Gene Heskett wrote:
Greetings;
I just bought this thing, and have spent the evening doing a little
housecleaning and exploring using the deafult XP Home edition OS thats
on it, and trying to get used to the 'mouse' tablet as a navigator tool
and have a few questions. And please excuse me but this is the first
'windoze' machine I've ever bought.
If I wanted to put linux on this, should I use the i386 dvd of FC5 I
already have, or go get the AMD64 version?
It has an approximately 7.5GB partition D which is an image of the
install for recovery usage. I've no idea where it is on the disk but
I'd assume (theres THAT word again) that its at the inside of the 100GB
drive thats in this. So the question then is how does one go about
clearing some space to make room for an FC5 install without losing that
inside partitions location data and hence that whole partition?
Thats enough questions for one message I think, and many thanks to those
who attempt to help a windows newbie get back to his favorite OS. :-)
As far as I recall, the hidden partitions are just that. A data drive
without a letter
assigned in Windows. If you went into Administrative Tools / Disk
Management,
you probably could assign it a letter and access the files. I would
guess it's the
first primary partition of the HDD. I would guess just installing the
boot loader
to the MBR just the same if it wasn't there would be okay, just don't
delete that
partition or use it for Linux FS.
You could back it up to a DVD or another computer if you assign it a
driver letter.
I have installed OSs w/ leaving the hidden partition on my IBM lapper
before, but
I never had a reason to use the stuff on that drive, so if any negative
effects occurred,
I am unaware of. (After awhile I blew that thing away so I have have
more space
for me =) )
Hopefully others here have some thoughts on this.
Stephen