What is dual booting?

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Most computers come with a single OS installed but you can install more than one OS on the same computer system. Having more than one operating systems installed and choosing between them at boot time is called Dual Booting. You can install different versions of Windows and also install Linux alongside Mac OS X or Windows or install all of these at the same time (only if you have a lot of memory space vacant on your computer, trust me an operating system takes quite some space).

How does dual boot work?

The OS is usually installed on the computer's internal hard drive. When you boot your computer, the BIOS loads the boot loader from the hard drive which further boots the installed operating system. 

Remember that your computer has no limit as to how many operating systems can be installed upon it. You can always attach another hard drive and install an OS on it, choosing which hard drive to boot in your BIOS or boot menu. You can also do so using an external storage media or it's well and good if your internal hard drive has enormous amount of space(as nowadays we see hard drives of 2TB or more capacity). In the case of a single hard drive disk partitioning comes into use.

When a Linux distribution is installed, the Grub boot loader is installed. Grub loads instead of the default Windows loader at boot time (in case Windows was already installed) allowing you to choose the OS you wish to boot. The same is the case with Windows which has its own boot loader, which can be used to switch between different versions of Windows if more than one versions of Windows are installed.

Why dual boot?

Sometimes an objective can be achieved in a better and more convenient way using one OS instead of the other. Dual booting makes it easier to get the best tool for the job by quickly switching between the required OS.

For example, having both Linux and Windows on the same computer facilitates development work as well as normal work together. Where Linux is very suitable for development purposes, Windows can be used for Windows-only software or for gaming purposes. 

You could use virtual machine software instead of setting a dual boot, but a dual-boot system lets you actually use both operating systems on your hardware in completeness and at native speed. Virtual machine is really bad when it comes to 3D graphics. The disadvantage is that only one OS can be used at a time.

How to dual-boot system?

It's quite easy setting up a dual-boot. Here I will be giving a glance over how it is done and detailed explanation will be given in later blogs.
  • Dual Boot Windows and Linux: Install Windows first. Create Linux Installation media, boot into the Linux installer and select the option to install Linux alongside Windows.
  • Dual Boot Windows and another Windows: Shrink your current Windows partition from inside Windows and create a new partition for the other version of Windows. Boot into the other Windows installer and select the partition you created.
  • Dual Boot Linux and another Linux: Install one Linux, then the other. Choose to install the new Linux system alongside your old Linux system. Resize your old Linux partitions in the installer and create new ones to make space if the installer won't do this automatically.
  • Dual Boot Windows and Mac OS X: The boot camp utility included with Mac OS X allows you to easily set up a Windows dual-boot system on you Mac.
  • Dual Boot Mac OS X and Linux: Boot camp doesn't allow you to set up a dual-boot Linux system, so you'll need to do something more.  

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