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March 28, 2006

Dual booting tips

Mostly, my laptop runs linux. But there is still a copy of Windows tucked away on there, lurking, waiting for its opportunity to seize the hardware.

I'm very happy with selecting an operating system at boot time. I simply like the option. However, many people recently have been complaining that in order to run the second OS, you have to reboot the machine.

Duh.

However, there is a way to boot quickly, something I discovered quite by accident.

1. Boot your OS of choice.
2. Suspend to Disk or Hibernate (not just powersave mode).
3. Reboot.
4. Boot other OS.
5. Suspend to Disk or Hibernate (not just powersave mode).

Both operating systems have now cached their current state on the hard drive. And when you restart the PC, the boot menu will appear. Pick the OS you want and it will pick up from where you left it (complete with any documents you left open). It is a hell of a lot faster than a shutdown/reboot cycle. When you're done, hibernate it again.

Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at March 28, 2006 10:20 AM

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