[Linux-disciples] dual boot on a system that already has linux

[Adam Rosi-Kessel]

Stephen R Laniel wrote:
>> I have a dual boot system, winxp and ubuntu.  the windows side has an
>> unlicensed installation.  I want to install a legal version over it, without it
>> messing up my ubuntu install.  Can someone point me to a tutorial on how to
>> safely install windows without it interfering with the other partitions?
> 
> I'm pretty sure you'll have no problem. What you'd do is
> reboot from the Windows CD; it'll ask you which partition
> you want to install to, and you'll select the partition that
> already has Windows installed. (You should get a list of
> partitions, one of which will hopefully be labeled 'Linux'
> and another of which will be labeled 'Windows.') It'll go
> from there and never touch the Linux one, I believe.

I'm not so sure. My experience has been that Windows likes to wipe the 
entire device, although I haven't done an XP installation recently. Or 
maybe ever.

If you have an external hard disk with enough space, I would recommend 
backing up the whole disk first. Or you could just back up the linux 
partition, and if the device is wiped, you could then shrink the XP 
partition down and just copy the linux partition back.