Martyn Hare wrote:
[a/b] (...)
This conversation has been very interesting, but I wonder whether the OP[*] (ie Simon, not me) will have been able to follow much of it as a new user. We may very well have scared him off....
It should be pretty safe (read: I would always recommend a system backup before any major changes, and as a routine event regardless of any major changes) to install the second disk as the master and move the Windows disk to the slave (assuming IDE drives, otherwise new drive as SATA1 and old drive as SATA2), boot to the Ubuntu disk, install it following the defaults *BUT BEING VERY CAREFUL TO SANITY CHECK THE ACTIONS SUGGESTED AT THE PARTITIONING STAGE*. Ubuntu should offer to take over all of the new drive, and should install a boot manager at the end which will allow you to select between Linux & Windows.
I'm not 100% sure whether Windows will subsequently complain about its move (if it does, you can still swap the disks around).
Equally it should be safe to install with the new drive as the slave (ie leave the old drive where it is) and again accept the defaults (with the same warning as above), in which case Ubuntu should install a new boot manager on the Windows drive to allow you to select which O/S you want. This is probably the "best" solution, except that it does mean writing a change to your Windows disk so if something goes wrong it's a little harder to roll back.
Offering advice in this type of question is very hard, because although the chance of something going wrong is minimal, the person offering the advice won't be sat with you when you go through the installation and we don't know how the OP will respond to the questions posed by the installation or be there immediately in the unlikely event something goes wrong. I would have all the same concerns (actually more concerns) if someone wanted my advice on a mailing list about installing Vista on a second drive to not disturb an existing XP install. This is not a Linux issue, and indeed Linux generally makes much more of an effort to co-exist with another O/S than Windows does (if you install Linux first then install Windows, the latter will almost certainly install its own boot manager which will *not* admit to the existence of your Linux install).
What I would say is that *if* something goes wrong, it's usually pretty easy to fix, until someone who thinks they've lost everything tries to "fix" it themselves. Worst case bring it to the meeting on Tuesday 25th and I'm sure it could be sorted (or bring it to the meeting for the installation if you can wait that long).
* OP = Original Poster, ie the person who started the thread, for anyone new around these parts.
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