partitions

[Asheville Joe]

Hi.  Just catching up on old mail.  Sounds like you're getting plenty of 
help recovering your system.  I have a dual boot Mandrake/Windoze 98se 
box and have been working on backup and recovery methods (I've had to 
reinstall windoze so many times).  I have written (and am testing) some 
scripts using partimage on Linux to back up whole Windoze partitions at 
a time - as is - no tar or moving things around etc.  My idea would be 
to get reinstalled and tested and then make image backups of the whole 
thing while still fresh (I use dump on the Linux Partitions) so that 
when something bad happens, or Windoze just decomposes like normal, you 
can just wipe it and reload it and every thing will be installed with 
all your applications and all your preferences (half of which I usually 
don't even remember exist, let alone what they should be set to!).  This 
is a big deal to me because when I reinstall windows, it takes 4 long 
days to get everything back to where it was and this should take an hour 
or two and there's nothing to forget or miss.

My scripts are not ready for prime time yet, but they seem to work.  
They are tailored to my system, but the changes for another system 
should be relatively minor.

I've also just started using rsync to backup /home on a daily basis 
(it's smart enough to copy everything and subsequently copy only stuff 
that has changed.  That makes it fast.)

Hope this helps (later).

Joe

Mark Robson wrote:

>I have been having trouble with WinXP
>(Ex-productivity?), and wish I'd learned to segregate
>all those user-environment related files out before
>the @#$($#@
>driver-corruption/page-fault/IRQ_not_less_than/circus
>started last month.  Now I can't get past the
>rebooting during load, cannot reinstall XP, cannot get
>into safe mode.  I've made a real mess of it, and want
>to end the madness.  Irony:  I got into the mess
>because I was adding CDRW so I could BACKUP MY FILES! 
>DOH!
> 
>I have an idea to use Linux as my solution, and please
>advise how this might go;  I have a dual-boot
>setup, with RH8 linux installed onto a second hard
>drive.  I'm able to boot into RH8 and mount the xp
>partition.  (RH8 server, with Samba, although I'm
>totally an enduser, not admin.)  Can I sort out the
>important files (*.doc/xls/htm mostly) and put them
>aside in the penguin partition, then format the xp
>partition and install 98?  I can see 'how' to do this,
>but here's the point:
> 
>Does transferring these files from xp to linux and
>back to 98 cause any problems with the integrity of
>the files themselves?  As enduser, not admin, I'll use
>a more gui (Gnome)than command line approach.  Would
>not open or operate on the files beyond moving them.  
> 
>Original idea, which I can't make happen on the
>Win/Loser setup any more, was to move the XP partition
>up and create a new partition to install 98 onto.  Was
>going to do that after I got the drives backed up,
>never got that far.  I use PartitionMagic, and it
>would do this in win non-destructively.  Is there any
>comparable Linux partition program that is also
>non-destructive?  
> 
>Other details:
>About 2gb of user-environment related files to move.
>Three hard drives altogether:
>80gb WD, partitioned into two 40gb windows.
>8gb  Fujitsu, windows single partition
>10gb Maxtor, Linux, RH8 server default partition
>scheme
>Celeron p3 400, 384mb, 16mb agp video.
>Broadband connection
>The machine is part of a home peer2peer network, but
>that is just to share the broadband and printers.  The
>other machines are 98's.
> 
>Thanks in advance.
> 
>Mark
>
>peter <pvant67 at wnyip.net> wrote:
>Sorry for the long absence, it's been strange/terrible
>at best here.
>
>My comment about partitions: Anything I think will
>matter to me in the 
>long run gets a separate partition, esp. /home and
>/usr/local.
>
>That's the only reason I've been able to keep
>essentially the same user 
>environment for so many years (1999-2000) to present.
>Back then, I did 
>things on a Compaq 486. Now, it is 2 or 3 hardware
>systems later, but 
>/home hasn't changed much. The contents are similar
>but the capabilities 
>are greater.
>
>The way I do things, the rest of the system is
>disposable. You already 
>know there's going to be upgrades, betas, etc. /home
>isn't disposable - 
>its the stuff you spent the last few years creating.
>Hence, I never use 
>the default partition schemes (I use RH9), and I
>default to a custom 
>install in order to preserve this.
>
>Hence, I would definitely give /home its own
>partition; you can safely 
>wipe and re-install the system without touching it, if
>you opt to 
>partition it manually.
>
>Hope this helps someone - Pete
>
>  
>

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"Everything that can be invented has been invented." -- Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899