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  LiveWire / Technical Forums / MacOS vs. Windows vs. Linux / Viewing Topic

Installing Linux
For the Guy who has way to much music to reformat
Replies: 7 — Last Post Mar. 28, 2006 1:33pm by espresso8097
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( ajm51987 )

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Yeah so I would like to install linux, you know? Ubuntu looks like a great distro, and I've found plenty of guides on how to configure my custom laptop (has a bluetooth/wifi card and a widescreen resoultion). However, can I do this without reformatting my entire Hard Disk? It's in NTFS right now, can I just reformat part of the disk into FAT32? Probably not, eh?

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11:42 pm on Feb. 12, 2006 | Joined Oct. 2002 | 1744 Days Active
Join to learn more about ajm51987 Washington, United States | Straight Male | 7653 Posts | 25557 Points
Tangaroa


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It might be risky, when I have been in similar situations, I have just bought an extra hard drive and installed it on that, that way there is far less risk of scary data loss, hard drives are relatively cheap and easy to install too.
12:33 am on Feb. 13, 2006 | Joined Oct. 2002 | 1932 Days Active
Join to learn more about Tangaroa New Zealand | Straight Male | 8319 Posts | 36098 Points
vitamin


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Yes I would have to agree with the above. If the data is that important you either want to back it all up or install on an extra drive, however the second drive isnt really an option for you with a laptop.

On another note you could use partion magic to do that but you wouldnt want to convert it to fat32...... however if parition magic crashes you are fucked

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1:48 am on Feb. 13, 2006 | Joined Sep. 2002 | 1025 Days Active
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mephisto mortis


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Unless they're in separate partitions, then no you cant.  I never liked those partition re-sizing utilities either.  Always seemed sketchy to me.  How much space is on the disk?  Is there a way to scheme a partition setup so you can copy the important data onto another partition, while you reformat/reinstall on the partition that you want your os on?

Oh and once you get linux installed it would be a good idea to make ~/ a separate partition with fat32.  That way the data will be accesible by both windows and ubuntu.  Same with any partitions you want shared between multiple operating systems (music, movies, etc).

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1:54 pm on Feb. 13, 2006 | Joined June 2004 | 969 Days Active
Join to learn more about mephisto mortis New York, United States | Straight Male | 5856 Posts | 16175 Points
( ajm51987 )

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Eh, it's a laptop, so another HD is sort of out of the question, as I don't have money for an external. Meh, I suppose I'll just do a fresh install over spring break mabye, besides I have a pirated copy of XP Pro Installed over Home and so I can't get any non critical updates because of the verification process. :p

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2:34 pm on Feb. 13, 2006 | Joined Oct. 2002 | 1744 Days Active
Join to learn more about ajm51987 Washington, United States | Straight Male | 7653 Posts | 25557 Points
BostonDave


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It is possible to repartition the disk, however it's pretty risky.

Can you dump all your music onto your iPod/other music device?

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8:30 am on Feb. 14, 2006 | Joined Feb. 2004 | 336 Days Active
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( ajm51987 )

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Quote: from BostonDave at 8:30 am on Feb. 14, 2006
It is possible to repartition the disk, however it's pretty risky.  

Can you dump all your music onto your iPod/other music device?

Oh yeah, I guess I can, I always forget you can take the music off once it's on. For a long time I had it on auto-update on plugin and that locks you out from being able to take songs off, and I never noticed you could take songs off when you're in manual update, so, cool stuff. Thanks guys.

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Well damn!

12:51 pm on Feb. 14, 2006 | Joined Oct. 2002 | 1744 Days Active
Join to learn more about ajm51987 Washington, United States | Straight Male | 7653 Posts | 25557 Points
espresso8097


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get a removeable hard drive or enclosure ffor u current hard drive.

if get removeable, just copy like a thumb drive

if enclosure, take out and put in

TA-DA

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1:33 pm on Mar. 28, 2006 | Joined Jan. 2005 | 683 Days Active
Join to learn more about espresso8097 Illinois, United States | GLBT Ally Male | 6765 Posts | 19313 Points
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