Getting Windows 7 RC side by side with Ubuntu is not too difficult, but still requires some practice. I started by freeing 30 GB on my 1 TB disk. It seems too small afterwards; only 6 GB left! If I come to install the Windows 7 retail version someday, I will definitely increase the partition to say 60 or 100 GB. To do so:
- Launch GParted
gksudo gparted
- Resize an existing partition (I removed an unused swap partition and made my Data partition smaller)
- Create a primary partition, format it as NTFS
Then I installed Windows 7 using the DVD:
- When asked where to install Windows 7, choose Custom
- Select the NTFS partition
Windows 7 was up and working, but of course Ubuntu was not accessible anymore. Using a Live CD (in my case, RIPLinuX, but it's also doable with the Ubuntu live disk), I could boot my Ubuntu system. Using RIPLinuX:
- Choose Boot Linux Partition
- Press TAB
- Change /dev/XXXX to /dev/sda1 (or /dev/yourLinuxPartition, I assume you know what I'm talking about)
- Press Enter twice
You should be able to log in your Ubuntu system. We can now restore GRUB (the Linux loader), but we will first add Windows 7 to GRUB so that we can boot it:
gksudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst
Then add the following lines at the end:
title Windows 7 root (hd0,2) chainloader +1
The (hdX,Y) parameter indicates which hard disk number (in my case 0) and which partition number (in my case the third partition, so number 2)
Finally:
- Start a terminal, then:
sudo grub find /boot/grub/stage1
- It will give you something like (hdX,Y)
root (hdX,Y) setup (hdX) quit
That should be it. Enjoy!