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I wish to add Ubuntu 64 bit to Windows 8, and the installation guide mentions booting from USB or DVD. If I burn the downloaded Ubuntu to an empty USB stick, then put the stick into my computer, what happens next?

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    Please stop what you are doing and do your foot work. First, you should back up your data on Windows. Next read the install guide. Installing an new OS in a major change to your computer, and although it normally goes fine, data loss is a mouse click away. In addition you need to understand what you are doing with partitioning and UEFI
    – Panther
    Apr 4, 2015 at 13:45
  • More guidance and more study is needed, yes. However, an answer which guides the new user is useful and not redundant.
    – K7AAY
    Apr 4, 2015 at 15:02
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    Note for Windows 8 with UEFI secure boot etc, reading this may help.
    – Wilf
    Apr 4, 2015 at 15:14

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Simply writing ('burning' is a term reserved for making optical discs such as DVD-R and CD-R) the software folder to a USB stick will not make it bootable. Burning a 'master' type DVD with the ISO file you downloaded will make that DVD bootable. The procedure for USB is different.

Instead, for USB, install UNETBOOTIN or another USB Boot creation program to a Windows machine. That UNETBOOOTIN-type program will extract the files from what you downloaded, and put them in their proper order on the USB flash drive so you may boot from it.

Either way (and thanks to Wilf got mentioning this), please also read Installing Ubuntu on a Pre-Installed Windows 8 (64-bit) System (UEFI Supported).h

Please make sure to also make a backup of your data from Windows first, and for good measure, also please clone the entire Windows installation using Clonezilla or some other cloning program, for easy restoration if something goes wrong.

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