Overall Rating:

1 out of 5

Wubi-Linux with MS Windows, October 8, 2009
By catilley

"This program is the costliest one that I've ever installed on my laptop. It was running fine prior to the install. My laptop is a Dell Latitude C640 with 512MB RAM and a 40GB hard drive. Prior to downloading, I defragged as recommended, then proceeded with a nearly 7 hour download. Afterwards. my drive was almost 70% fragmented, then after defragging,it was still 55% fragmented. I should have uninstalled at that point, but being a "newbie" at that time (a year ago), I stayed with it. It didn't last long. After two weeks, I could only boot into Ubuntu, even though it was installed INSIDE of Windows. When I tried to boot into Windows. all I got was a message about a missing "hal.dll." file missing, soon afterwards, a "boot ini." done the same. Then a couple of days later, I couldn't boot into anything. I called Microsoft, the lady was very understanding of my problem and even though she could have charged me $79 by the hour for a walk through, she told me that my OS was gone and advised me that even though they didn't even sell XP Pro anymore, that with extreme caution I could find a full retail version (not a OEM-to be distributed with new PC only), on eBay or Amazon. I found one, but the proper one for sale cost me $270. The seller even threw in a Win 2K Pro for free if I bought it that day. I started all over and done it the RIGHT way. I installed Win 2K, then Linux Mint (Gloria), Win XP Pro and Ubuntu 9.04, all on this little 40GB drive. And do you know what? They all run perfectly. I know it sounds like a fib, but as I type, this is the same laptop that Wubi broke. And also the lady at Microsoft told me that if I wanted to use Linux, that's fine, but do it right, and NOT to install inside of Windows. I took her advice, and my laptop has ran great since then. I strongly advise one not to do this install through Wubi, unless you are willing and can afford to lose your Windows installation. $270 is a lot of money to spend on a 2003 model laptop, but being in tip top shape, I was willing to risk it. But don't get me wrong here, I love Linux. I searched and tried out several distros before I decided on Mint and Ubuntu. But in the end, everything's installed right, and everything runs seamlessly."

1 of 5 people found this review helpful.