Creating Disk Partition (Win 8.1)

Never done this before: Want to create a new partition and install Linux on my latop with 64-bit Win 8.1. What is the best/easiest way to do it? The built-in feature in 8.1? Some third-party app like Partition Magic? I have plenty of free space (>650GB). How much of it should I allocate for the new partition?

 

What you want to do involves some pretty fundamental changes to the way your computer boots up and should not be undertaken lightly as the changes are significant and are not straightforward to reverse. If you just want to gain experience with Linux there are alternatives which are non-destructive and easily removed if you decide you don't want Linux permanently.

Easiest of all is to store the Linux ISO file somewhere on your hard disk and download, install and run EasyBCD. Once EasyBCD is up click on Add New Entry and in the Portable/External Media section click the ISO tab. Give your distro a name, browse to its location and Add Entry. That's it - next time you boot you will have a choice of Win 7 or your new distro. Also a good idea to keep a flash drive plugged in so you can save your Linux session and not have to start all over next time you run it.

 

Thanks for the advice. Never thought the process would be so complicated. EasyBCD it is.

 

EasyBCD will work for many but not all distros. Ubuntu 14.4.1 LTS doesn't load for instance but Puppy Linux does. I've been through the 'wanna know' stage and don't spend any time on Linux these days so you will have to use trial and error to see which work and which don't. Alternatively you can put the ISO on a flash drive and boot frrom that. plodr here can advise on that as she has several distros on flash.

 

Do you have a partition for the new distro?
I actually run live from a USB stick rather than dual boot on my computers.

I have Lubuntu 14.4 LTS on an 8GB USB stick with persistence. So you don't need lots of room for a linux distro.

My advice, make a stick, try it and see if you like it and it can find your hardware and you can connect to the internet before you actually consider installing something.

You can make the stick bootable with any of these:
pendrive linux http://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal-usb-installer-easy-as-1-2-3/
unetbootin http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/
LinuxLive http://www.linuxliveusb.com/

 

I don't have a partition for the new distro yet - that was going to be part of the process. But using a USB stick seems like a much better way to go for what I want to do (basically, just play around with Linux to see how it works).

There are so many versions of Linux. Is there one (or more) best suited for my simple needs?

 

Yet another solution is to install a virtual machine such as VMware Player and then install Linux, or as many Linuxes as you like in that. A VM behaves in every way just like a real computer but is actually just another app on your system. The big advantage with VMs is not having to reboot to use it though if you install more than one OS in it then you have to reboot the VM itself to switch OS. That's pretty quick though. Setting up a VM is more work than the two methods described so far but overall the most satisfactory.

If I didn't make it clear first time you don't need to partition your drive for EasyBCD. Just park the ISO file anywhere you like on your disk and point EasyBCD to it.

 

Gee, so many options. I'm starting to miss Win 3.1 (just kidding). Something else I've been wanting to explore is the virtual machine. No real need for these things; I'm retired now (was a nuclear engineer) and just looking for activities to keep the mind sharp.

 

Then kill two birds with one stone - install VMware Player (or VirtualBox) and install Linux. That'll keep you from being bored for an hour or two I love VMware, as on a decent machine it performs near as well as the host system. But I love EasyBCD too as, besides Linux, I have all my bootable recovery tools ISOs available at boot for imaging, partitioning and file recovery. No messing about with flash drives, CDs or anything else.

 

That's what I'd advise. Try some see how they work with your hardware and then should you decide to install, most live distros have an icon on the desktop that let you install.
But before you install, have a partition handy so you can point the installer to the correct partition. (Note the size because with the way linux sees the partitions when you are used to windows, it can get confusing.

I have not been a fan of Ubuntu for quite some time.

Recently I've tried Lubuntu, Xubuntu (these are variations of Ubuntu with lighter weight desktop systems), Makulu (gorgeous but without persistence, everytime I booted the stick, I had to set up things again, including browser biikmarks), MX-14 (combo of antiX and Mepis), and Porteus. I still have an old PCLinuxOS on one of the old computers in the house. I was a big fan of that but haven't looked at what's happened to it in years. My netbook (7" ASUS) came with a hybrid of Xandros and Debian so I am familiar a bit with Debian.

Start here to look at the main distros that others have branched off from.
http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=major

I'd probably suggest trying
Linux Mint
Debian
Lubuntu
Mageia

hmm, have a look at the rankings here
http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=popularity

 

Great. Thanks for the information.

 

OK, so I installed Linux Mint on a thumb drive, using LinuxLive USB creator. It boots up, says it's running, but just sits there, basically a blank desktop with no menus, icons, or anything else. I can't figure out how to do anything with it. If I click the mouse, the pointer disappears and all I can do is use the hotkeys to close Linux.

I'm sure there are a bazillion Linux websites, but since you have experience with it, can you suggest a good place to go for me to figure this out? Thanks.

 

1. What version of Mint? There are so many iterations, when I make a stick I want to be sure it matches yours.
2. What size is your USB stick?

I don't run Win 8/8.1 but I will try it on one of my Win 7 computers and see what happens.

 

It's 17 v2 Cinnamon. Thumb drive is 8GB.

 

I am posting this from Mint (Cinnamon 17 v2) on an 64 bit netbook. I made my 8GB stick 32 bit because 3 of the computers I might try this on are 32 bit.

