used for the last, let's see, 15 years?). I have a couple games that I like to play through windows and am not quite sure how well my particular system and experience would hold up to running Windows through a VM. I've read so many articles and forum posts on dual booting that I think I can find my way through that part. My main issues: using ssd as OS, hdd as storage and partitioning.
I'll start out by listing the system I currently have shipping, then proceed with my concerns. I tried to research the parts I ordered to make sure they did have support for running Linux. System specs are as follows: AMD 890FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 motherboard, AMD Phenom II X4 3.4GHz CPU, radeon HD 5830 1GB 256-bit DDR5 GPU, 8GB DDR3 1333 SDRAM, 1TB WD caviar black HDD, 80GB Intel x25-M ssd, LITE-ON blu-ray burner/player, ASUS DVD burner/player.
I already know that I have to partition the ssd (mainly after installing Windows, disk management -> shrink partition etc.) and then install Kubuntu (after placing the CD in and formatting the space for it right?) Now, for disk optimizing I should leave some unpartitioned space, so I should have a total of 4 partitions right? One for Windows itself, one for the partition that Windows automatically makes (100MB iirc?), one for Linux OS and one for the unpartitioned for ssd optimization. Anyone know if I should allocate these partitions before any OS install (or is there a way to do it through one of the OS')? It's a decent sized ssd just for OS so I was going to do something like 40 gigs for Windows, 20 gigs for Kubuntu, and the rest as unpartitioned (though that seems like a lot of space to leave for optimization). I'm not 100% sure on lining up the blocks and whatnot so I'll need clarification on that.
Another concern I have is with the hdd for storage, does that drive need to be formatted for use as only storage, and do I need to partition it off respectively for each operating system? I'd really like to have the data accessible to both systems if possible, just as a sense of security. I've read the posts here about moving the swap and /home folders through dolphin to the hdd and read about moving the main Windows files but I'm not clearly understanding their coexistence and how they are accessible from system to system. I've read a couple posts showing how to set up ssd boot drives for single operating systems but not for dual, plus I've never run dual boot before so that's why I'm so unsure about what I'm doing.
Again, I'm not sure if this is the best place to post this since this IS the 10.10 pre-install forum, maybe it should go to newbie forums? Anyways, thanks in advance to all those who may have knowledge, suggestions, and acceptance. I know the usage of Windows and Linux together is not ideal, but we all have to start somewhere and this is where I choose to start. :P With the limited life of the ssd's I just want to make sure I'm as close to 100% surety as to what I'm doing before I just start hooking stuff up and installing stuff.
edit: formatted from wall o' text as per request, hope this helps
Comment