Dual Boot Windows 10 with Ubuntu 16.04 LTS for programming

KimKat7997

Baseband Member
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28
Location
USA
16 JAN 2017

I've been considering making a dual boot for decades, since Linux came out, but kids, college, jobs, P.T.S.D, depression, T.B.I., lack of money, all sorts of things got it put off to that nebulous sometime in the future. Well, the brain is starting to work better and the mood issues have become more manageable so suddenly life was fresh, vital and needed exploring. But how to explore from a darkened soundproof room that can only occasionally be left? I know! Get back to programming! But your memory, concentration, attention and all aren't so good anymore? Lets remember by coding games! I've even bought and downloaded a book, which specified Visual Studio as the compiler for use with the book. Problem is that I mostly use my tablet (gift from parents) or my phone (gift from daughter). The laptop (gift from ex) is a bit wonky and needs work, is a year or two old and overheats with distressing frequency. It might have stayed like that, but the install of Visual Studio Community didn't work and it turned out that reinstalling Windows was the only option because recovery didn't work. So here's the big chance! Ordered a new lap desk that will hopefully fix the overheating issue, if not, will be looking into external fans. I chose Ubuntu after much research almost a decade ago, the last time I seriously considered doing this. That time it was a netbook and I was going to lose the Microsoft all together, but the screen got broken and that was that. I used my 300 GiB cirago EHD instead of a ROM or jump disk and since it has been my backup drive for a decade the first thing I needed to do was partition it to make a bootable sector. After some fiddling I found this would require reformatting it, no biggie, all data stored in 3 locations so I went to admin tools -- disk management and proceeded to do this, basic instructions at following link: How To Manage Partitions on Windows Without Downloading Any Other Software Then I made 2 partitions, 8 GiB fat bootable simple and the rest of the EHD NTFS non boot. After backing all my files up again and downloading the win 10 install files, instructions at this link: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...ndows-10/1c426bdf-79b1-4d42-be93-17378d93e587 , I cleaned up my messy drive a bit (which turned out to be a complete waste of time, but I didn't know that at the time!) I shrunk my win drive sector and made two others for Linux and programming, because, this is what the website that I had read said to do (it was for win7/ubuntu10.04) @ Dual-Boot Windows 7 and Ubuntu in Perfect Harmony. Now the basic instructions were good, just outdated, like me (lol). Then I had to figure out how to get into my HP's bios. Lovely! I have an AMD processor thank goddess, but like all proprietary systems, they changed it. I learned years and years ago not to buy propriety, but beggars cannot be choosers and we don't look gift machines under the hood so to speak. on HP's website I found that for my HP, esc multiple times will abort fast boot and show you to a menu that lets you choose to enter the bios, safe mode, etc... Went into the bios, set it to boot to the USB, which for a person a human generation out of date was not as confusing as it could have been :) saved and exited. Proceeded to boot to my drive and install Windows 10. Or so I thought. I chose custom install of course, who wants all that bloatware (got it anyway! There were NO options even under custom!) and came to this drive partition screen. It hated my partitions! I did some deleting, and it really hated that, so I ended up back on my tablet looking for advice which was at this website: GPT Disk Partitions Not in Recommended Order Windows 10 - EaseUS , then because of Id10t error and a certain pebkac error I ended up with red mark on head and had to ... wait for it... unplug my USB drive. Because the install kept starting over and over and over and DOH!!! Did you know that you can actually forget how to think!?? That is where I am now, I have some questions in about various things I'm doing/dealing with and am having unrelated internet frustrations, but should get the antivirus DL done tomorrow and the new lap pad should be here the day or 2 after that. and after I figure out my partition sizes and get my Ubuntu DL done then I'll be on my way again!


18 JAN 2017

So, I have anti virus now! Yay! I finally decided on 360 total security. After that fiasco with Avast last year, I didn't want to try that again and since I have to have a full security suite this seemed the best route. Hope it doesn't bite me in the 000. ;) I've been researching Ubuntu versions and such and am going to download Xenial since it is LTS even though Yakkety is newer. I'm so tired of MS constantly shoving upgrades and updates down my throat before I can even read the documentation or find out what is updating, I'll be nice to have free choice back. Well, back to reading! I have to verify my partition sizes so I can play with my drive! Some of what I have read indicates that I should use a 3rd partition for the programming environment or something? But I think I'm misunderstanding several things and always have to read multiple times to verify that I'm not making assumptions or jumping to conclusions from scan reading too quickly. lol.

OK, I figured out my partitions, I think, I shrunk C:/ as far as windows would let me (over 350 GiB! What on earth does Windows need with 350 GiB???) then added 3 more partitions, D:/ unformatted 30 GiB for Xenial, E:/ unformatted 20 GiB for swap (probably way over doing it, but I have 6 GiB of DDR3 and do NOT know anything about swaps or page files or what I'm doing, just winging it!) and F:/ Storage -- everything left over (about 290 GiB).
.......

AND THAT will teach me to read better in advance! I followed ALL the instructions! I did! Just not the RIGHT instructions! So, after downloading Windows 10 (again!) we will be starting over again. Only this time following the second set of instructions from Lifehacker - Tips and downloads for getting things done mentioned up above. By going into an Ubuntu GUI before starting the Windows setup I should get my partitions done properly this time. I probably didn't need to start over, but while some of this is refresher for me, some is brand new and I want to make sure that I understand what I'm doing. Also, after being subjected to a MS only environment for 17 years now, Linux is a little bit intimidating if only because of its differences. Hopefully it will all go faster this time around and I'll be able to include some time estimates for other more experienced noobs like me. I know at this point because of looking up terms, abbreviations, explanations, updated information, etc... at lot of the time estimates I've seen in the last couple of months have been low by exponents! :) I do believe that the Windows partitions is about to decrease by at least 100 GiB though! Till next time!
 
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