Unplug HDD Before Loading Knoppix - OK?

[shars]

ok, i have just completed the knoppix download after 5 hours.

btw, i am currently burning the image with nero. i read that you have to select the "burn image" selection in nero and i found it at last under the recorder menu and not the file menu.

anyway, i did not select create bootable cd as i normally would from the nero wizard if i wanted a boot cd in windows, so i a little confused as to whetehr the cd that i am burning will actually boot. i am just hoping that the boot img will have all the necessary files for it to boot, am i right?

now since this is the first time i am running knoppix, i plan to unplug all my hdds just in case smthg goes wrong as i still depend on xp quite a bit and i dont feel like reinstalling xp or lose data on my hdd.

will knoppix run with out any hdd on my pc connected? i read that data corruption can happen if i write to a hdd formatted as ntfs - all my disks are ntfs and hence the extra precaution.

[EmDee]

IIRC, you can select a "image recorder device" in the recorder menu but thats probably not what you want as it will just cause nero to create another image of off the knoppix iso image you just downloaded. "burn image" really should be in the "file" menu! So if you find yourself with a cd that only contains a huge "Knoppix_version_date.iso" file then you got it wrong. There should be a couple files, directories, docs, faqs and so on.

Well, you could pull the plug on your hdds provided that you have a half-way descent machine with, say, about a hundred megabytes of ram. But, you don't have to do this since knoppix will _not_ write/delete anything from your disks unless you instruct it to do so!

I suggest you to not write anything to a ntfs partition as it _will_ (in most cases, even tried it myself) inrecoverably destroy that partition, but knoppix defaults to read-only mode anyway so there's really not much to worry about.

Good luck and have fun with knoppix!

-Marek

[shars]

i finally managed to burn the iso using alcohol120%, this time it completed whreas in nero it stopped at 98% and was not responding and hung my pc.

ok, i am a complete newbie when it comes to linux or knoppix. basically i have never even seen linux running on a pc :)


now you say that knoppix defaults to read only and if i mistakenly try to write to disk will it warn me ?? i am so afraid of losing data, i have no backup of data, only os...stupid...but i plan to get a new bigger hdd.
soon.

i have 1024mb ram running a p4c 2.4 overclocked. i m going to load it up now, i hope it goes well. im not even sure how to surf the web with it :) i hope its got good help in there. anyway ill see how it goes any problems ill come back. thanks

[arkaine23]

It won't let you write to NTFS and will warn you if you try (at least when doing it thorugh the GUI). If you are extremely paranoid, its no big deal to unplug your HDD's, but really its not necessary.

here is an example of how a Linux desktop could look (though this is not a default desktop for Knoppix, but its close). There is quite a lot of variety as to how the desktop can be configured.

http://overclockix.octeams.com/snapshot10.jpg

screenshot from Overclockix Knoppix customization

[shars]

ok, ive had my first 30mins of my life with linux/knoppix. not bad i must say. the gui is simple enough to follow, but still lots of apps im not familiar with.

first boot failed. so i went to help(f2) and it booted. however, it does not detect my 3com gigabit lan on my mobo-so no internet connection and back to xp for now.

also i went to ctrl center to fix my display settings-it was using a generic display at 800x600 so i changed it to 1152x864 etc and quit but it disp that changes will only occur on next reboot. i did that and no change as expected since it could not write the setting anywhere since no hdd.

if you change settings and so on, you do need it to write to disk dont you?
otherwise it wont keep your changes on next boot. i have some space on my hdd and i could create a new partition on it vis partition magic and give it some space to write to. will this work? im also unsure how to do this?

some info abt my pc:
asus p4p800dlx mobo with onboard sound & lan
1024mb mem
hercules 3d prophet 9600pro

[arkaine23]

I just added the 3c2000 NIC (a 3com gigabit card) driver from Asus to my custom version of knoppix (http://overclockix.octeams.com). No one has let me know if it works or not yet....

App names are tricky in Linux, but you get used to them after awhile. To change the resolution, enter a cheatcode at the inital prompt or from that f2 help menu-

knoppix screen=1152x864

If you use my config or persisten home features, yes you will need to write to a hard drive or usb pen. It will have to have ext3 formatted space or fat32 formatted space to do this. It will prompt you whether you want to format the whole things as ext3, so you should say NO!!! Then it will just make an image (small file that's in ext3) instead of formatting the partition/usb pen.

You can make blank space with partition magic by resizing your current partitions and then use knoppix to partiion and format the blank space to a linux filessytem for its own use.

You'd only need maybe 50mb, but can give it as much space as you want. It can also write data safely if you have a FAT32 partiion. If you clear up 2200MB or more, then you have enough space to install it to a hard drive.