Installed Ubuntu lost Vista, how will I make sure I will not wipe it off again on my next try

Most authentic source : https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WindowsDualBoot

Hi

Thank you very much.

Thanks,
Rakhesh Raveendran

On Mar 8, 2009, at 12:00 AM, Hemanth <<email address hidden>
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Is this a desktop or laptop PC?

In the case of my laptop, I had similar concerns and went a different route than the dual-boot method for fear of losing the Vista installation. I work in IT and, since I have to support Vista workstations, I have to keep a copy of it for myself as a reference. I don't like it much and primarily use XP at home but I"m gradually migrating (at home) to Ubuntu on a new desktop. That having been said, for work purposes, I couldn't afford to have either my XP Pro or my Vista machines rendered inoperable by any mistakes I make learning Linux so here's how I approached the problem:

Hard disks are cheap these days. I simply bought another one and installed it in the laptop (could be done on a desktop as well). I *removed* the Vista drive to be absolutely sure nothing would happen to it and installed Ubuntu.
I have a very small (2.5cm or 1") USB adapter for microSD cards (the type used in cell phones) that I keep on my keychain. I installed GRUB on it and set up the laptop to boot from an external USB device first, if it is present, otherwise, boot from the Vista drive if the USB device is still in my pocket. I then put the Vista disk back in.

It's simple now. If I want Vista, I restart the laptop. If I want Linux, I insert the USB adapter with the SD card in it ($8) and start the laptop. The two OS's don't need to know anything about each other. No partitioning worries. No boot loader worries. No re-installation worries.

Frankly, I'd do it this way again if I had to.

Ironically, after writing an answer to you, I went out and came across a $300 laptop with XP Pro but only one hard drive. I partitioned it to be a 40:60 split between XP and Ubuntu and installed Ubuntu and ended up doing the exact same thing you did.

I'll see what I can do to recover XP and tell you what I did. It's probably the same proceedure for Vista.

Another option is using the wubi installer.

have a look at...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wubi_(Ubuntu)