replacing Windows

[Karl Auer]

On Tue, 2009-01-27 at 22:28 -0500, Matthew Flaschen wrote:
> Jared Greenwald wrote:
> > Someone gave me one of their old computers.  The thing still has some
> > data on it.  I've made a backup of the data to my raid, but in case
> > they remember about some obscure file they saved somewhere, I wanted
> > to try to save the Windows area as an accessible partition on whatever
> > new install I perform.
> 
> Use GParted (http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php) to shrink the
> Windows partition as well as to create two new partitions, an ext3
> (holds the OS and data) and Linux swap partition (virtual memory).  Set
> the swap size to twice the RAM, make the Windows (NTFS) as small as
> possible, then allocate the rest of the space to ext3.  Then, when you
> install Ubuntu be sure /not/ to reformat, and to use the existing ext3
> and swap.

I have a far simpler, cheaper and space-efficient procedure.

Step 1: Ask the original owner if there is anything on the computer that
they need a copy of.

Step 2: Inform them that you are about to format the drive, and that all
data will be irrevocably lost.

Step 3: Ask them again if there is anything on the computer that they
need a copy of.

Step 4: Format the drive.

If after Step 2 or Step 3 they say "yes", give them the computer back.

Otherwise you will be adding to the extraordinary amount of digital
detritus preserved the world over, for ever more, "just in case", amen.

Regards, K.

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Karl Auer (kauer at biplane.com.au)                   +61-2-64957160 (h)
http://www.biplane.com.au/~kauer/                  +61-428-957160 (mob)

GPG fingerprint: 07F3 1DF9 9D45 8BCD 7DD5 00CE 4A44 6A03 F43A 7DEF
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