partitions

[Cyber Source]

I do this all the time because alot of my clients decide that xp is a
cure-all for there ills and just install it, only to find out that there
is no support for ISA hardware, etc and one guy actually lost all
functionality of his previous m$ office stuff because he had not
activated it yet! This pissed him off so much, he wanted me to save all
his data and put him back on win98. I usually back up everything and
since you tell me that you can mount this xp side from Linux, I am going
to assume that xp is on a fat partition (versus ntfs), so this should be
easy. If you have room somewhere for this, make a zip or tar the xp
side. Keep in mind that windows (at least 98) cannot see a file size
larger than 4gb. Once backed up, you can redo your windows side to
whatever and restore the data. Any data you had saved can be reused, if
it is not environment dependent (needs to be in registry, etc) All you
doc's, mp3's, whatever should be fine. 
In my dual boot scenario's, I backup the whole windows side to one file,
keep in on the Linux side (don't have to worry about file size) and then
use Gnome's file roller to extract the stuff, or show the clients how to
extract files and then move them to the new windows side. Then when they
are sure they have everything, they can delete the saved file.
There would be alot of bumps in the road for a newbie to do this, feel
free to keep asking questions.

On Mon, 2003-09-15 at 09:24, 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

-- 
Cyber Source <peter at thecybersource.com>
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