I didn't have a free 8GB stick so I had to move files to another stick. I let LiLi format the stick, after checking that all the files on the 8GB stick were copied elsewhere.

I also did not check the box in front of Launch Linux Live in Windows. (If you aren't sure you have that setting, redo the stick).

After it booting and got past all the verbiage on the screen there was a black screen with a LM logo surronded by mint green in the center. That went away soon to be replaced by a mouse cursor. In about 1 minute, some music played and the desktop appared.

In the lower right corner near the clock is what appears to be a roken cable. I clicked that, saw my wireless connection and was connected. I fired up FF (just checked it is v 28) and here I am.

I also forgot to mention, I made a 20148MB persistence file. That way, when I use the stick again, I won't have to redo bookmarks.

I'll try it on a different computer. Not sure how it will work with different hardware and the persistence aspect.

 

Just tried my desktop computer and it does not even boot from a USB stick.
My choices were hard drive, CD, removable and Nvidia something (which means network).
I selected removable and it told me there were no bootable removable drives. Since I used this same stick earlier, I know it is bootable.

I went and looked in the BIOS to see if I had other choices I could add to the boot menu but those 4 were it.

I still have 2 more computers to try.

 

Thanks for the help. Obviously I've done something wrong (or not done something I shoud have done). I guess I should go into my BIOS and see if USB is even a boot option on this laptop (Toshiba Satellite C-55A). So far I haven't figured that out - the manual says to type something in the Start menu which of course I don't have since the thing came from the store with Win 8.

 

Ok, I found this for your model

Source: http://forums.toshiba.com/t5/Genera...C55-A5310-Bios-Settings-Key-Combo/td-p/518767

I also tried a third computer, my husband's 32 bit refurbed Dell running Win 7 Pro.
My netbook is running 64 bit Home Premium.

The stick booted up perfectly, just like on my netbook. I would have posted from it but he has a USB floppy drive connected and the thing was clicking about every 3 seconds. It was driving me crazy! Next time I test a stick on his computer, I'll remove the USB floppy drive before I boot up and save my sanity.

Forgot to mention, my netbook is wifi and I had no problem connecting to my network. His computer is sort of wired to the router. We have POE adapters. One is plugged in and connected to the router on the 1st floor by cat cable and the other is plugged in the basement and his computer is plugged into that. The computer sees a wired connection and linux mint got on line immediately.

 

Thank you! I never would've figured out that way to get into the BIOS. Who comes up with this stuff? On my way to work now but will try again and let you know how it goes.

 

Well, I think that convoluted way to get into the BIOS is the result of Windows 8 and UEFI.

I hope you have success getting into the BIOS and getting the USB stick to boot.

In the process of helping you, I discovered that my desktop will not boot from any USB. I asked an internet friend who has the same model eMachine to test his and he got the same results as me. Now I'll track down why they have "removable" as a boot entry yet don't let you boot from anything removable.

 

I have a Medion that behaves exactly the same - it's a boot option but it just doesn't work.

 

Finally got it to work. Once I figured out how to get into BIOS and change the boot order, Linux boots fine from the USB stick.

 

Earthling, I figured mine out!! Maybe this will help you.
I figured sometimes USB works on back ports better than front. I have a USB extension cable so I put that in one of the rear ports, plugged my stick in and pressed F12 for the boot menu. I selected Removable and just as previously, it said, no bootable devices. I pressed esc to get back to the boot menu and selected HDD because I figured I'd boot into Windows. Well, there listed with my internal drive was my USB stick! I selected it and linux booted up!

Later, I removed the extension cable, put a stick in one of the front ports, pressed F12 for a boot menu and selected HDD and was able to boot a different linux USB stick from the front port.

What makes no sense to me is that removable is added to the boot menu but can't be used. If I had an eSata or firewire port, I figured it might mean a larger external hd plugged in there but the computer only has USB ports so any removable device needs to be connected by USB.

Look over your Medion boot menu and maybe yours is as weird as mine.

C0rhHusk3r, have fun finding out if Linux Mint likes your computer.
If you decide you aren't thrilled with it, make a different stick and try another distro. That is the beauty of linux live. In fact, on my old 7" netbook, I don't intend to install a new distro. I just fire up a live stick and use it to surf. For the other functions, off the internet like reading e=books and watching movies, the old installed distro is fine.

 

No go here plodr. When this machine was launched in Dec 06 it had XPMCE and a free Vista upgrade. It had quite a decent spec for its day but the big disappointment was the failure to boot from USB. There were many lively discussions on the Medion forum but no one seems ever to have cracked it. No longer matters as it's now in my wife's hands running Win 7 and she isn't into 'what if'.

 

Ah, I understand. My computer was purchased new in 2009 so boot options change.

I was glad to discover I can boot from USB, if needed. It gets tiresome burning live distros to CDs and DVDs just to test them.

 

Then I really think you should consider giving EasyBCD a whirl. Booting different ISOs doesn't get any easier or quicker.

 

Not interested. All the Windows 7 computers (four) and my 7" linux netbook are able to boot from a USB stick; in fact, I have Acronis on a USB stick. Since I have close to 3 dozen sticks, "burning" an ISO to a stick with persistence works very well for my needs.