Using Linux?

[Raven_Writer]

Originally Posted by Venkatesh

I have never used the Windows XP Backup tool, but I have heard that its not that good.

But, why even bother with a backup tool? Find all the files that you use, will use, and have ever used (eg all documents, pictures, music, thesises, codes, novels, etc.) and copy those onto your backup medium of choice. I use CD-Rs in the absence of something better.

And btw, is there such a thing as a Redhat livecd?

I did it for all the registry info and stuff like that.

As for the LiveCD, I ment SuSE, not RedHat (sorry). The LCD of SuSE is availible here if you want to check it out by the way.

[Ryan M.]

Originally Posted by Venkatesh

And btw, is there such a thing as a Redhat livecd?

Adios is at least one I'm aware of.

[Astronouth7303]

Originally Posted by Raven_Writer

I'm 99.9% sure the ansewr is yes, but I'll ask anways. It's a very safe bet to backup your computer before doing any of this, correct?

Yes. Linux requires 2 new file systems (neither Win32 or NTFS). I use the Hard drive backup utility in Nero. It does a sector copy to CD-Rs. The advantage is that even the partition table and MBR is preserved. The down side is that you have to restore the whole thing and you don't have access to individual files. Good for backing windows up before installing Linux.

[Timothy D. Ginn]

Originally Posted by Astronouth7303

Yes. Linux requires 2 new file systems (neither Win32 or NTFS). I use the Hard drive backup utility in Nero. It does a sector copy to CD-Rs. The advantage is that even the partition table and MBR is preserved. The down side is that you have to restore the whole thing and you don't have access to individual files. Good for backing windows up before installing Linux.

Well, requires isn't exactly true. There is, for example, a version of Slackware called Zipslack that will run off of Windows FAT partitions. I'm sure there are other distributions with this capability. Other distributions can do the same, with more or less effort. However, yes, the regular installation procedure is to create a native Linux file system of some kind, and most installers create a swap partition (however, if you already have a Windows partition, it's possible to share the Windows swap file, rather than creating a new parition to do the same thing). One example of a free sector by sector copying tool is dd (if Nero is not available). dd is almost certainly contained on all of the Live CD distributions.

[Venkatesh]

I have been using Linux (of many varieties) on FAT partitions. I do this because I don't care about security and FAT is universally accessible. There are a few caveats about doing this though.

First, you can't have symlinks. A direct consequence of this is that you cannot compile a linux kernel (as far as I know) on a FAT filesystem, as one step in the compile involves the creation of a symlink. Second, you lose all security. Any user can access any part of the filesystem. A non-root user can still do pretty much anything on a FAT system. Third, you lose many of the features of chown (change ownership), chmod (change mode), and ACLs.

Even then, for my uses, the benefits of universal access of any OS to any OS far outweigh the problems. I wouldn't recommend doing this unless you are sure of what you are doing, but if you are sure of what you are doing, then there are better options. Until that Linux NTFS driver gets better.

[evulish]

Actually, ReiserFS, ext2, and ext3 can all be read by Windows. Not natively, of course.. but with some work, you can get it to work.

Most notably:
Explore2fs: http://uranus.it.swin.edu.au/~jn/linux/explore2fs.htm (r/w: ext2, ro: ext3)
rfstool: http://p-nand-q.com/download/rfstool.html (read-only and ignore journaling)

There might be some for jfs/xfs/etc.. but I don't feel like finding them E2fs works well, rfstool is.. decent.. but it does work.

[Ryan M.]

Originally Posted by JakeGallagher

...so my Windows partition was almost lost.

I tried to install Gentoo (twice) a while back. I messed up the installation of the bootloader (with Gentoo, you install everything using a command line from a live CD) and then couldn't boot into Windows or Linux...

I had to do some fun work on my own getting it back up.

[Andrew]

I just got a new laptop with Windoze XP Pro pre-installed. I installed Mandrake 9.2 as a dual boot.

At the partitioning step, I chose the "use free space on windoze partition" option, selected the new size of the windoze partition, and let 'er rip. At the final step, where you can review your installed services, etc. I went into the boot-loader options and selected the windoze option as the primary boot option. You might have to hunt around to find this option. Otherwise the linux will boot first.

If you don't find this option and you boot into linux, you can edit the /etc/lilo.conf file and select another boot option. If you're not expert enough to know what I'm talking about here, you might want to cleanly install linux and fool around before going for the dual boot.

Inside linux there's a "dual boot howto" which explains all this better.

In any event, my Windoze XP and my Mandrake 9.2 linux are co-existing peacefully on the same machine now.

[Raven_Writer]

Thanks ya'll for your help.

One other question, I know *nix is free, but would it be smarter to buy a copy of redhat or some other sort instead?

[Ryan M.]

Originally Posted by Raven_Writer

Thanks ya'll for your help.

One other question, I know *nix is free, but would it be smarter to buy a copy of redhat or some other sort instead?

I've never had a "Pro" version of Redhat, but I'd say that unless you are using for, say, your business, I wouldn't bother. There is a strong community out there, and they are more than willing to help out if you run into problems. Heck, I'm willing to help...

[Raven_Writer]

Originally Posted by Texan

I've never had a "Pro" version of Redhat, but I'd say that unless you are using for, say, your business, I wouldn't bother. There is a strong community out there, and they are more than willing to help out if you run into problems. Heck, I'm willing to help...

Thanks

I know the community is pretty big ; that's 1 reason why I want Linux (amoung other reasons).

[Timothy D. Ginn]

Originally Posted by Raven_Writer

Thanks ya'll for your help.

One other question, I know *nix is free, but would it be smarter to buy a copy of redhat or some other sort instead?

As long as download times for an ISO aren't a problem (ie, you're on a fairly fast connection, or are willing to wait for a while) and support from a single place isn't a requirement, then you're best off downloading an ISO and putting it onto a CD (http://www.linuxiso.org is a good place to look for this).

If you don't have the connection speed (or the patience, or require support from a single place; the vendor) then a boxed software version is probably worth looking at.