[CLUE-Talk] Installfest! (Debian dual-boot on notebook?)

[Ed Hill]

On Thu, 2002-02-14 at 23:41, Matthew Porter wrote:
> 
> I hope to attend this week's Installfest, and I hope to install Debian on my 
> notebook to make it a dual-boot machine.
> 
> I've done dual-boot installs of Linux on a couple of desktop machines, but
> I've always had the benefit of an existing but unused Windows partition,
> or clean second hard drive just for Linux.
> 
> However, my notebook currently has one 20 gig hard drive, which I will need 
> to share between Windows and Linux.
> 
> Will there be anyone at the installfest with the software and know-how to 
> help me NON-DESTRUCTIVELY repartition my drive so I can keep the 
> Windows install, but make room for the Linux install?  Or will I need 
> to provide my own copy of a tool such as Partition Magic to do this?
> 
> (And as long as I'm asking questions -- is there anything I should do to 
> the computer besides defrag and backup?  Anything I should bring 
> besides the computer and my Debian CDs?)


Hi Matt,

I have a copy of Partition Magic.

Is your Windows partition FAT or NTFS?  If its NTFS then I recommend
that you completely backup the system and re-install windows using
FAT32.  Linux can safely read/write to FAT partitions but can only
safely read from NTFS.  So transferring files between the two is much
easier with FAT.

And its a good idea to backup your system on a regular basis.  IMNSHO,
anyone who has important data on their disk and who isn't doing regular,
archival backups is a fool.

Ed


-- 
Edward H. Hill III, PhD
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