Windows is the family of operating systems most popular among home users, but GNU / Linux distributions are reputed to be much more secure, although their negative point is that they have a lower application ecosystem. But why have to settle for choosing between one and another if we can also have both on the same team with a dual boot?
When at the end of July we published the guide to make dual boot on the same computer with Windows 7 and Ubuntu, you were a few of those who asked us to do the same when Windows 10 came out . We have not forgotten that request, and that’s why today you have a new step by step to be able to have both Windows 10 and a GNU / Linux distribution on the same computer.
To make this new tutorial I have been thinking seriously about using another GNU / Linux distribution, but considering that many of the recommended ones for new users are also based on Ubuntu, I have decided to repeat it with the Canonical distro. After all, the process should not vary too much with the other alternatives.
There is one thing that I did not emphasize in the previous version, and that is that from time to time when installing it, Ubuntu does not correctly recognize Windows partitions . For a change, in this tutorial I will explain how to solve the problem, while at the time of installation I will omit the process of the three partitions of the previous guide and I will make it much easier.
Freeing hard disk space
For this tutorial I am using a computer with the boot mode LEGACY in which I have done a clean installation of Windows 10. Therefore, the first step will be once again to make room for the new tenant inside our hard drive modifying the partition on which the Microsoft operating system is installed .
To perform this process we will have to enter an option that is not integrated in the configuration panel of Windows 10, so the simplest thing is to click on the start menu and start writing “partitions” for Cortana to suggest us to enter the option to Create and format partitions of the hard disk .
Once there, all we have to do is select the C: drive, right click on it and choose the Reduce Volume option . The process is simple, and once this option is chosen we will limit ourselves to choosing the space that we want to free to install in it our GNU / Linux distribution. The space that we release will have to be left unassigned.
Preparing and running the installation USB
The next step will be to enter the Ubuntu website or any other distribution, choose the version and download the .iso file . For the tutorial, I chose the LTS version again for prioritizing stability and receiving longer support. In this way, all we have to do is choose between the 32 or 64 bit version of Ubuntu 14.04.3 LTS and give it to the Download button.
Once the download is complete, we will start a program to rip the Ubuntu ISO in a USB . My chosen one has returned to be Rufus for being the one that has always worked for me and for not having to install anything, it will be enough to run in administrator mode the rufus-2.2.exe file to be able to start the ripping process.
Rufus is simple to use. The only thing we will have to do is to choose the USB in the option device , and almost under the whole click on the DVD icon in the box where you put ISO Image to navigate between our documents and choose the .iso image of Ubuntu that we just finished to download. Once this is done we will only have to press the start button and wait a few minutes for the process to complete.
Finally, it will only be necessary to insert the USB in our PC when it is off, turn it on and press before the Windows icon appears the default key that we have for the dialog to choose from which unit to start the computer . In my case the key is F11, but it can vary in each computer.
Problems to detect Windows partitions?
It is possible that the installation process of Ubuntu does not recognize Windows partitions . You will know this when in the type of installation you do not see the option to install the distro next to Windows, although you will also notice it if you give more options and start the management of partitions you see that the entire hard disk appears as free space.
Fortunately it is something that can be solved with a couple of terminal commands. The first thing we have to do to fix it is to restart the USB from the beginning and make sure we give the option to try Ubuntu instead of installing it directly. In this way, the distro will be launched with all its functions.
Once Ubuntu is booted, we will press Ctrl + Alt + T at the same time to launch the terminal of the distro. Next we will have to enter a series of commands that, at least in my case, served to solve the problem. Are here:
First of all we have to make sure to install the GDisk program by typing:
sudo apt-get install gdisk
Then we will execute the fixparts on the corresponding hard disk, which in my case the disk was the sda:
sudo fixparts / dev / sda
This program will ask us if you want to delete the GPT data and repair the partitions , which is precisely what I did to solve the problem. At some point in the process we will be asked to enter a letter to execute one of the commands, and we will use W to write the MBR partition.
Finishing the installation
Once done the process described above and launched after the installation of Ubuntu should have already solved the problem , and the installer should detect Windows 10 partitions, but instead as the Microsoft operating system will appear as Windows 7.
In the tutorial to install Ubuntu next to Windows 7 I explained how to manually configure the installation of Ubuntu to determine the size of the partitions, but in this case we will go faster and we will end up choosing the option to install Ubuntu next to Windows 7 , that as I said is how the installer will call Windows 10.
This will make the installation system itself responsible for creating the Ubuntu partitions and leaving everything well installed, both the operating system and the GRUP . Once the installation is finished, every time we start the computer again from now on we should see a box where we can choose between Ubuntu and Windows. The dual boot will have been a success.
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