Disc Partitioning for Multi-Boot (long)

[Phil Schaffner]

On Mon, 2005-08-01 at 11:43 -0500, Mike McCarty wrote:
> Some of this may be off-topic, some on-topic.
> I'll spare you the gory details of how we got here.
> 
> Here's the hardware setup:
> 
> Main board with 512MB RAM.
> 3 1/2" floppy drive
> 24x DVD/CD reader
> 48x CD writer
> 80GB WD drive, partitioned as 40GB FAT32 + 40GB unallocated
> 80GB WD drive, partitioned as 80GB NTFS
> 
> Win 98 is happily running in the FAT32 partition.
> We need to get the data off of the NTFS partition.
> 
> I started up Knoppix, and mounted the FAT32 r/w, and the NTFS r/o, 
> created a directory named "oldd" on the FAT32, and did a massive
> 
> cp -pr /mnt/hdb1/* .
> 
> which ran for about 3 hours. Then I did a
> 
> diff /mnt/hdb1 .
> 
> and between 6000 and 7000 files miscompare, due to having different 
> names. They differ in the case of the file names. It took 1 1/2 hours to 
> run, so I guess about 1/2 of the data did not get checked. I tried
> 
> diff --ignore-file-names-case /mnt/hdb1 .
> 
> and got exactly the same results. Hmm. The man page for diff under
> FC2 and Knoppix apparently differ. FC2 doesn't list that option...
> 
> So, ok. I'll try making a script which will do renames, and then go back 
> and do more diffs. And BTW, the names probably need to be fixed, anyway.
> 
> First question: How better to get that data from the second drive?

Sounds like you've already got it pending filename case problem
resolution.  Might have a look at g4l.

> I've considered using tar and WinZip. Would that be better?
> 
> But the next question is how to partition the drive so Windows and Linux 
> can co-exist on the first drive?
> 
> The fdisk supplied with Windows 98 cannot manage that disc. Win98 
> apparently can live happily in something already formatted for it, but 
> cannot manage the large partitions itself. A utility from Western 
> Digital can manage the partitions, and even format a FAT32 disc and make 
> it bootable. But if it is run on a drive, it insists on wiping the MBR.
> (That's how we got Win98 on that large partition.) Hmm, maybe use
> dd to lift the MBR, use the WD utility to repartition, then merge
> in the bootstrap from the original? I looked at parted but do not
> feel confident in my ability to use it. I'm not very familiar with
> dd, either.

Should be able to do everything you need with Linux fdisk under Knoppix,
or fdisk/disk-druid on the install disk.  Ctrl-Alt-F2 in a graphical
install, before getting to the partition stage, will get you to VC#2
where you can get full control on partitioning with fdisk.

> She'd like to make additional partitions in the 40GB of unallocated
> space on the first drive, and make a multi-boot system which can
> boot several versions of Linux for try-out. She's thinking about
> Red Hat (try Fedora and if she likes it, she'd buy RHEL), Debian,
> Knoppix, Mandrake, Suse, Puppy, and CentOS. She'd try two or so
> at a time, and when she found one she likes, she'd go with it.

May be heresy on this list, but if the only reason for playing with FCx
is so she can test-drive a RH-family OS before putting out big bucks for
RHEL, forget Fedora and just try out CentOS4 (RHEL4 rebuild).  Unless
you really need the support that may be the best choice.

> have the FC2 discs here, and the FC4 ISOs, and don't mind getting the 
> FC3 ISOs if they might be better,

I certainly would not mess with FC2 on a new installation.

> so the second question I want to pose is
> 
> How shall I make a multi-boot system out of that machine, with the 
> possibility of booting at least Windows 98 and two versions of Linux 
> concurrently? I must either not use the second disc, or I must reliably 
> recover the information from it before using it.

Could consider saving the NTFS partition and resizing it with ntfsresize
- should be on your Knoppix disk if it's not too old - to get more
space.  Google "ntfsresize knoppix" for details.  Backing up first is to
be recommended in any case.

> Also, when a version
> of Linux has been decided upon, how to re-partition and get maximum
> use out of the disc with Win98 and Linux on it? I'm strongly considering 
> putting /home on a separate partition. Can we do that in such a manner 
> that different versions of Linux can remount it later without having to 
> save/restore the data there? How about swap?
> 
> I'm pretty sure Anaconda can handle what she wants, but I'm not
> so familiar with Anaconda, either. I'm an old hand at *NIX machines
> from the development standpoint, but not with the admin side
> of things, and those things differ from system to system anyway.

Anaconda should be able to handle it, but would have to manually
partition to leave room for 2 Linux installations.

> Third question: Her main use for the Linux boot will be web page
> management. She has tried Open Office, and several other packages
> which run on Linux, and has not found one with all the features
> she wants. Apparently there is a package for WinXP which is
> very nice, and which she likes. Don't ask me, I know nothing
> about Web Pages. Are there some really nice web management / HTML 
> editors available for Linux? I found Amaya, but it really couldn't
> install properly when running from CDROM (Puppy).

Can't advise there, but you might get better results posting that
question separately.

> She doesn't want to become a "fiddler" again, though she has, in
> past done that. She'd like to "install and go" now. Her interest
> in computers is now more on the "tool" side than the "hobby/fun" side.

Testing out all those Linux distros might be considered serious
"fiddling".  :-)

Phil