Can anyone give me the low down on Linux??

[bozack]

Howdy all....

I am currently running a 98 based machine with 1 20gig drive formatted in Fat32 and I would like to dual boot with Linux.

I was just wondeing how I would go about doing this

any web resources would be great as well....

Also will I have to format and lose my data ? last time I tried to install linux I used partition magic and that was a nightmare...runied my file allocation table and said screw it...didn't know if they made a way to install linux now without modifying your existing setup.

Thanks

 

[mcveigh]

yes you'll need to use somethign like partition ,agic to resize, if you don't want to format your drive.

good link

search the forums

 

[AnMig]

There is a program that is free that will allow you to repartition your hard drive without loosing data.

I have used it 2 to three times and it works fine.

Its very usefull for those people who only resize there hard drive once in a while and dont want to buy partition magic.

It works under dos off a floppy or harddrive since you only have I partition you may have to use a floopy.

"presizer.exe" just do a search for the documentation. I can mail you the porgram if you want its only 72 kb


you can resize/merge partitions

good luck

edited for spelling

 

[NTB]

Originally posted by: mcveigh
yes you'll need to use somethign like partition ,agic to resize, if you don't want to format your drive.

good link

search the forums

Don't most major distros come with a partition manager that will do the same thing as PM? I've tried both Mandrake and SUSE, and if I remember correctly, they did. Changing the partitions is one of the first things the install asks you about.

Nate

 

[Derango]

Here's a couple of links you might find useful:

Tinyminds.org - A new newbie friendly linux help site...give em (well, us...I'm an admin there) a shot 🙂
Linuxnewbie.org - The grand-daddy of all linux newbie help sites, although the atmosphere there isn't as newbie friendly as it once was
Linuxjunior.org - Its another newbie help site 🙂

And yes, most distros, at least the newbie friendly ones, include a partition program. This isn't an issue for you, but they don't resize NTFS partitions without data loss. Just letting you know before someone tried it 🙂

 

[mcveigh]

Originally posted by: NTB

Originally posted by: mcveigh
yes you'll need to use somethign like partition ,agic to resize, if you don't want to format your drive.

good link

search the forums

Don't most major distros come with a partition manager that will do the same thing as PM? I've tried both Mandrake and SUSE, and if I remember correctly, they did. Changing the partitions is one of the first things the install asks you about.

Nate

It's been a while since I tried their latest but I remember being able to resize partitons very nicely, BUT you had to reformat any partitions you resized.

maybe someone else can conform/deny this?

 

[rabidpenguin]

For the cost of a copy of PM you can get a 40GB hard drive now days. If you don't want this much space deciated to your linux install then image the 20GB over to the 40GB and use the 20GB for Linux. Most new HD's come with an imaging utility that will do this for you.

 

[denali]

I have used parted many times.

 

[Tarfin]

Ranish paritition manager...its free!

 

[r0tt3n1]

There are also several Linux distros that do not require re-partitioning at all. Check into this or this among many others. Then if Linux appeals to you, try a full blown distro with its own partitions etc....... gl