0

I have an old laptop. (currently windows 7 is installed)

I would like to use that laptop as my personal server.

Is it possible to boot dual-mode(windows 7 and ubuntu 16.04) in my laptop?

My old laptop is a 64-bit machine and has Intel Pentium CPU (P6200).

Below is main specification of my laptop.

  1. dual core processor(Intel Pentium CPU, 2.1GHz)

  2. 2GB RAM

  3. 64bit machine

  4. 1 HDD(300GB)

1) Is it possible to boot with dual-mode?

2) If it is impossible, then can I install ubuntu 16.04 desktop version?(I will remove windows 7)

newbie16
  • 119
  • If you install and run Ubuntu Server in the computer, and you really run it as a server avoiding a graphical desktop environment, I think 2 GB RAM will be enough for good performance in your old computer. When people write that Ubuntu needs 4 GB RAM to perform well, they mean 'standard Ubuntu desktop' with the Unity desktop environment. You can find more tips about old computers at this link, https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2130640 – sudodus Jul 08 '17 at 12:47
  • Anyone who attempts dual booting without reading https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power-on_self-test , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BIOS , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_boot_record , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GUID_Partition_Table , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFI is doomed to confusion, failure and frustration. – waltinator Jul 08 '17 at 13:17
  • If you intend to run a server, why would you want to keep a dual boot at all? A useful server basically needs never to reboot. The Windows partition will just reserve disk space for something you never use. – tripleee Jul 13 '17 at 09:44

3 Answers3

10

Dual Booting doesn't double requirements

Dual Booting does not mean Windows 7 minimum requirements + Ubuntu minimum requirements = system minimum requirements.

Dual Booting minimum requirements are about 15 GB partition for Ubuntu and common applications. On my 16.04 I give Ubuntu a 30 GB partition out of 880 GB available.

If a Windows version will run a similar Ubuntu version will run

Running Windows 7 with 2 GB ram will be sluggish at times when loading multiple modern web browser pages and videos. The same will happen with a Ubuntu version running similar applications.

As others have mentioned there are scaled down versions of Ubuntu with smaller RAM requirements (starting at about 512 MB I believe) and you would be well served to investigate these versions.

Modest performance improvements

The best improvements to speed you could make on your rig are:

  • Upgrading RAM from 2 GB to 4 GB for about $100.
  • Upgrading 300 GB HDD to 240 GB SSD for about $150.

Note that on some machines upgrading may not be possible depending on system maximum limits.

Community
  • 1
WinEunuuchs2Unix
  • 102,282
  • 2GB RAM costs $100? – TheWanderer Jul 08 '17 at 15:00
  • @TheWanderer Worst case scenario you have two 1 GB SO-DIMMs that have to be thrown away and you have to buy two 2 GB SO-DIMMs (laptop motherboard max) and you pay a technician to install it at the store. Plus my $ is a CAD which is about $70 USD. And I was just guess-timating :D – WinEunuuchs2Unix Jul 08 '17 at 22:30
6

Yes you can install Ubuntu along with win7 (dual boot)
With only 2 GB of RAM, I recommend installing the lubuntu desktop.
If possible adding another 2GB of RAM would be advantageous.

ravery
  • 6,874
2

Can you setup dual boot?

Sure, it's not really relevant if the laptop is old, there are no performance drawbacks in dual booting. You will have to create two partitions on your hard drive, so the space you can use on each OS will be limited to e.g. 100 GB for Ubuntu, 200GB for Windows. Here is a guide I have used before.

Single boot instead

If you want to use your laptop as a personal server, why do you want to keep windows? Single booting is less of a hassle to set up, plus you can use the whole hard drive space for Ubuntu.

Simon Boehm
  • 313