Re: Installation failed
On Tue, Mar 5, 2013 at 6:40 PM, Steven Rosenberg
<stevenhrosenberg@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Fri, Mar 1, 2013 at 12:12 PM, Mark Filipak
> <markfilipak.linux@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I don't dare fiddle with my hard disk. It's a Dell laptop that has WinXP
>> preinstalled without a maintenance partition and I don't have a backup CD.
>> If the current WinXP gets trashed, I'm hosed.
>
> If this is the case, I wouldn't go forward. I'd pull your current hard
> drive, put in a new one and install to the clean drive. That way you
> can experiment and get a feel for the installation procedure.
>
> That said, I've done many installs of Debian, Ubuntu and other Linux
> and BSD systems on hard drives with existing Windows installations
> (and I never use a "maintenance partition" for Windows), and it always
> works out fine.
>
> But don't commit to an installation of any kind without a full backup
> of your data. Clonezilla is your friend.
Now that I've seen the whole thread:
-- Get a backup drive and use Clonezilla to back up your full hard
disk with Windows on it
-- Use Gparted with a live disc such as Parted Magic to shrink your
Windows partition to a size you can live with
-- Install Debian with the normal installer in the space you freed up
-- Let Debian write the bootloader to the MBR -- Debian will find your
Windows partition and account for it in the GRUB menu
-- If any of this worries you, find a test machine somewhere --
they're not hard to find -- and do a bunch of installs. Once you do 20
or so, you'll know a lot more
More than anything, don't run before you can crawl with confidence.
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