LiveWire Network Peer Answers Peer Support Teen Forums Tech Forums College Forums 430 users online 166231 members 817 active today Advertise Here Sign In
TeenCollegeTechPhotos | Quizzes | LiveSecret | Video | Dictionary | News | FAQ
You have 1 new message.
Emergency Help
Until you sign up you can't do much. Yes, it's free.

Sign Up Now
Membername:
Password:
Already have an account?
Invite Friends
Active Members
Groups
Contests
Moderators
4 online / 33 MPM
Fresh Topics
  LiveWire / Technical Forums / MacOS vs. Windows vs. Linux / Viewing Topic

Installing Linux
For the Guy who has way to much music to reformat
Replies: 7Last Post Mar. 28, 2006 1:33pm by espresso8097
Single page for this topic Email Print Favorite
( ajm51987 )

I've been here too long.

Patron
Reply
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?

-------
Well damn!

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


Lord of the Slackers

Patron
Support Leader
Tech Support Leader
Reply
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


Rawwrrr

Patron
Tech Support Leader
Reply
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

-------
Missing you Clairey xxx


1:48 am on Feb. 13, 2006 | Joined Sep. 2002 | 1025 Days Active
Join to learn more about vitamin England, United Kingdom | Straight Male | 13271 Posts | 27998 Points
mephisto mortis


Enlightened One
Reply
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).

-------
Lifes a bitch.  If it were a slut it'd be too easy.


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 )

I've been here too long.

Patron
Reply
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

-------
Well damn!

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


Dairy Product Addict

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

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

-------
A movie costs 11 USD to watch for two hours.
Livewire gives you endless hours of enjoyment.
Why don't you donate?


8:30 am on Feb. 14, 2006 | Joined Feb. 2004 | 336 Days Active
Join to learn more about BostonDave Massachusetts, United States | GLBT Ally Male | 7666 Posts | 10971 Points
( ajm51987 )

I've been here too long.

Patron
Reply
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.

-------
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


Omnipotent One

Patron
Tech Support Leader
Reply
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

-------
We do what we must because we can.


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
Single page for this topic Email Print Favorite

Quick Reply

You are signed in as our guest.

Looking for something else?
 

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