Does dual-boot negatively affect performance?

Question

I only have one hard disk and Windows 7 is currently installed on it. I'm considering dual-boot but I was wondering: Will having Ubuntu and Windows at the same time with only one HDD affect my PC's performance?

Solution

Setting up a dual boot does not affect the performance of a computer as only one operating system is running at a time. Thus, they get access to all of the computers resources. The only system spec which is affected is HDD space (not HDD speed) as the drive has been divided between the operating systems, thus, they only have access to the space allocated to them.

Comments

[Deepal]

If you are really new to Ubuntu I would recomment try Ubuntu in a virtual machine in windows and explore or else you can install ubuntu 11.10 which you can install on windows as you install other software and uninstall through windows Programs and Features.

[Croash]

Is there any more advice you can give me? Anything general.

[Julian Stirling]

The most general (perhaps too general) is that google is your friend, there is so much brilliant advice out there if you are prepared to take the time to look through. Some slightly more specific advice is that if you don't like the unity interface look into installing Gnome.