all right, i've got 1 80-gig HD on my comp now, in 3 partitions:
C: windows, programs, etc., about 15 gigs
D: data, about 55 gigs
*: hidden drive, about 5 gigs (came installed with my sony vaio pcv-rs310 so they wouldn't have to buy recovery cd's, and partitionmagic can't fix it)
i want to install linux (mandrake) and copy my hard drive (using norton ghost, knoppix linux, partitionmagic?) to the new one, which i have yet to install, but want to make as the master, since it's faster (7200 rpm vs. i think 5400) and larger (120gb vs 80). how can i get all this worked out? i've also got knoppix (a live-cd linux that i can boot from and do stuff from in case something happens where i install a blank 120-GB as the master, set the 80-GB as the slave, and it won't boot from the 80. i really have no idea what i'm doing, since i've never tinkered with hardware, i've logged into a linux system a grand total of about 5 times (grand n00bie extraordinaire), and...yeah. so i need some help here, hehe...if i install a new, empty, 120-gig HD as the master, and change my regular, working 80-gig master to a slave, will it boot from that and allow me to copy the slave onto the master? i've got some HD cd that comes with my maxtor HD, not sure if i need it. will copying 2 partitions to a larger HD with norton ghost create 3 partitions on the larger disk, or what? also, what do i do about file systems? everything i have is on NTFS now, but i've heard linux is dangerous when writing to NTFS and i have no idea if/when that's ever gonna be fixed, so i assume i'll need some FAT32? recommendations please? i'm on XP home now, and the mandrake iso i downloaded is 9.2. i gotta learn how to be nerdy so i can get into computer engineering, but as for now, i'm still a frosh in need of help.
how should i go about getting rid of the 5-GB hidden recovery partition created by Sony, which is too cheap to give recovery CD's? the 5GB isn't full, so i can fit it on a DVD-R, but how? windows won't recognize it..can knoppix burn DVD-R's somehow, from this hidden partition? and can i delete a partion from knoppix linux?
oh...every website i go to has a legal warning saying to backup everything first, but is that necessary, or just paranoid? since i'm going to be copying a HD here, i assume i'll be fine, if it messes up i still have the original 80, which i won't need to format or whatever until i am sure the 120 is working.
hmmm...maybe convert some of the ntfs to fat32 to be shared, and partition some stuff off in some linux file format? i'm so lost. :-D
Any recommendations?
thank yoo very much.
-Samer
C: windows, programs, etc., about 15 gigs
D: data, about 55 gigs
*: hidden drive, about 5 gigs (came installed with my sony vaio pcv-rs310 so they wouldn't have to buy recovery cd's, and partitionmagic can't fix it)
i want to install linux (mandrake) and copy my hard drive (using norton ghost, knoppix linux, partitionmagic?) to the new one, which i have yet to install, but want to make as the master, since it's faster (7200 rpm vs. i think 5400) and larger (120gb vs 80). how can i get all this worked out? i've also got knoppix (a live-cd linux that i can boot from and do stuff from in case something happens where i install a blank 120-GB as the master, set the 80-GB as the slave, and it won't boot from the 80. i really have no idea what i'm doing, since i've never tinkered with hardware, i've logged into a linux system a grand total of about 5 times (grand n00bie extraordinaire), and...yeah. so i need some help here, hehe...if i install a new, empty, 120-gig HD as the master, and change my regular, working 80-gig master to a slave, will it boot from that and allow me to copy the slave onto the master? i've got some HD cd that comes with my maxtor HD, not sure if i need it. will copying 2 partitions to a larger HD with norton ghost create 3 partitions on the larger disk, or what? also, what do i do about file systems? everything i have is on NTFS now, but i've heard linux is dangerous when writing to NTFS and i have no idea if/when that's ever gonna be fixed, so i assume i'll need some FAT32? recommendations please? i'm on XP home now, and the mandrake iso i downloaded is 9.2. i gotta learn how to be nerdy so i can get into computer engineering, but as for now, i'm still a frosh in need of help.
how should i go about getting rid of the 5-GB hidden recovery partition created by Sony, which is too cheap to give recovery CD's? the 5GB isn't full, so i can fit it on a DVD-R, but how? windows won't recognize it..can knoppix burn DVD-R's somehow, from this hidden partition? and can i delete a partion from knoppix linux?
oh...every website i go to has a legal warning saying to backup everything first, but is that necessary, or just paranoid? since i'm going to be copying a HD here, i assume i'll be fine, if it messes up i still have the original 80, which i won't need to format or whatever until i am sure the 120 is working.
hmmm...maybe convert some of the ntfs to fat32 to be shared, and partition some stuff off in some linux file format? i'm so lost. :-D
Any recommendations?
thank yoo very much.
-Samer
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