Windows Vista second operating system (linux xubuntu)

[pmthunder22]

I have windows vista but i was trying to put linux xubunu, or ubuntu, or any of those onto my external hd to boot my computer through the external to run linux. Unfortunately i accidentally downloaded it onto my c drive and now i have two os on my desktop. Can someone please help me delete that from my desktop, and also can someone help me install it onto my external? Thanks

 

[Abarbarian]

http://partedmagic.com/

Personally I would use Parted Magic to format your external drive first(or any other partition program).

Make at least three partitons

1) 10 to 15 Gb

2) as much space as you like ( depends on the size of your drive)

3) 512 MB to 2 GB

Partition 1) will be for the ROOT ( / ) partition. Thats where your main linux os files will be.

Partition 2) will be for the HOME (/home) partition this is where all you personal files and folders will be. Remember most modern linux os's have the ability to read and write to windiows partitions so make thios a size to suit your needs. I ususally make mine about 50 Gb.

Partition 3) is for the SWAP partition. Usually twice the size of the ram you have installed up to a max of 2GB. There is a bit of confusion about swap so further reading may give you more info.

Put your GRUB into partition 1).

Thats it really with your drives connected to the pc you should be able to install from your linux CD/DVD.


As to getting rid of your botched install I can not help. May be a good idea to do fresh installs all round.

 

[floppybootstomp]

I may be wrong here but I'm wondering why Parted Magic would have to be used?

The external drive could be formatted with Windows and Ubuntu would either auto-allocate partitions (easiest) or offer you the option to make partitions during setup,

I'm curious as to how the dual setup Windows/Ubuntu is at present. Is it dual boot? From the post it sounds as if Ubuntu is selectable from the Windows desktop. I have no idea how that would work, if indeed it would work at all

Parted Magic would be useful to get rid of the newly created partitions for Ubuntu but I'm assuming the mbr (master boot record) has been altered and that could prove problematic.

The key to a dual install here would seem to be positively identifying the external drive during the Linux install.

It is possible that Ubuntu may not even see the external disk during the installation process.