Linux (Ubuntu) with Vista 64 bit

guitarfly

Limp Gawd
Joined
Apr 27, 2007
Messages
145
Hi,

I just built a new system with a QX9650 and Gigabyte X38 mobo. I have 2 drives in RAID 0 and a third drive that isn't in RAID. I am running Vista 64 bit currently. I put the OS and programs/games on the RAID drives and other misc data on the third drive. If I install a 4th hard drive, is it possible to put Ubuntu or some other linux distro on it and then easily boot into this OS whenver I want to? Can I then access files on the other drives, or are the filesystems incompatible? How would I control which OS I boot into?

Also, to install the RAID 0, the mobo had specific instructions on how to install with windows xp/vista (had to load a hard disk driver when installing). Do I need to load specific RAID drivers for linux?

Thanks alot!
 
You can indeed put Linux on the fourth drive. It will definitely be able to see the third drive, getting it to see the RAID array might be a bit more difficult.
 
Well Ill answer a couple of the questions real quick.

Yes you will definitely be able to load linux on a 4th drive.

Yes you will be able to see the data on the other dirves and you are now able to read/write to NTFS drives from linux!

To choose what OS to load you will use GRUB, a boot loader used by linux http://www.pronetworks.org/forum/about78184.html#dualboot
Once you install linux it will overwrite the MBR on the drive, so make sure you have an idea of what you are doing beforehand so you dont hose your system.

Your question about the RAID drivers, if you are installing linux on the 4th drive you will not have to worry about it right away.
If and when you do want to access that raid array from linux you have to make sure that you have the correct driver for the raid card compiled into your kernel. The kernels that come stock with ubuntu are usually pretty feature rich and would possibly already have the driver installed.
 
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