How to multiboot with Windows 8 pre-installed?

G

GreenAce92

Member
I briefly scanned the sticky thread in this forum but I'm concerned about pre-installed operating systems specifically Windows 8.

I am looking to get a moderate laptop which most seem to come pre-installed with Windows 8. I really like using Linux specifically programs on Linux like Kdenlive, GIMP and BlueFish editor...

I was just wondering if the Windows 8 installation uses the entire hard drive partition or if it only allocates a small percentage like maybe 20%

If it only allocated 20% or a figure around that then it would be no problem to install linux off a usb I would assume.

If this thread is not necessary then please delete it.
 
Yeah I love the Cinnamon Linux Mint release, I like that layout and the pre-loaded programs are perfect... Kdenlive doesn't come preloaded but that's no problem with their software installer application

Yeah I was mainly concerned with not knowing how much space the windows 8 used for its partition.

Thanks for your response and for the link.

I'll probably figure 30% for each OS then the 40% will be for storage.

Or I guess whatever Windows 8 has for it's stock allocated space but I wonder how the OEM or key is done with Windows 8, I don't want to uninstall it and not be able to re-install it because I have 'used' my key.
 
If you disable the Hybrid boot of Windows 8 you can allocate the partition 50/50 and just grab the files off of your Windows 8 partition from Linux.

On OEM Laptops you should be able to reinstall the system and have the key automatically work. Might want to create the recovery CDs before doing any of this just in case you want to revert the entire system. Probably a good idea regardless if you want to wipe the system or not.
 
Any files really. Music, pictures, documents... If you are planning on having a dedicated storage partition for everything it will get a bit complicated. I would set it up one of two ways:

One partition for Windows 8
One partition for Linux

or

One partition for Windows 8
One partition for Linux
One partition for storage between both systems

Linux can read NTFS file systems so you will be able to mount the Windows 8 drive and get any data that you need off of it. Alternately, you can make a third partition and have all of the data on it that you want to share between both operating systems.
 
So funny story. I actually now own a Windows 8 laptop.

I tried to boot a USB located OS and was greeted with a different bios / boot settings... something called a UEFI or something like that

I don't see the USB itself but I am given the option to add it as a boot option, so...

Any ideas on that? I imagine I may just have to tell the computer the exact directory start up location or something like that... maybe I'm completely off but I came back onto the this operating system to look around for some clues and to get the name in case I needed it and drive letter.
 
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