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61% of Users are Scared of Dual Booting Linux

seopher.com — Or so the results of the latest poll state. Clearly there is room for the results to vary but it's looking like one of the key problems for Linux is that a high number of Windows users are scared to dual boot.

Who dugg this? Made popular Oct 12, 2006

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  • neko, on 10/12/2007, -1/+55I'm scared of dual booting windows.

    Dual booting, in any direction, is painful. Rebooting just because of one app or the other that you need (which is on the other OS) is too much hassle. I'm much happier with two machines and a bit of networking magic (Samba, Synergy) -- although I understand that's not an option for everyone.
  • uownedge, on 10/12/2007, -0/+18For reference, you can also rebuild your MBR to boot Windows if you delete your Linux partition.

    Just boot up your Windows CD, choose to go to the recovery console, and type:
    fixboot
    fixmbr

    Can come in handy if you make a mistake, or just find a reason to delete your Linux partition.
  • battmutler, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1660 percent of the time it works every time.
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+15dual booting is easy, just make sure to install the linux partition 2nd, cause windows will ***** it up so you can only boot windows if you install it last

    personally i can understand people being afraid to run any other OS with windows, as windows support for anything non-ms centric is TERRIBLE.., MS supports 2 file systems, linux supports 250+?

    hell im afraid to single boot windows
  • subgeniusd, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13Totally agree. Seen too many cries for help with failed multi-boots. NAT routers provide fabulous security and I have 3 computers LAN linked each safe and happy with its' own OS. (2 Linux, 1 XP).

    OTOH I was on the Tech Guys forum yesterday and a regular there has a link to his very detailed description of his 50 OS multi-boot system (yes that is FIFTY) which he claims works without the slightest problem. And I believe him.

  • Dayz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11The Poll now states only 37% are scared and 62% ar enot scared
  • sfchakan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11Btw, I highly recommend burning off Ultimate Boot CD and storing it somewhere safe. It has saved my ass a number of times and can easily fix you up in some of those situations.

    http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/
  • uownedge, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11That's nothing new...the Windows install has always overwritten the MBR, since the Windows 98 days. Most Linux installers take a look and see if there are any other bootable partitions, and automatically add them to the grub or lilo config. While Linux still overwrites the MBR, at least it provides the options to boot to Windows on it's own.

    There are a few ways you can use NTLDR to boot to another OS, but it's more painful than letting a Linux installer do the config for you.
  • blkno1, on 10/12/2007, -5/+16I'd be scared too, if I booted anything in addition to Linux.
  • fergus9, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1057% of stats are made up on spot (incl. this one).
  • ScornForSega, on 10/12/2007, -5/+14Every single time I've attempted a dual-boot, Linux would attempt to create a new partition in the free space of the drive, and every time, it would eat the windows partition. That, of course, is only the begenning of the headache and it usually ends with attemping a low-level format to rid the hard drive of the damn boot loader.

    Nowdays, I'll either setup a dedicated machine for VirtualPC/VMware it.
  • randomvictim, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8I wasn't scared to dual boot into linux, although it *damn you ubuntu* raped my windows partition. Maybe I should have been.
  • seopher, on 10/12/2007, -4/+12I believe having 50 dual boots is something to do with having perfect Chi or something. My dual boots are more of a headache than anything else.
  • ahawks, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8I love Linux, and have been working in the Linux field for about 3 years now. However..

    There is good reason to fear dualbooting.
    Among myself and my friends, plenty of Windows partitions have been wiped by accident... for example:

    "I wanna put this file on my windows partition, /dev/hda1, let's try cp file /dev/hda1. or cat file > /dev/hda1"

    "what's this mkfs tool do? OH. oops."

    (and done by myself...)
    "Eh, I don't have /windows_c mounted. I want to get rid of that mountpoint. rm -rf /windows_c" ....... 20-30 seconds pass... "wow, that's taking a long time... *****!"

    Linux is like C++, It certainly makes it very easy to shoot yourself in the foot.
  • JorgeGT, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7And 84.654867% of statistics claim an accuracy not achievable with the method used to make them. :-D
  • Buelldozer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7I'm tired of dual booting. Once EdgyEft (Ubuntu 6.10) goes gold I'm burning all of my machine downs, booting SOLEY to Edgy and running Windows XP inside of a VMWare session.
  • timewarrior, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Using bootpart is a better method than using the linux bootloader on the mbr.If you delete the linux partition your windows will still be safe this way.
    http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Boot-Manager-Disk/Bootpart.shtml
    http://www.winimage.com/bootpart.htm
  • Dred, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7I have no problems with my dual boot acer(xp, ubuntu). I like it, it also happens to be my companies laptop. I was comfortable enough to with dual booting to do it. There are alot of guides out there now to help people who are afraid of it.
  • wurzelgummage, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6I've had Linux installs catastrophically ***** my Windows partition several times over the years.
    So whenever I feel like trying linux for the 1200th time, I put it on a separate disk entirely, and just change the boot priority in the BIOS.
  • nathan8225, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6This makes me sad inside.
  • mathmanjeffy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Preaching to the choir...

