The advantage of dual boot is that you can have multiple operating systems on one computer and if one fails you can always start second system and save your data. Since I already have Windows 7 installed on this computer (VirtualBox) my second system will be Linux Mint 17.1 Xfce. The first step is to create a partition for Linux.

1. Open the Start Menu and type “DISKMGMT.MSC” and press enter.

2. Right click on (C:) partition and select “Shrink Volume…”

3. Enter the size of the new partition and press “Shrink”. 30 GB (30000 mb) of free space will be enough for Linux but you can make the larger partition if you want.

Partition is created.

4. Restart your computer and press Del or F2 or F12 (depend on your computer’s mainboard) to enter the system BIOS and chose BOOT FROM CD/DVD, save the configuration and exit BIOS.
5. Insert Linux Mint 17.1 into your DVD drive.

6. Press enter key on “Start Linux Mint”.

7. Double click “Install Linux Mint” icon.

8. Choose installation language and press “Continue”.

9. Click “Continue”.

10. Select “Something else” and press “Continue”.

11. Mark “free space 31458 mb” and press “+” in down left corner to create Linux partition’s.

12. Create a swap partition of 4 GB shown in the image above and press “OK”.

13. Press “+” in down left corner and create file system partition shown in the image above and press “OK”.

14. Press “Install Now”.

15. Press “Continue”.

16. Choose your location and press “Continue”.

17. Choose your keyboard layout and press “Continue”.

18. Fill out the required fields and press “Continue”

19. Wait a few minutes until the installation is complete.

20. Press “Restart Now” button and remove Linux Mint installation disc from DVD rom.

21. When you reboot you will see a menu where you can choose to start Linux (first option) or Windows (fifth option). Choose the first option and press enter.
The next step is to upgrade the system.

22. Open Menu, type “update” and press enter.

23. Click “Install Updates”.

24. Enter your password and press “Authenticate”

25. Update Manager will automatically download the package files and install it.

Congratulations, you have successfully installed Linux Mint on your computer

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