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My dad has no problems with me installing linux, except for one. He is worried about loss of the data with the Windoze OS.
Isn't it possible to back up on cd any vital data, and just put back on the computer?
What i want to do is put linux on the computer with 40 gig hd, and have two small partitions, so i can mess with different distro's.
yes, you can just copy the data. you might want to get a program like norton ghost for a real windows backup. it will copy everything so its like nothing ever changed and it has a cdr/cdrw support buit in.
Beyond that it's possible to create a new/re-size partitions without dataloss. There's even free programs that will allow you to do this.
Ranish Partiton Manager is just one example. I've tried it, and while I didn't like it much, it's free :p
PresizerIs the one I've used, and I just prefer it better. It's a tad slow, I let it run all night when i resized my partitions for Linux, but it's also free.
This is a list of free partition software.
The way I did it was I resized my main partition, shrunk it by enough to allow room for Linux. This leaves the old area as a freshly un-partitioned space. From here I used Linux's partitioning software to break of the remaining space into everything that Linux needs.
If all else fails, it is possible to install Linux on the same partition as Windows... it will just run slower and is obviously not reccomended.
Thanks a bunch!
And each partition should have about 5 gigs for basic setup and messing around, correct?
>And each partition should have about 5 gigs for basic setup and messing around, correct?
what partition are you talking about? linux's one? well, if yes, you just need 2 or 3 partitions, one of them should be something like 5gb+ the others (swap) and maybe (/boot) should be smaller, swap is calculated sometimes by the size of your RAM x 2; and /boot is depending what you're going to install, sometimes it takes 9mb and sometimes 50mb.
Sorry, I meant aside from the swap, wich will probably be around 550 mb, i have 128 mb ram. I want 2 partitions to have different Distros in. So i can have windoz, mandrake, and slackware. And experiment with which ones i like.
hell, hmm, have you any experience with linux before? if you're asking such questions, I think slack isn't a option for you at least right now, you should try mandrake some time, and then pass to slack, it's a little bit harder, no wizards, you'll need a lot of linux experiences. But yes, create 2 partitions (main).
And on copying the drive, just copying every folder onto a cd wont work?
Well, considering the fact you have a 40 Gig drive and CD's hold 700 MB... You can do the math enough to know that will take a .......... load of CD's. Even if you only have the drive half full, that's a lot of CD's!
If you can get your hands on a copy of Norton Ghost or something like that, that would probably be ideal. Ghost will clone (and compress) your drive onto CD's. Then, when you want to back up a restore you just pop the CD's in at boot up and it will write windows and all your programs back just as they were before.
The problem with copying files is you can really only copy files. Just keep the things you need, like word documents, pictures, music, etc... because you'll need to re-install every program, driver, internet, and so on.
ah, well, the comp is brand new, and therefore, not anywhere near full, or half full.
heh, there isn't a lot of room left on the drive after I installed Linux, and I didn't install all of the options, but I have a copy of RedHat Linux 8 (free download on the Redhat site) running on a 1.2 GB HD that is seperate from my 80 GB Windows HD...the swap and boot are included on the 1.2 GB. So, if you give yourself 5GB for a copy of Linux, you'll be fine.