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You need not sacrifice your Windows for using Linux, in case you have Windows on your system and have to access Linux as well. You can easily create a dual boot system on your desktop or laptop. Dual boot system is the one in which you can have multiple operating systems being installed on the same hard drive. It is possible to make 3-4 operating systems to run on the same hard drive, such systems are called the multi boot system.

Partitioning the key consideration for multi boot system

There could be different combinations of the operating systems on single hard drive depending on your requirement and the storage capacity of the hard disk.  It could be Linux and Windows XP on or two different versions of Windows such as XP 2003, Windows 2010.  While you have decided to make your system the dual boot system the most important factor to be considered is the planning on how to utilize the hard disk space.

So, if here you have decided to put Linux and Windows on your system then while preparing your system for the dual booting you need to have at least 2 partitions on the hard disk on which you install the Windows and on the other one Linux.

Steps for making multi boot system having Linux and Windows

• Use hard drive with large memory so that each system has enough space.
• Install Windows in the first partition.
• Create single NTFS partition at the beginning of the drive using Windows bootable CD. The size of this partition should be 100GB, but if you are avid gamer then you need much more space to accommodate all the data.
• Once the installation is complete and all the necessary drivers installed create a partition for data to be shared.
• Now, boot the system using Linux CD and start the Linux installer. However, make sure that your hardware configuration support Linux.
• Right at the start of the process, the Linux installation process will ask you the place you want to install the operating system. This is the option that you need to select from the series of options available.
• During the installation process you will be prompted as to which partition to use for Linux installation. Create two, one for the root “/” and other one “swap”.
• Create the user “root” or “administrator” as well as “user” account and password for the mentioned users.
• If Linux installer recognizes the shared partition created say yes otherwise nothing to worry about it, as it can be linked later.
• The boot loader should be able to recognize both the operating system. You can make Windows or Linux as your default operating system and choose the time frame for how long the system should wait before it starts the default operating system.

So, keeping these steps in mind and you can have a dual boot system with Windows and Linux.

In the similar manner we can install more operating systems on single hard drive. You should take care while installing Windows vista with XP, as the partition will not be compatible. There are various utilities that will help you in makingVistainstallation along with XP on same system relatively easier.

Advantage of Multi boot system

Multi boot system is used in the cases where an application needs different operating system to be tested. Multi boot system makes it possible to use such application on same system.

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