[conspire] Preparing dual-boot system

[Daniel Gimpelevich]

On Jan 20, 2008, at 10:51 AM, hirohama at gmail.com wrote:

> Thanks for responding, Daniel.
>
> On Jan 20, 2008 10:17 AM, Daniel Gimpelevich
> <daniel at gimpelevich.san-francisco.ca.us> wrote:
>> On Sat, 19 Jan 2008 14:42:53 -0800, hirohama wrote:
>>
>>> Hello.
>>>
>>> I'd like some recommendations on how to prepare my hard drives so  
>>> that
>>> I can install a multi-boot system next Saturday; I'll probably arrive
>>> around 8 PM, so I'd like to do whatever preparatory work that I can
>>> ahead of time. I'll probably just go with a few flavors of GNU/Linux
>>> and maybe a free version of BSD. I'm new to GNU/Linux, so I don't  
>>> know
>>> what distributions might appeal to me most. I won't need to make a
>>> final decision, as I can experiment and revise as I learn more about
>>> what's available.
>>
>> As long as you bring the machine itself when you arrive, the rest may  
>> be
>> decided on the spot.
>>
>
> I was concerned that it might take a long time to reformat the disks
> before getting started with the installations as I'm bringing some
> friends who might not want to stay too late.

Reformatting takes seconds; installation & setup may take longer.

>>> I primarily used BSD-flavored UNIX systems with X Windows as a
>>> programmer during the decade of the '80s. I've only used Windows XP
>>> and Windows 2000 for a few years, but have accumulated some data  
>>> files
>>> that I'd like to access via some Windows freeware applications. Is
>>> there an Windows emulator under GNU/Linux up to the task for most
>>> simple applications? As long as most work, I will be happy as I can
>>> borrow a Windows machine to view and print out the few things that
>>> might not work. Is there good support for burning disks under
>>> GNU/Linux? Limitations?
>>
>> Sure, it may be possible for the Windows "freeware" apps to work, but  
>> in
>> most cases, there will be no need even to bother, because there may be
>> native apps that can replace them altogether.
>>
>
> I just wanted to be sure that I could access the legacy data when
> needed without too much difficulty.

Depending on what the apps are, that might not even need any special  
attention to accomplish.

>>> The system is a eMachine T6520
>>
>> http://www.e4allupgraders.info/dir1/motherboards/socket754/ 
>> msi7145.shtml
>> As with any eMachines that has a 250W Bestec PSU, you MUST replace  
>> the PSU
>> before it fries your motherboard, because it always will.
>>
>
> What power supply would you recommend instead?

You could probably easily pick one out for yourself after you read this:
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/power-supply.htm/printable

[snip]
>>> Hard Drive 1: 200GB
>>> Hard Drive 2: 80GB
>>> Optical Drive 1: 48x CD-ROM
>>> Optical Drive 2: 16x DVD±RW multi-format double layer
>>>
>>> Possible OS if needed: 1: Genuine Microsoft(R) Windows(R) XP Media
>>> Center Edition 2005 or 2: Windows XP Pro. Currently, a fresh install
>>> of the XP Media Center 2005 is on the 200GB disk. I don't know how  
>>> the
>>> disk is partitioned--it could be a 200GB NTFS, and I can check if it
>>> is important to know.
>>
>> What's on the 80GB disk? Will you want to be wiping Windows out  
>> entirely,
>> or keeping it around for some odd reason?
>
> Both disks are empty or have data that I don't need to save. I'm
> thinking of wiping out Windows completely. I also have an external USB
> disk on a NTFS filesystem whose data I would want to copy to the
> internal disks at some point in the future. I'm guessing that there
> should not be a problem with reading NTFS USB disk.

External NTFS may or may not be a problem, depending on how careful you  
are to make sure that the "ntfs-3g" driver is used by default, and not  
some competing driver.

>>
>>> Thanks for being there and helping support the transition away from  
>>> Microsoft!
>>
>> Don't forget to thank Microsoft for driving you away in the first  
>> place...
>>
>
> I definitely could have lived without the trauma; I think I now have
> more sympathy for folks who suffer using Windows.

"We told you so!"