How to Use Two Hard Drives & Two Platform Systems

Dual-booting your system is the act of having two operating systems on the same computer. You can achieve this either by partitioning one hard drive to create two virtual drives or by having two hard drives inside your computer. Dual-booting is as simple as installing both operating systems. This is most commonly done with Windows and Linux, though it can be achieved with Windows and OS X.

Things You'll Need

• Operating system installation discs
• Blank CD

Instructions

Dual-Booting with Windows and Linux

1. Obtain installation discs for your operating system; if you've already got Windows installed, then you only need the disc for Linux. DistroWatch offers a list of top ten Linux distributions (see "Resources"); read its notes for ideas of which Linux distribution will work best for you.

2. Install your first operating system, if it is not already installed on the computer.

3. Insert the second installation disc once your first in complete, and begin your second installation. Make sure the second operating system is installed to the blank hard drive.

4. Reboot when the installation is complete. Your computer should display the Grand Unix Bootloader (GRUB), which is a black screen that lists your operating system options.

Dual-Booting with OS X and Windows

1. Do a software update on your Mac, as well as an update of your firmware.

2. Download Boot Camp.

3. Open Boot Camp Assistant, select "Start the Windows installer."

4. Choose the hard drive where you want to install Windows.

5. Put the Windows installation disc into the computer.

6. Start the installation in the Boot Camp Assistant.

7. Follow the Windows setup prompts. Make sure, when asked, to select the disc that reads "Disk 0 Partition 3 BOOTCAMP."

8. Hold down the "Option" key during startup to choose which operating system to run.

Tips & Warnings

• In Windows/Linux systems, install Windows first; the Windows installation overwrites the boot files that allow you to dual boot into Linux. If you install Windows second you can still recover the GRUB for Linux. Methods for restoring the GRUB are available under "Resources."

• If GRUB does not display Windows as a boot option, update GRUB from your Linux operating system.

• Apple only provides Boot Camp drivers for Windows. LifeHacker offers an alternative tutorial for triple-booting your Mac with Windows and Ubuntu; the link is available under "Resources."

• Backup all your important files before beginning.

• The default format for Windows drives is NTFS; Linux can read this, but cannot write to it. Conversely, Windows cannot read or write to Linux hard drive formats. Creating a FAT32 partition creates a virtual drive that both Windows and Linux are capable of reading and writing to; this simplifies working on the same files from both operating systems.

• Only Apple computers with Intel chips are able to use Boot Camp to dual boot with Windows.

• You will need to have your own Windows installation disc in addition to Boot Camp.

• Boot Camp will not run any Windows editions earlier than XP with Service Pack 2.

References

• PC World: Free Agent: Dual-Boot Basics
• PC World: Q&A: What You Should Know About Macs Running Windows
• Mac 101: Using Windows on your Mac via Boot Camp
• Boot Camp Installation and Setup

Resources

• buntu Documentation: Recovering Ubuntu After Installing Windows
• DistroWatch: Top Ten Distributions