Any issues dual booting a new laptop?

[cpscdave]

For work I had to go get a new windows 10 laptop for various reasons.
I'd also like to add Ubuntu 16 on it and dual boot.
Anyone know of any reasons why this might be a problem? I remember reading a while back concerns about UEFI bios stuff locking up the computer.

I'm getting tired lugging around 2 laptops :D

 

[rcgldr]

Most laptops already have some form of dual boot, as there's a second "hidden" partition that is booted from by pressing some function key at boot up. The second "hidden" partition is used to restore the primary partition back to it's "original factory state" (which means any user data would be lost). I don't know where the information is stored on how to boot from that second "hidden" partition. If it's in the partition sector of the primary hard drive (or SSD), then you'd need to be careful about setting up dual boot so it would still include the ability to boot from that second "hidden" partition.

 

[rootone]

I don't think there is anything different about laptop drives that would prevent from creating additional partitions and booting from there.
Same procedure as with a desktop.
I once had a laptop set up which could alternatively boot windows XP or Windows 7.
No reason why the alternative boot couldn't have been an *IX system, but I didn't need that at the time.
I'm not sure of the situation with windows 10, but I don't think Microsoft have a policy of making it exclusive of other Os's on machines where it is installed/

 

[Psinter]

What you heard is right. It is UEFI.

If Windows 10 was installed by the manufacturers and configured to boot as UEFI, Ubuntu must also be installed and configured to boot as UEFI.
-Source

You will know if you go into the boot configuration menu and look whether legacy mode is enabled or not. Provided that you have not touched that setting yet.

 

[Routaran]

I will second Psinter's point. Check your BIOS/manual to see if your system will allow legacy boot modes (Ubuntu will work under UEFI but others might not so depends on what distro you want to use).

If it does have legacy mode, then you should be able to dual boot. You'll probably need Win10 installation media/your win10 serial as well if you end up having to wipe and re-partition your hard drive.