    84% of digg users knew that already.
  • smiley2billion, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7"The brutal facts that windows has better apps that is used by the majority of computer users."

    Careful with the word "better". I'd use something like "better known" or "more familiar". Just think, if you had spent the years learning Linux instead of Windows I believe you'd think the apps in Linux were "better" because using Windows to you would be just the same as using Linux is now.

    Linux has tons and tons of amazing applications... unfortunately with steep learning curves.
  • FudgeNuggets, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6No worries, unless you delete your Windows partition, if you screw up the install or just don't dig Linux then jump into repair console from the Windows setup CD, and type FIXMBR and all will be good and the villagers will rejoice!!!
  • sheared, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6I'm not afraid of dual booting, but when I start running out of hard disk space when working on my videos, the first thing I start looking at is that huge Linux partition. I've gotten to the point now that I just don't even go there. That saves me the hassle later on. Archiving video sucks up hard disk space, unfortunately.
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5hmm, when I run low on space i start eyeing that huge Windows partition....
  • Somniis, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Way too easy to mess up ***** when dual-booting when not knowing what to do. May be just me, but dual-booting is more of a headache than anything. :-(
  • foolfromhell, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Which is why programs like Paralells are doign so well
  • MrTea, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5There is also the UBCD4WIN (Ultimate Boot CD for Windows) if you have a Winxp CD.

    http://www.ubcd4win.com/

    It creates a boot disc from the data on Winxp CD's that's capable of running windows apps.
  • jkbrowne, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7Never mind the dual-booting... I'm scared to *run* windows.
  • airencracken, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I dual-boot quite easily with Suse 10 and WinXP. I do however have seperate disks. I'd never just have two partitions.
  • sailor, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I have re-installed windows leaving the linux partition intact...re-install linux leaving the windows partition intact...it is not that hard, you just need to follow directions. If you don't get the desired result ask for help...join a forum...etc
  • maino82, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5I dual boot most of my machines, but when I'm in one OS, I usually stay in that OS for an extended period of time. I like the flexibility it offers me (especially on my laptop) and the access to a wide variety of applications that two (or more) operating systems provides me. The only thing that bugs me is when my Windows partition raps out and I have to reinstall and thus reinstall Linux (because I generally use GRUB), but I'll have to look into bootpart which was mentioned earlier as that seems to solve such a problem.
  • uownedge, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Those crazy rambunctious villagers!
  • MrTea, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I've tried maybe 4 linux distro's and I have never had a problem with the ext3 filesystem (just the distro's :P ). However, the NTFS on xp has given me problems with bad and/or corrupt sectors before.
  • benplaut, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5I'm scared of dual booting... i'm really scared that windows would somehow f* up my linux install...

    Thus, i am linux only.
  • sailor, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I use Fedora Core and these are the standard directions, it has always worked for me.

    To re-install Grub if it fails or have other problems:
    1. Boot off the 1st linux CD or a rescue CD
    2. At the boot prompt type 'linux rescue'
    3. The rescue mode will find the linux installation
    4. Type 'chroot /mnt/sysimage'
    5. Type 'grub-install /dev/hda' (to install Grub to the MBR of the 1st HD)"

    If windows won't boot any more or you want to remove linux do the following:
    Assuming your using Win XP, this is how to repair your MBR (remove the grub entires):

    1. Insert the Windows XP CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive, and then restart the computer.
    2. When the 'Welcome to Setup' screen appears, press R to start the Recovery Console.
    3.. When you are prompted, type the Administrator password. If the administrator password is blank (you didn't set one), just press ENTER
    4. At the command prompt remove grub by using the command: fixmbr
    5. reboot and windows should start normaly.
  • clickwir, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Kubuntu was the first Distro I tried dualbooting with winXP. All others I just tried out on a spare pc.

    I used a seperate GpartED Live CD to do the partioning and then rebooted with Kubutnu, told it which of the partions it could use and away we went.

    Honestly I booted into windows maybe a handful of times since then... in the begining. Now It's been well over a month that my pc has booted WinXP, I use Kubutnu all the time now. Have it as a dual boot on my desktop and laptop, and just Kubuntu on my gf's desktop. I also have Kubuntu in a VMWare image on my work pc and rather use that than WinXP for myself. But some of the work apps don't play well with Windows.

