Dual boot help for a Linux virgin

[imperfectus1]

I apologize if something like this has already been posted, but I'm a Linux virgin and I'm having trouble understanding what to do to get running here.  I have a new Toshiba Satellite (laptop) running Windows 7, and I'd like to set up a dual boot.  I received the image CD of AV Linux 2.0, System Rescue Live 1.2.2, and the Ultimate Boot CD from my brother and am trying to decipher the process.

The system is an Athlon II Dual Core m300, 2 GHz, 3Gb memory, 32 bit OS (duh) and a 360Gb HD.  If anyone could provide some instruction, that would be wonderful.

~Paul

[GMaq]

Hi,

If you want to try AV Linux (or any Linux for that matter) you will need to create some more partitions on your Hard Drive, Linux can read and write to Windows Partitions but can't be installed on them, any time you make partitioning changes to the Hard drive there is potential for Data loss, is that something you are comfortable with? The only other unknown variable here is how the Linux bootloader will work with Windows 7, I don't foresee that being an issue but I still use XP and haven't done a dual-boot with 7 yet. I'm not trying to scare you away (quite the opposite) but just making you aware of what the process could entail. If you think you want to continue post back and we'll get an idea of what the best way to set your drive is.

[imperfectus1]

Thanks for the reply.  I am comfortable with the installation and possible complications involved.  I actually installed Ubuntu Studio on my old desktop computer running Vista.  The installer was a little nicer (read user friendly) because it walked through the steps.  Unfortunately, the video drivers/kernels were incompatible with my graphics card and it crashed routinely after 10 minutes of use so I never really got into it.  After extensive research I finally decided I didn't want to struggle through it any longer.  I discovered AVLinux during that little jaunt into Linux goodness, and decided to get it running on this laptop.

[GMaq]

OK,

I am guessing W7 will be your primary OS for now so this is what I'd suggest...BTW how big is the Hard Drive? These suggestions may vary with the size of the hard drive. I am guessing all data is on one large drive. If you can hold off for a day or two there is a updated release of AV Linux (3.0R1) being tested right now, it addresses some installation issues that users were experiencing and will be the best way to go, I realize it is inconvenient to have to download another ISO but at least this ISO is a fair bit smaller and I'm confident it will work better in the long run. These instructions will work nicely with any Linux distro, I had my laptop set up similar to this and have tried many distros with no issues over the past few years. If you still have the UBuntu partitions on the drive then we can probably use them, you can use GParted on the AV Linux liveDVD to show what partitions you actually have. If it is one large drive then something like this should work

- Back up any and all important data and also any large media files or other large files
- Once you are sure they are backed up safely make your Windows install as small as comfortably possible
- Make sure you have your W7 install disk or can get one if needed
- Defrag the drive and then defrag it again
- Using Preferences --> Gparted from the AV Linux live DVD resize the W7 partition to about 20Gig at the least or more if you like... this will take a long time
- In the unpartitioned space create a primary ext3 partition of at least 16GB
- In whatever free space is left create a primary ntfs partition followed by 1024mb of free space this will be your data drive
- In the remaining 1024mb of free space create a primary linux-swap partition of 1GB

This gives you 1 dedicated Windows partition for the OS, One dedicated Linux Partition for the OS, 1 large data Partition which you can use with both OS's and a tiny linux swap partition which is needed for Linux.

When you install AV Linux you will install to the 16gb ext3 partition and (sda2 I'd guess) and install it with home on the root partition and you will want to install GRUB bootloader to the mbr.

Clear as mud?