Re: Laptop choice, first boot issues
j64669@columbus.rr.com writes:
>> AFAIK, ntfs partitions can be resized. Maybe not all partition
>> editors can do it, but I think Knoppix's can. Ubuntu can't right now,
>> be it is on the roadmap.
>
> It's safest to use native tools to repartition.
Well, not in my experience. I used to think that way, but Windows
partitioning tools screwed my disks too many times to my taste. YMMV.
> Borrow a PartitionMagic CD, if you can. I have no experience with
> cfdisk or QTParted making partitions for Windows. In any event,
> make TWO partitions: the first for NTFS at whatever size you want
> for Windows. (9GB will hold basic stuff plus one game.)
Two data points : My home windows machine is OS plus basic tools, but
nothing big (no Office suite, no Visual Studio). It tops at 4.5 GB.
My work machine has Office, Visual Studio, and a couple of other
things. It uses 9.8 GB.
> The second can be very small (~300 MB), and is insurance in case you
> ever need to reinstall Windows.
So, I just had a look at the default partitionning: /dev/hda1 is 55GB
FAT32 -> NTFS, /dev/hda2 is 4.6GB FAT32 flagged bootable. Is a 300MB
partition enough ? I have no idea how IBM's recovery system uses it.
Also, does anybody know why does IBM ships a FAT32 fs just to convert
it to NTFS first thing when the machine comes to life - as opposed to
shipping NTFS directly ?
> Simpler for sure: you don't have to think about all this. But if you
> want to use dial-up when you travel with a strange new provider (like
> Roadrunner's, not to mention Europe), or play Windows-world games, or
> get IBM automatic updates, or various other things, dual boot is
> relatively painless. GRUB rules!
As a side note: Is Europe much worse about strange ISP setups ? This
is an honest question; I personally never saw much difference between
EU/US regarding weird network setups. I wonder what makes you say
this.
As for dial-up, the modem is reported to work with resp. FC3, SuSE9.1
and Sarge:
http://pmw.org/~gardnerj/Thinkpad/Install.html#Modem
http://toys.lerdorf.com/archives/22-IBM-Thinkpad-T42p.html
http://norman.walsh.name/2004/09/20/newLaptop
>> > Any horror stories out there?
>
> One horror story: if you install Debian starting on the second
> partition, then someday your XP system will lock up so that you have
> to reinstall. Not only will the %^$&*@!! hidden recovery write over
> the MBR on the first partition, but it will put junk on that second
> partition so that you have to reinstall Debian!
Good to know. Thanks for your valuable input.
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