Windows has let me down (for the last time)
I windows errors everyday with clients. I had never had anything major happen to my Win2K machine at home, until today. When I walked into my office last night, I noticed that my Windows machine was off. Strange, considering I did not turn it off before I left. Since I have been trying to boot it last night and this morning, I have seen various blue screens ranging from "PageFault_in_NON_PAGED_AREA" to unable to load "\SystemRoot\system32\drivers\update.sys". I have been messing around with Linux off and on for the past year or so. I have installed several versions of Mandrake, Debian, Red Hat, and SuSE (both purchased and FTP). I have pretty much decided on SuSE to replace Windows. Questions: As I am a little short on cash, the plan is to install SuSE 9.0 via ftp until I can afford to purchase it (may be 9.1 by then:-)). The windows machine that has died luckily (I think) had all the major info spread out across various drives. One drive for music, one drive for family photos, one drive for old document files, etc. There are 5 Hard Drives in the machine. I am going to unplug all of the old drives out and put two new ones (2 x 6.5 GB Western Digital ATA Hard Drives) in to install SuSE (any advice on partitioning schemes would be appreciated). After I get SuSE set up the way I want it, I plan to reconnect the old drives in order to have access to my data. All of these Drives were formatted NTFS. Will this be an issue? I am also using a Kingston Digital Media Flash Card reader for my digital camera. It connects to the machine via parallel port. Should have it connected when I install SuSE or should I unplug it and connect it post installation? Is there anything else I need to take into consideration before I begin this installation? Thanks in advance for any help and advice. -=Thinker (My windows days are officially over. Someone ring the gong!)
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After I get SuSE set up the way I want it, I plan to reconnect the old drives in order to have access to my data. All of these Drives were formatted NTFS. Will this be an issue?
You (for right now) cannot write to a NTFS from Linux but you can read from it. Unless someone can prove me wrong.
I am also using a Kingston Digital Media Flash Card reader for my digital camera. It connects to the machine via parallel port. Should have it connected when I install SuSE or should I unplug it and connect it post installation?
Not sure on this one sorry :(
Is there anything else I need to take into consideration before I begin this installation?
I would get those drives converted from NTFS to something native to SuSE (if you are not going to use Windows again) This will allow you to read and write to the drives. I would also make sure that other hardware on your machine will work with SuSE (soundcard, network card, etc..) so you will not have to do without things like networking, sound, etc. That is what I can think of at the moment. I'm sure that others will chime in and give you even more advice. -- Marshall "Nothing is impossible, we just do not have all the answers to make the impossible, possible."
On Sun, 2003-11-23 at 19:17, Marshall Heartley wrote:
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After I get SuSE set up the way I want it, I plan to reconnect the old drives in order to have access to my data. All of these Drives were formatted NTFS. Will this be an issue?
You (for right now) cannot write to a NTFS from Linux but you can read from it. Unless someone can prove me wrong.
I don't really need to write to them. They are pretty full as it is. I just need to be able to play an MP3 or access a picture for whatever reason. I will be burning copies of these drives on disc using an HP CDRW. That won't be an issue will it?
I am also using a Kingston Digital Media Flash Card reader for my digital camera. It connects to the machine via parallel port. Should have it connected when I install SuSE or should I unplug it and connect it post installation?
Not sure on this one sorry :(
Is there anything else I need to take into consideration before I begin this installation?
I would get those drives converted from NTFS to something native to SuSE (if you are not going to use Windows again) This will allow you to read and write to the drives. I would also make sure that other hardware on your machine will work with SuSE (soundcard, network card, etc..) so you will not have to do without things like networking, sound, etc.
Everything looks as though it will work.
That is what I can think of at the moment. I'm sure that others will chime in and give you even more advice.
I would appreciate that very much. Thanks for the info Marshall.
If I may offer some advice here. First off: why trash your windows partition completely? From what you are telling it looks like you are working with other people who use windows regularly and it may well come the day where you wish you could use it again. It's of course your call, but I have kept my win2k alive, in fact made some effort in restoring it from a botched maneuver to make a triple-boot machine. I admit to only very rarely using it, i.e., so rarely that I usually end up giving a new passwort every time I have to use it. Nonetheless it is good back-up for me if I have to do with a special word document that will not print in openoffice. But now, regarding your install questions: On Sun, 23 Nov 2003, Thinker wrote:
... Questions: As I am a little short on cash, the plan is to install SuSE 9.0 via ftp until I can afford to purchase it (may be 9.1 by then:-)). The windows machine that has died luckily (I think) had all the major info spread out across various drives. One drive for music, one drive for family photos, one drive for old document files, etc. There are 5 Hard Drives in the machine. I am going to unplug all of the old drives out and put two new ones (2 x 6.5 GB Western Digital ATA Hard Drives) in to install SuSE (any advice on partitioning schemes would be appreciated).
Well, it looks like 9.0 finally will make it to the ftp mirrors this weekend, so you should be alright to go shortly. Why unplug the other hard drives from your machine? YaST, the SuSE installer will recognize your existing partitions and give you a chance to decide what to do with them, like keep them. You might want to use the expert option for the partitioning part to set up your SuSE linux exactly where you want it. If you have little space available, you might simply want to put everything that you can afford into /. However, since you are getting two new hard drives you may want to split things up a bit, and perhaps use the second HD to put the /home directory on.
After I get SuSE set up the way I want it, I plan to reconnect the old drives in order to have access to my data. All of these Drives were formatted NTFS. Will this be an issue?
You will likely only be able to mount them read-only. I suggest you backup your data from them and pull whatever you need regularly on your new home drive.
I am also using a Kingston Digital Media Flash Card reader for my digital camera. It connects to the machine via parallel port. Should have it connected when I install SuSE or should I unplug it and connect it post installation?
I would keep it in during the install and see whether SuSE supports it right out of the box. However, since you can add it later with YaST (if it is supported) it probably doesn't matter.
Is there anything else I need to take into consideration before I begin this installation?
Good luck, Alex.
participants (3)
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Alex Angerhofer -
Marshall Heartley -
Thinker