Is Install Safe?

[adamherb]

I have a system that I just got. I want to do a dual boot with windows! Windows is already installed. If I install using the knx-hdinstall command, then will it be safe to install without messin up Windows? Is there anything that I need to know before I start the installation? Thanks for your help!

[Alterscape]

I'm not the most knowledgeable person here, so I hesitate to answer definitively one way or the other, but I know it will help others who will read this after me if you give us some more details about your system -- what version of Windows is currently loaded? what filesystem are you using? how big is your hdd? What's your level of experience with these sorts of things? Which Knoppix version are you working with? Details, details!

That aside, best of luck! I'm currently fighting with a 3.7 install, but that's because I went about it completely backwards out of paranoia. These folks can probably steer you very well. :)

[adamherb]

Sorry about not much info. I have Windows XP installed, and its NTFS. There are two harddrives. Both are NTFS. The first is 160, thats the one that has Windows Xp, and the second is 80. The 80 GB has a backup folder for the first. I would like to keep that, so I need to have a partition on the second drive for Windows to use. I am not really that experienced at all. I am now downloading version 3.7, and that is the version that I plan to use.

Another question, should I partition the harddrive before I start the installation?

[Alterscape]

You may want to look into the technique discussed here (http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11796), which lets you boot from a compressed image stored in the NTFS filesystem, without repartitioning. I have no experience with it, but apparantly people are having much luck. That said, if you do plan on repartitioning your hdd, you should definitely defrag any hdd you plan to change before you start the install. Under XP, the tool is Start->Accessories->System Tools->Disk Defragmenter. This should move your data to the beginning of the disk, physically, and help ensure that parted doesn't damage any files. I've never actually used Knoppix's partition editor (I had partitions all set up from the Fedora Core 2 install I replaced) so I can't speak to that, but I'm sure someone else can answer questions there.[/url]

[firebyrd10]

qtparted can safely resize ntfs if you wish to install knoppix that way. Defrag first though.

[crazygopedder]

qtparted can safely resize ntfs if you wish to install knoppix that way. Defrag first though.

Thats exactly what I did. It worked perfectly; I just resized my main partition, took about 4 gigs off of it to use for linux paritions, no lost data, lilo works fine, I basically have a system with 2 operating systems now. I would recommend backing stuff up though (I keep a backup of everything), since what I did is kind of a hit or miss type thing as to whether data loss will occur.

[DeepCreek]

When I did my hard drive install, I too used my Windows D drive to both hold backup data from the Windows C drive and profile room for Linux. In my case, I partitioned the drive first, but after doing the install, it seems I didn't need to. When you follow the hard drive install menu, you'll see that partitioning the drive is one of the steps. I too was nervous about doing this so I made sure I had a backup of the data on my D drive before I started.

You might want to play a bit with the QTPARTED utility to get the feel of how it works. You can do this without committing the changes. You'll find you have to shuffle things around a bit by first reducing the size of the original Windows partition which leaves you some free space. Once this is there, you can create the new partitions for the Linux install and another for the swap file. I found the install to be pretty much painless when I got to it.

Having gone the permanent install route, I"m glad I did. It opens a number of door in Linux for you, such as providing a true multi-user environment and the ability to add, update or remove applications in your setup. Good luck and I hope this helps.

David