[How-To] Dual-Boot WinXP & Linux Mint

[Deleted member 178]

XP user, I am talking to you. In April 2014, your favorite operating system stopped being officially supported by Microsoft. Now, there's no reason for panic, but this is a good opportunity to start considering alternatives. Without going into too many details, the free and exciting option is to try Linux.

Indeed, today, we will demonstrate how to dual-boot an existing Windows XP installation with the latest edition of Linux Mint, a highly popular Linux distribution, while retaining all the important user data you have. Naturally, this is somewhat of an advanced topic, so you might need to invest a little time reading, but overall, the exercise should be worth the effort. In the end, you will have a fully functional dual-boot setup for all your needs, with XP on one end and a modern, stylish Linux Mint 17 Qiana on the other. Let's rock.

Source

 

[WinXPert]

Yes, i will, i still use WinXP

I have a dual boot netbook (WinXP Home and Lucid 5.28). I think I can squeeze in another distro.

Can't read the source, net to sloooow

 

[Cats-4_Owners-2]

I do, in fact, start up the old XP once in a great while even though it is most often in a suspended animation state of semi-retirement. Even so, sometimes I cannot resist the old habits, ...that is until I am once more reminded just how long it takes just to start up. On the other hand, or more accurately, on the other boot of a Pentium 4 CPU with 1 GB RAM there is linux lubuntu installed from which I am posting now. Late last night I downloaded Manjaro open box 8.10 from http://linux.softpedia.com/get/Syst...stributions/Manjaro-Linux-Openbox-95830.shtml , and burned an iso disc image today. Should I try it on this old tower, or would installing it on a virtual machine on either windows 7 or 8.1 work?

 

[Deleted member 178]

try the live CD and check compatibility on old tower

 

[Cats-4_Owners-2]

try the live CD and check compatibility on old tower

Thanks! I just inserted the disc.
A window came up on lubuntu which says

Removable medium is inserted
Type of medium: removable disk

Please select the action you want to perform:
(File image) Open in File Manager​

X Cancel (check) OK​

I looked at a file tree. I'll try restarting in lubuntu.
Update: Memory test passed 51%, but live iso is x64 bit version, the hardware isn't compatible(oops!), so I'll try it (now) on Windows 8.1 instead!

 

[WinXPert]

nice tuts with screenshots, great for first time Linux users

 

[Vipersd]

Running Dual Boot Win7 / Linux Mint 17 Xfce on my PC.

 

[numaieu]

Hello. It works when I choose GB / US or PL. But other countries? I need specifically an peruvian ip. I edit the file with: ExitNodes {PE} , but does not work. Peru has other code?

 

[Cats-4_Owners-2]

Hello. It works when I choose GB / US or PL. But other countries? I need specifically an peruvian ip. I edit the file with: ExitNodes {PE} , but does not work. Peru has other code?

Hello @numaieu.
While you have it working (installed) you might also check that linux mint is all up to date. After installing mint in a virtual machine on Windows 8.1 last night, there were large numbers of updates I'd still needed to perform which took approx. 15 minutes to download & install. I'd left it running, went to sleep, and didn't restart the system until morning.

• Menu >> Administration >> Update manager (it also appears as a shield on the bar)

I hope this helps.

 

[jamescv7]

Well I've done that when Windows XP still supported on patches, dual boot with Peppermint Linux even though the development of that OS is not totally active though.

However the problem is that the HDD seems fully of errors and makes my old computer cause system hang which I though Linux could solve that long time problem.

But for the meantime a temporary farewell and will use if its really need, there's a VM for such case to use Win XP.