New Windows 8 Laptop & Linux Install

[graemecollin]

Just picked up a new laptop, with Windows 8 pre-installed. Obviously, this has to go, in favour of something more Linux-flavoured. However, I want to retain a fallback route, if necessary.

Is it possible to generate the OS install disks (not recovery disks that are going to be relying on asubsequently non-existant recovery partition) and without accepting the EULA? If so, how? Obviously, I'm trying to avoid having to go anywhere Win8 to do anything.

Another potential option I can see would be to take an image of the disk, including all partitions, as it stands right now? Kinda like ghosting the drive (albeit onto a significantly smaller drive - I only need the data, not the free space backing up). Is there a Linux distro, that I can boot from CD/DVD/flash-drive that can do this for me?

Many thanks.

-Graeme.

[wyliecoyoteuk]

http://partedmagic.com
Should have all the tools you need.
However the UEFI BIOS might make it less than straightforward.

[johnhudson]

Your problem is the UEFI BIOS; a lot depends on whether the OEM has let you have the key to enable even to run a Live CD to do anything let alone install Linux.

Maybe worth trying a distro that comes with a solution to the UEFI BIOS - I believe Ubuntu is supposed to.

[nelz]

You can turn secure boot off, I had to to boot my new Win8 laptop from a live disk.

I just backed up the whole drive with dd

Code: Select all

dd if=/dev/sda bs=1g | gzip >/external/drive/sda.img.gz