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Casey Hungler
Asked: 2012-08-22 12:22:18 +0800 CST

Is Wubi reliable under Windows 7 Service Pack 1

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I am trying to get information in order to eliminate possible sources for a problem I am having, as described in another question. Can anybody confirm that Ubuntu (either ISO install or WUBI) works reliably as a dual boot on a system running Windows 7 Service Pack 1. I have another system running Win 7 (not SP1) that works great, but Windows seems to be corrupting the Ubuntu file system, and I would like to rule out the SP 1 as being the problem. Otherwise, I am considering reinstalling windows using a pre-SP1 install disk, since I know that a computer installed from this disk works well with Ubuntu. See my other question for more info: Ubuntu install can't find hard drives Thanks guys!

12.04

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Read your other LONGGG question. All I can say from experience, note that I can only talk about my experience with Windows 7 + Ubuntu and it is not a lot, since I have only installed Ubuntu on little less than 20 PCs that had Windows 7 WITH Service Pack 1. The rest of the Windows 7 I have installed (Almost 50) had Windows 7 without SP.

    In almost all cases, I installed Ubuntu with a flash drive and via the Live Ubuntu OS (NOT Wubi). In all of those cases, none gave me any errors whatsoever. Not even a kernel error, missing kernel or anything that could be related to an error. Even in some laptops that had Windows 7, the scroll section of the synaptic mouse pad worked in Ubuntu and not in Windows. That was about the only difference.

    In the less than 10 cases where I installed Ubuntu via Wubi (Which I really do not recommend because of THIS and THIS) none of them gave me a critical error. The only problem was the actual boot time. When booting Ubuntu it took (Talking about 12.04 and 11.10 in this case) almost 20 seconds more than booting Ubuntu after installing via the LiveCD. Hey, and I am talking about all cases where Wubi was the installed method. It actually took longer to boot. Apart from that no other problems were found. Note that this had nothing to do with Windows 7 having the SP1 or not. It was just that NTFS and Ubuntu inside the Windows environment affects the real performance of Linux.

    You can look at it this way:

    1. Installing Ubuntu via the LiveCD/USB = You running on the park at 5 in the morning, clear road.

    2. Installing Ubuntu via Wubi = You running inside a freezing lake in the park at 5 in the morning, clear lake except for the 3 sharks somebody dropped in there..aa oh yeah, and you are somehow bleeding.

    So what I recommend is install it or test it via the LiveCD. There might be other causes that we do not know. Who knows, maybe Windows 7 has some kind of check up that if it reads a Linux installed it somehow sabotages the performance or something (Making stuff up here but it has happened before (bootloaders anyone?)).

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