backing up/partitioning (was: Re: after burning to a cd)

[Peter Garrett]

On Thu, 27 Oct 2005 19:13:09 -0400
renaaj at optonline.net wrote:

> > 
> > > Or will it over-write my XP?
> > > sorry for my lack of experiences in installing operating systems.
> > > hehe.  but will it NOT kill my c drive????

I think you are making this altogether more complicated than it really is  ;-)
If your "C drive" is the first partition on the disc - that is , in GNU/Linux-speak, /dev/hda1 ,
and you have another partition which is free space, then the Ubuntu installer will ask you if you want to use that partition. It will also recognise your existing install on /dev/hda1 ("C drive" ). The Ubuntu installer will then happily install Ubuntu on the free space and put its bootloader on your MBR. In this process it will tell you something like "found another installation on /dev/hda1", and set up an entry for that option automatically.

> > 
> > what's the big deal ? MicroSoft products have been overwriting MBR's
> > for > 10 years :-)

Indeed ;)
> > 
> > seriously though.. before doing anything, study this :
> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backup#Backup_procedures

Always good advice!

> 
> (open source) GHOSTING SOFTWARE QUESTION:
> Thanks.  I took backing up into mind.  Actually I don't care too much because I just bought my laptop two weeks ago so if anything i'll just plop in the
> recovery disk.  But you do bring something to mind tho, can you recommend any good open source ghosting software?  I only found info about openGhost > but that isn't released yet.  Other than that there is Norton's product which is about 60 bucks.

Ghost for Linux -

https://sourceforge.net/projects/g4l

You download the ISO and burn it. It's a bootable CD. Docs available at the URL above.

> 
> INSTALLING TO A DIFFERENT PARTITION QUESTION:
> But is there a way to specify to install to a different partition?  Does it have the option in the installer or is there another link on the ubuntu website?  I think ubuntu.com should have more help regarding this.  I can't find anything related to this.

As pointed out above, the installer allows you to install to the partiton of your choice.

Peter