Tim wrote:
Tim:
I agree with Les - when talking about arranging drive structure, you
should mention that the process is destructive, and you should back up
anything that you need to keep, first.
Karl Larsen:
But I see no reason to be afraid of the set up proceedure. Yes you can
screw up fdisk and make an error or errors. But all you need to know is
to look at the changes with care before you hit w :-)
Remember that when you write instructions, it's people who know little,
or even nothing, about it, are going to be the ones following them.
It's a common question that people will ask whether they can modify
partitions without losing data. The answer is, "sometimes."
Any instructions about modifying a drive structure really needs to make
it clear from the outset, that you probably can't change a drive and
keep what's on it, at the same time. If you look at other guides
written about this sort of thing, you'll find that a large number of
them will warn about losing data as part of the operation. They do so
with good reason, I'd suggest you should follow that example.
Not everybody partitions a drive before installing to it, some people do
modify drive partitions on a drive in use. For instance, you can, often,
mess around with partitions on a part of the drive that was previously
not used, while keeping existing partitions as they are, but only if due
care is taken. And, in *some* cases, it's possible to change the sizes
of existing partitions, and keep the data in them. And there's plenty
of other conditional things.
This is a complex subject, and trying to condense it down into a
one-page article may not be a good thing to do. You certainly can't be
comprehensive, that way.
Hi Tim, I think you suffer from a fear of "fisk" :-) Yes you do
need to be careful. Look at it this way:
If your going to make a software raid-1 on Linux you must use a root
Terminal. A root Terminal is capable of deleting your entire Linux! :-(
This paper is not for a person who has no knowledge of root and what
it can do. You need to know the basics. I will add a place where they
must show this basic knowledge or not try to do raid-1.
--
Karl F. Larsen, AKA K5DI
Linux User
#450462 http://counter.li.org.
