Dual Boot Your PC

There are two options when you want to run both Linux and Windows on your PC.

• Installing both systems
• Using a Live distribution of Linux on a Windows PC

Installation of Both Windows and Linux on One PC
If you want to run both Windows and Linux on the same computer, you MUST install Windows first, and then have a partition with free space available for Linux. Linux can co-exist with Windows, whereas trying to install it the other way around will fail.

[If in doubt about partitions, I recommend you read my article "How to Reformat a Hard Drive"]

Running a Live Distribution of Linux on a Windows PC
If you want to test Linux without reinstalling your system, you could choose a live distribution of Linux such as either SUSE or Knoppix. When you insert your boot-cd or boot-dvd your system will load Linux, and when you are finished with testing your distribution, you simply reboot and take out the live distribution while the BIOS performs its self-test. You will then be back to running Windows without any changes to your original files.

If you need to share documents between systems, you might want to get a USB key so you can save data in Linux, and add them to your Windows system afterwards.

Please write a comment if any questions come to mind as you read these articles.