Luckyjfl 0 Posted October 7, 2004 Hi Guys, I am a complete Linux Noobie and want to try this OP Sys. I think I might try a free one first, if possible. I have Winxp pro on my pC at the moment. I have 2 HDs . I was thinking of putting the Linux one on the smaller one , which is 40 Gig. Now, will the Linux go straight over that HDs present system, or do I need to format it first. It has the winxp pro on it and is NTFS as well. Do I also need to revert it back to the Fat system, first. Is it also possible to have a different Browser on the Linux HD, ie Mozilla. Questions, questions, I have so many, but I hope you will bear with me. Cheers. Share this post Link to post
alagenchev 0 Posted October 7, 2004 I am not exactly sure how the new distros handle it but the old ones needed to be on FAT I am running RH 9.0 but I still stick to the old FAT rule just to avoid headaches, Linux comes with konqueror on KDE and mozilla on gnome you can also download opera from opera.com Share this post Link to post
Dapper Dan 0 Posted October 7, 2004 Be aware though that fat32 can be a very unstable file system. Ext2, ext3, and rieserfs are far superior for reliability and robustness. I once made the mistake of keeping a half years programming logs in a partition formatted with fat32. When I tried transferring the files via ftp, they disappeared into thin air. I still haven't gotten over that one! A friend of mine was keeping several hundred Mp3s on a fat32 partition and lost them in the same way. If you are going to try Linux, use one of the above mentioned file systems for peace of mine if nothing else. As far as browsers go, Firefox is very good. Just curious, why would you not want to use Mozilla? It's very good, only uses more resources than Firefox and is not as fast. Share this post Link to post
Mel 0 Posted October 7, 2004 Most distros will do all the formatting for you. You will have options; 1.the drive to install on 2.use entire drive or 3.Use free space on drive or 4.Resize existing partitions to make room for linux If you decide to resize an existing partition,make sure you defrag that partition first or you will likely lose critical data.There is a chance you will lose data any time you resize a partition. If you don't want to keep the windows partition;just let linux format the drive for you. Share this post Link to post
