Re: Boot advice, please.

On 27/01/11 14:49, Rusty Hinge wrote:
JonG wrote:

As I may have intimated before, I am a Bear of very little Computing
brain, and need advice in words of as few syllabubs as possible.

My main PC runs XP. It has the original EIDE hard drive as C:, and a
rather larger SATA drive partitioned as both F; and G: and a [1]
partition on which I installed Mandriva some time ago. Have never got
on with Mandriva, and would like to do two things.

Firstly, swap the IEDE for a larger SATA drive, partitioned for both a
C: drive and to try Ubuntu. Secondly, delete the current Mandriva
partition which is a bit on the small side, and extend the G: logical
drive, to use for backups.

OK. Do I have this right? You'll get rid of the existing IDE drive and
install a second SAT drive. So you will have a working system disk and a
second disk that you can use for backups? That sounds sensible if so.


Of course, when I installed Mandriva in added its version of a loader
- Grub 1.5 - and ever since then, booting the PC to the OS option
screen has been frustratingly slow - seems to pause for almost two
minutes at two instances of "starting GRUB loader" or something like
that.

Something is broken. It should take a few seconds.


For me, Grub loads in a very few seconds. If you are going to get an arj
HDD I would recommend that you install something like Debian, from which
most flavours of penguin depend. Grub will then present itself like a
flash.

Ubuntu is derived from Debian. For an almost first-timer I would suggest
Ubuntu rather than Debian - but I'm sure you could make either jbex.


First, I'd configure your DVD drive and/or USB to boot from before HDD,
then you can try live discs or memory styx on which are various flavours
of Linux to see which you like best.

From what I've experienced, I prefer Knoppix to Ubantu, but there are
isowossnames for those, easily downloaded or ohled for notverymuch from
(eg) The Linux Emporiumm.

There are two other options that you may want to try. One is a Ubuntu
derivative called Mint. The other is Kubuntu, which is Ubuntu with a KDE
front-end.


I'm not sure of the relationship of Grub to the Master Boot Record -
does it actually replace the original Windows one?

No, unless Windows is opened, then I expect it creates its own version

Grub overwrites the Windows MBR and then gives you options for which OS
you want to load. Windows won't offer you a choice without a bit of a
faff. So install Windows /then/ Linux.


If so, where does it reside? If I delete the Mandriva partition, will
I end up with a PC which I can no longer boot, or is it safe on the C:
drive?

If you are replacing your system disk then you may to have to reinstall
Windows anyway. Then when you install Linux you will overwrite the MBR
again.

You have to install Windows first then Linux. Linux will play nice with
another OS. Windows won't.


Dunno. If I were in your boots I'd keep it as is, and move everything
you want to keep somewhere else, then throw the spanner in the jbexf.

Or simply boot your arj favourite flavour of Linux from DVD or USB,
which doesn't trouble the boot sector of the HDD AIUI.

Not sure how you'd go about running your Windows in the miggle of a
Linux session then, thobut, unless you installed Virtual Box or
something similar.

If you have enough memory then you can do this.


you ought to be delighted at th speed your Linux loads and shuts down -
mine loads around three times as fast and shuts down at least ten times
faster.

HTH

I was planning on cloning my C: drive to the second disc, taking out
that drive and replacing it with my arj SATA drive, and restoring the
cloned drive onto the relevant partition on the arj drive.

That should jbex but back up everything first, to at least two different
places.

Gparted will manage cloning. It's a specialist Linux distro. There are
commercial products to do this too.


I don't fancy the second stage.

Can anyone recommend idiot-proof software, preferably SFP, for the
cloning/ restoring process, and advise on which I should do first -
replace the drive/ restore the clone of C: or get rid of the Mandriva
partition?

The alternative is to reinstall rather than clone. However you approach
this you should keep the reinstall option in mind. Take the paranoid
option and assume that cloning will fail and be prepared to reinstall
instead. That means locating all of your installation disks and files
before you start.




--
Bernard Peek
bap@xxxxxxxxxx
.

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