    Wine has been great on Kubuntu, really helps out. It's not perfect but it's better than booting windows. I'll be trying the VMWare player on my home pc to run Win XP, just to see if I can. I really don't have a need to run windows anymore.
  • uownedge, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3To solve this issue, you can use a Linux Live CD (something like the Gentoo Minimal install CD works perfectly, regardless of which distro you're using).

    Assuming you're using Grub, you can simply mount your Linux partition(s), chroot in (chroot /mnt/mydir /bin/bash), and then run grub-install /dev/hd (where hd of course represents your HDD number...so for IDE drive 0, it would be /dev/hda).
  • lancer8869, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I'll admit, I'm scared of doing it, because I tried it once before. I was arrogant and thought I could pull it off easily, and found myself having to reinstall Windows and restoring the hell out of my computer. If you are not a (decently) talented computer user, you have the potential to seriously damage your system by trying to do this. For those who can easily do it, and set up the necessary procautions, it should be a walk in the park.
  • Zjm7891, on 10/12/2007, -1/+490% I was told 47% of the time statistics were made up, the other 10% of the time I'm told 95% of the time that 57% of statistics are made up and then the other 5% of the time I'm told everything on the internet is true!
  • brundlefly76, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Dual booting indeed sucks, and there are reasons to be concerned.

    First off, there are restrictions on which parts of the disk can be booted from and the new user can easily screw this up and wind up with a system which does not boot.

    Second, boot loader problems are damned ugly and usually provide little or no clue as to what wrong or how to fix it. Anyone who recognizes the words 'NTLOADER', 'Bad geometry' or 'GRUB ERROR 77', or (my personal favorite) the first few letters of 'LILO' would agree. Not a good introduction to anything.
  • celticeric, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3The problem that many newbies run into when trying to set up a dual-boot is that most computer retailers no longer supply a proper Windows install disk. Instead, you get an OEM version of the Windows installer that is nothing more than a ghost image that completely wipes out whatever partitioning and installing you've done before.

    To add that that headache, on most newer computers, if you try resizing the NTFS partition of an OEM install to make room for Linux, it will bork Windows. Also, in my experience, XP Home addition has weird issues with GRUB.

    If you happen to have a full copy of XP Pro, however, it's just a matter of creating/resizing partitions, installing Windows, then installing Linux.

    I've got a very nice Ubuntu/XP setup that serves me well.
  • uownedge, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3That is so far from the truth, it's not even funny.

    The whole dual booting concept in itself (the premise of the article and this thread) proves you wrong. I can't pop a Windows CD into my Linux box, install Windows, and expect to still be able to boot to Linux. Pop a Linux CD into my Windows box, and not only will it automatically allow me to dual boot with Windows, it will also let me resize my Windows partition, if necessary, so I don't need to use 3rd party apps like Partition Magic.

    My $10 says you've never used Linux in your life.
  • dukeinlondon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+361% scared of dual booting and the 99% others don't even know that they could....
  • BobWoodshed, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I have no fear dual booting Linux with Windows, but for whatever reason dual booting it with OSX scares me. Maybe I'll give it a shot once Boot Camp states in actual print that X distribution is officially supported. In the mean time I'll stick with a separate machine running Linux.


  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3As they should be. I don't even want to think about how many times my MBR has become corrupt leaving me with the dreaded 'GRUB error 17' or something equally as cryptic. From what I understand it's mostly Windows not wanting to play nice, but still, it's enough for me to avoid dual booting Linux/Windows.
  • Skidlz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+261% of users think huge, blocky, Unicode font will, overtime, turn you gay.
  • Dominus_Maximus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Right now I have my computer triple booted with Windows XP, Vista RC1, and Ubuntu. No problems at all. I've never had any problems at all with dual booting, unless I want to remove Linux, then its just fixboot, fixmbr in the Windows CD's recovery console.

    Now, what would be nice is an easy way to simply remove GRUB, or set its default to boot into Windows. (if there is an easy way to do that, I would like to know how)

    I don't think dual booting is something to be afraid of at all, but when setting it up, you do need to be careful with what you're doing. It also needs to be more user friendly for the average person to accept it.
  • dukeinlondon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Sounds made up to me..... What has linux to do with whatever you used to remove the partition ubuntu was on ?
  • Providence, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I did a dual boot with my Dell Laptop. It did it successfully. Although, I am really starting to HATE ubuntu because of how unflexible it is with (in particular) Dell wireless cards. I spent hours installing drivers through the Terminal, to no avail. I even found a perfect guide, and followed it to the "T." No wireless on ubuntu for me!

    That's the only reason I never use it and always boot XP at start up instead. If I could get that fixed, I'd permanently switch over on my laptop.

    The Terminal/Command Line method of installing can be daunting when you first try it out, but once you get the hang of it, it actually becomes kinda fun.
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