Installing Ubuntu

[Nils Kassube]

debian wrote:
> Heres something i recommend you do before repartitioning:
> In windows, run the hard disk defragmenter. That way you will minimize
> the chance of loosing data. If it tells you that defragmenting isnt
> necessary, i recommend you do it anyway just in case.

Some months ago I followed that procedure on 2 Windows XP machines and on 
both the Windows partition was damaged without hope for Windows to 
recover. Of course it was damaged by resizing the partition with gparted 
afterwards, not due to defragmenting. When that happened, I did some 
research and found a forum entry somewhere which claimed that you should 
NOT defragment an NTFS partition before installing Linux (sorry, can't 
find that entry right now). As I did not yet try without defragmenting, I 
don't know if that would work any better (there are not many Windows 
machines around to play with :) but I do know that defragmenting doesn't 
prevent data loss.

So I think, the most important thing to do is backup all your data before 
doing anything to the Windows partition. And be prepared to reinstall 
Windows (if you really want to keep it).


Nils