Installing to a swapable hard drive
Hi folks, Happy New Year!
I'm about to take the Debian plunge, but have a
pre-installation problem. I tried reading your
installation docs, but they all seem to assume
that the user is already running Windows, and
wants to either create a new partition in C:>
drive for Linux, or completely replace Windows
with Linux. My disk configuration is not
mentioned, so I'm not sure how to proceed.
Like most bilingual users, I run a dual boot
system. Right now I am dual booting Win98SE
English and Win98SE Japanese. I use removable hard
disks, and I have my system arranged as follows:
One hard disk holds the OS, the other hard disk
holds everything else. Hard disk 1 contains the OS
and is removable, so all I have to do to switch
OSs is swap hard drives. Hard disk 1 is always C:>
drive, no matter which disk I boot from.
Hard disk 2 is not removable. It is partitioned
three ways. Drive D: is for Japanese software,
drive E: is for English software, and drive F: is
for data. To work in one language or the other, I
just swap OSs (HD1). The drives in HD2 are always
available no matter what OS disk I boot from. Most
bilingual users (that I know) use a setup like
this one.
What I want to do is install Linux in a new
third hard disk 1, and still be able to get at my
data in HD2. I cannot find anything in the Debian
docs about installation on such a system. My main
concern is whether or not Linux will mess with my
data and applications in HD2 while installing it
to HD1. Will the installation try to make any
changes in my other hard disk (HD2)? There are all
kinds of dire warnings about backing up before
installation, but does that apply to additional
hard drives, or only the disk to which Linux is
being installed. Should I disconnect HD2 during
installation? Any advice on how to proceed?
Douglas Dreistadt
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
^^ Douglas Dreistadt ^^
^^ dreistad@okiu.ac.jp ^^
^^ ^^
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