Artist's depiction of a boot manager's menu offering a choice between Microsoft Windows and Linux operating systems.

Dual booting or dual-booting is the act of installing multiple operating systems on a computer, and being able to choose which one to boot when switching on the computer power. The program which makes dual booting possible is called a boot loader. Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... // An operating system (OS) is the software that manages the sharing of the resources of a computer. ... This article is about the machine. ... In computing, booting (booting up) is a bootstrapping process that starts operating systems when the user turns on a computer system. ... In computing, booting (booting up) is a bootstrapping process that starts operating systems when the user turns on a computer system. ...

Usage

Dual booting is useful in many situations, such as those where several pieces of software require different operating systems and cannot be run on a single system. A dual boot configuration will allow a user to use all of this software on one computer. It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Computer program. ...

Another reason for setting up a dual boot system can be that one wants to investigate or test a new operating system without switching completely. Dual booting allows one to get to know the new system, configure all applications needed and migrate data before making the final step and removing the old operating system. For example, new users of Linux distributions migrating from the Microsoft Windows platform will usually dual boot, allowing them to try the new operating system without losing the functionality and preferences of their existing setup. This is often accomplished by using a boot loader that can boot more than one operating system, such as NTLDR, LILO, or GRUB. This article is about operating systems that use the Linux kernel. ... Windows redirects here. ... In computing, booting (booting up) is a bootstrapping process that starts operating systems when the user turns on a computer system. ... -1... LILO redirects here, for uses other than the boot loader, see Lilo LILO (LInux LOader) is a generic boot loader for Linux. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ...

Dual booting can also aid software developers where multiple operating systems are required for development or testing purposes. Having these systems on one machine can greatly reduce hardware costs. (However hardware costs are counterbalanced by system management costs, and the costs of the unavailability of the software that cannot be run at any given moment. Another solution to these problems is to use virtual machine software to emulate another computer from within the operating system of choice.) For other uses, see Software developer (disambiguation). ... In computer science, a virtual machine is software that creates a virtualized environment between the computer platform and its operating system, so that the end user can operate software on an abstract machine. ...

Technical issues

Compatibility issues may arise with different operating systems sharing the same hard disk—one operating system may not be able to recognize the other's file system and thus may try to format it to its native file system, erasing existing data. This can be overcome by using multiple disks or by partitioning an existing disk to allow multiple file systems. Typical hard drives of the mid-1990s. ... It has been suggested that Crash counting be merged into this article or section. ... In computer engineering, hard disk drive partitioning is the creation of logical divisions upon a hard disk that allows one to apply operating system-specific logical formatting. ...

Although dual booting is often regarded as a software issue, it can be implemented also in hardware, without many of the problems encountered in a software installation. The hardware dual boot system provides also significant performance advantages over a software dual boot system.[1]

Vista Issue with Dual Booting with XP

If you choose to install Vista as in a dual boot system with XP (or Windows 2003) and you create restore points in Vista, they are 'deleted' when you boot up the XP / Windows 2003 partition. This is a known issue but Microsoft maintains that it is a fundamental function of the way XP works and cannot be changed. The solution they maintain is to install Vista on a separate disk and make it invisible to XP. Note that this does not work with partitions, you must install Vista on a separate physical disk.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• GNU GRUB
• Multiboot Specification

This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Multiboot Specification is standard developed by Free Software Foundation which describes method of loading various kernels. ...

External links

• A tutorial on dual booting Windows XP and Linux
• A tutorial on dual booting Windows XP and Windows Vista
• WarpDoctor article on Boot Manager
• Wiki tutorial for using Windows XP on a Mac
• Installing Windows XP:Dual-Booting Versus Single Booting
• A tutorial on dualbooting/multibooting with Windows NTLDR and Linux LILO/GRUB
• Instructions on how to make your Playstation 3 dual boot applicable