Q4OS Forum

JimW

Member

Registered: 2015-12-08

Posts: 400

Dual install Win 8.1 and Q4OS

I have installed linux with windows many years ago, but things have changed.

I put a 750 Gig hard drive in my Dell Inspiron 15 laptop and am looking for a win 8.1 installation CD (which I think I have found).

What would be the best way to install both Win 8.1 and Q4OS?
Partition the single drive into two partitions? If so would it make any difference which OS was in partition 1?
Or should I install Windows then install Q4OS or install Q4OS first and Windows second on the full 750 Gig drive? I know Q4OS has a Windows installer, would that be the best way?

Also, the Dell has EUFI, should I use that or legacy?

Thanks for any pointers!

And Merry Christmas to Q4OS and all the users!

Dai_trying

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2015-12-14

Posts: 2,992

Re: Dual install Win 8.1 and Q4OS

Hi Jim, I can only go by my own experiences and they would be to :-

1. use UEFI and install Windows first
2. If possible tell windows to only use XX Gb's or resize the partition after installation
3. install Q4OS to free space (or create two partitions first, OS and swap)

Personally I would use quite a minimal area for OS's something like 100Gb for Windows but that would depend on what you want to install and 50Gb for Q4OS, then I would use the remaining space for a separate DATA partition so if I change OS's or have to reinstall I can keep my DATA as it is without loss. This will not negate the need for backups though but makes installing or re-installing much easier in the future.

I use directories on my DATA partition named bin, Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures and Videos (among others) and then each installation contains a sym-link to each of the directories in my home folder, that way I can have multiple Linux OS's all accessing the same data while maintaining their own home folders with configurations etc isolated from the other OS's to avoid versioning conflicts.

HTH

And Merry Xmas to you too

JimW

Member

Registered: 2015-12-08

Posts: 400

Re: Dual install Win 8.1 and Q4OS

That sounds like a plan Dia!
Question: What format for the Data partition? Fat32/NTFS/EXT or what?
It will be a while till I get the Win8.1 CD - currently have Mint Cinnamon on the laptop and plan to reformat/partition the hard drive when I get the CD.

Dai_trying

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2015-12-14

Posts: 2,992

Re: Dual install Win 8.1 and Q4OS

I use ext4 for my DATA partition but I only use Windows very rarely and if I need a file I will copy it to the Windows user folder before booting into it, but if you want to permanently share the DATA with Windows then you will need to use a compatible format (NTFS or FAT32) but the problems you will likely encounter will be user permissions, as they are not really cross platform compatible but will still work ok although you would be limited in how you could protect your files, ie using chown or chmod to prevent some users accessing certain files would not work as expected.

When I was using my Windows installation for testing the Q4OS installer I temporarily resized my DATA partition and created another NTFS partition to be available from Windows for storing iso images and other files, this worked fine for what I needed but I have since removed it and restored my ext4 DATA partition back to it's original size.

I usually only boot windows at most once a month to run the update procedure as I have everything I need in Linux, I maintain the Windows installation as a "just in case" option and for occasional testing.