Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Pastimes : Computer Learning -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jerry in Omaha who wrote (39155)	1/30/2004 12:18:02 PM
From: Elsewhere	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 110626

I was told that Linux appropriates its own naming system for the drives. Yes, Linux supports virtual volumes. Physical drives can be attached to nearly arbitrary points in the directory "tree". Linux chose E (System) & F (Active) drives. I don't think that means anything in the XP environment. Yes, Linux has its own drive recognition sequence. I would appreciate hearing any helpful suggestions on partition numbers, size and function. It depends on what you want to do. In the Linux context it's important to mention that it is only able to write to FAT or FAT32, not to NTFS volumes (one more technology which Microsoft doesn't publish specifications for). NTFS can at least be read, though. A couple of features I'm looking at are a partition on the big drive to store a back-up of the little drive, where I'll be keeping all my documents and copy folders of Program Files. An on-the-fly backup of important documents can be useful but program folder backups without registry entries are sometimes of little help. An important part of any backup strategy is an off-site backup. For that you would at least need an imaging tool like Norton Ghost: symantec.com My own favorite backup tool is Dantz Retrospect: dantz.com An image is out of date if just a single bit of the original changes. Retrospect is able to manage incremental backups. If just one character of a file has changed compared to the last backup then just this single changed file is added to the backup. I also want to install a copy of Linux on a partition on at least the little drive. Which distribution are you considering? A frequent setup is one boot (32 MB), one swap (256 MB) and a root ("/") partition (5-10 GB). Before you install Linux on the hard disk I would first try a distribution like Knoppix: knopper.net Just download and burn the CD image: knopper.net ... and boot from it, then you can play around and see if you like it. Knoppix doesn't touch your hard disk if you prefer so no need to create and later delete partitions. What are other sensible things to do with partitions? If you have very sensible data you might want to use one encrypted partition with the help of a tool like DriveCrypt: securstar.com Good luck!

To: Jerry in Omaha who wrote (39155)	1/30/2004 12:21:27 PM
From: Esteban	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 110626

It looks exactly like you described it. F is what is usually described as C, and is both the boot and system drive. I suspect the Linux drive lettering somehow messed up the XP original assignment. Who knows why. Sooo... I would think you could rename C if you want to, but switching F to C could cause problems. I know F is the one you want to be C. There's really no problem with the system set up as is. You'll get used the drive nomenclature, don't you think? You could try switching any of the letters after making a clone image of your drives in a program like Ghost or BootItNG. That way you can just restore the image if it doesn't work. BootItNG offers imaging, and non destructive partitioning facility (like Partition Magic) in one low cost package. Langa thinks it's a great program. It also offers easier to set up and more sophisticated multiple booting than XP does. I use old versions of Drive Image and Partition Magic. Making regular backup images of your system and program drives is an excellent reason to partition. Here's a post from a past discussion of the merits of partitioning. Not a lot of information there, but maybe you'll find it helpful from a partition philosophy point of view. Message 19042389 Esteban