How to Partition a Hard Drive

[Fla._Deadheader]

I have a very large capacity hard drive, and would like to install Ubuntu as an operating system.

  Anyone that can explain or guide me through this, I would greatly appreciate the assistance.

  I don't want to format the drive. I have programs that have no install disc and my OS is getting slowly worse as the days go by. The burner is not cooperating, as well, so, I can't copy to disc before I format.

  Warbird is not happy with me for my decision, but, when a person is as ignorant about computers as I am, and as far from a good tech as I am, I have to be very careful in what I change.  This is my MAIN communication with my family in Florida.

  I am really appreciative of ALL the assistance I receive from FF members, even though it may not seem that way.  Thank you all for assistance provided.

[tyb525]

You will like Ubuntu once you get used to it, it has an easy learning curve. There should be instructions on their website and/or forums for doing this.

Oh an be VERY sure of what you are doing!

[Jeff]

I'm with warbird.  No way in the world would I personally undertake this on my main computer, or any computer for that matter that I had information on that I could not stand to lose, and I have a whole lot more resources available to me then you do down there Harold.

To many things can go wrong, no matter how right you do it.

[tyb525]

You could put Ubuntu on a smaller HD, and use your old one as a slave. That way you don't have to worry about partitioning, and you will be able to access all your data on your main HD.

[DouginUtah]

Harold,

I was all set to tell you how to do this but tyb come up with what is probably a good solution--but I know nothing about dual booting.

My way would have required another (temporary) drive as large as the data on your big drive, using (free) easeus partition master.

Okay, you may want to Google easeus partition master and read up on whether it can create a new partion on an already formatted drive. I'll warn you though, easeus is not real intuitive to use.

Edit: I just read up on easeus and they claim you can reduce the size of a partition and create a second partition.

[Fla._Deadheader]

OK, Let me ask this. I hope this doesn't get into a pissing contest. I AM NOT trying to ruffle feathers. I DO respect everyone that tries to help.

  OK. It was suggested to try a different hard drive. OK. Then, how do I get the programs I wrote about, that have NO install disc, and my burner is not stable enough for me to trust, to copy TO a disc, to save it ??? I'm NOT a computer educated person.

  My guy in the states, says NEVER format a drive. It's NOT necessary. Now, don't anyone take that personal. I'm just trying to tell y'all what I have been dealing with from 1996 to the present. Problem is, my guy in the states has Brain Cancer, and may not be here much longer, so, I'm trying to learn what I can from many different perspectives, all at the same long distance. ??? ???

[Gary_C]

  OK. It was suggested to try a different hard drive. OK. Then, how do I get the programs I wrote about, that have NO install disc, and my burner is not stable enough for me to trust, to copy TO a disc, to save it ??? I'm NOT a computer educated person.

 

You don't. The software when installed sets up some communication with the registry file in the operating system and you cannot get that software to run with another operating system.

There may be some way thru a Norton Ghost program to copy all the hard drive onto a nother system, but the software will not operate from any operating system that it was not inastalled onto.

Or so I was told and believe. There may be a way that someone smarter than I that can make that work. 

I have a computer that was fried in a lightening strike this spring. Apparently the motherboard was fried, but the hard drive still worked. When I installed that hard drive into another working computer, I could read all the data but the operating system would not boot. So I can see my data and the programs, but the programs will not function. All you can do is extract the data and reinstall all programs. 

[DouginUtah]

I have a very large capacity hard drive, and would like to install Ubuntu as an operating system.

Maybe I misunderstood you. I took it that you want to install Ubuntu as a second operating system, i.e., dual boot, on a separate partition.

I have never used Ubuntu but I think Gary is correct--Windows programs don't run under Ubuntu, especially if they were installed by the Windows OS.

As for copying to a new disk what you do is make a disk image, not a disk copy. That is what Easeus (or Ghost) does. It copies hard disk to hard disk.

Tell me what you want to do. Switch over to Ubuntu completely or dual boot? Are you running XP?

[Radar67]

Can't you boot Ubuntu from a CD to? Maybe doing it that way will eliminate having to partion your drive. As for the NEVER format a hard drive...sometimes, there is no choice if you really want to get it cleaned up.

[Fla._Deadheader]

 

I took it that you want to install Ubuntu as a second operating system, i.e., dual boot, on a separate partition.

  That is correct, Doug.  Right now, I have windows 2000 AND XP, both on the drive. When the machine boots up, it highlights XP. IF I highlight 2000, THAT will boot up and run the machine.

  I MAY have a ghost image disc, if I can remember where it is. ???

  The guy that works on my machine, in Fl., can do amazing things, or, at least he could.

  He once took a thumb drive, and made a whole computer function off of it. Computer was the size of a pack of cigs. NO physical moving parts, except for an external DVD drive, to load programs from.

[tyb525]

If you install Ubuntu on another HD and use your old HD as a slave, you will still have complete access to your files on that drive. The difference is that Ubuntu will be on a separate HD instead of a partition on the same HD. This is what I did and it works fine.

As far as formatting, I have been told by numerous people that it is the best way to get rid of all that junk. Back up stuff you want, format, and reinstall your OS.

But, I think it might be a Stihl/Husky type of argument ;)

[Ianab]

OK. It was suggested to try a different hard drive. OK. Then, how do I get the programs I wrote about, that have NO install disc, and my burner is not stable enough for me to trust, to copy TO a disc, to save it

Another problem - If you have Windows programs they wont run under Ubuntu, so even if you have the original install disks you are still out of luck.

You can bring data files, documents, spreadsheets, pictures, movies etc across to the Linux OS, but you will be opening them with different software. Open Office, GIMP etc.

Next problem, even if you get the burner working or get some other backup made, you wont be able to make a working copy of your Windows software. When they install they usually add all sorts extra files into the windows system, and entries into the system registry files.

Now what the Ununtu CD will let you do is modify the partition table, resize your existing partions to make room for a linux partition, while still keeping your windows file system intact. Then you get 3 boot options at startup. 

But NO way I would want to do that on a system with important data, thats not backed up. If something does go wrong during the process it can be - Format and start again.

What I would suggest, get yuor hands on a spare hard disk. Any old 20gb disk will work. Disconnect your existing drive and install Ubuntu on the 'new' disk, clean install with a full format. Then see if it's going to do what you want. You should be able to get online, do emails, visit the forum, create documents, edit photos etc. If it doesn't do what you want, plug the old disk in again, and you are back where you are now, no risk.

If you like the Ubuntu system you can connect your current drive as a slave and read your old data files from it. But the programs on the Windows system are not going to run.

Ian

[SwampDonkey]

Something to try as a final option to any advise given. You could see if your CD drive works by trying something like AROS which can be retrieved as a ISO_Boot_Image for Intel based CPU's. Probably need another computer to set the CD_ROM option up if your CD drive is messed up. But, you can also try off floppy disk if your PC has one under Option B below. The CD ISO image can be burnt to a blank CD-ROM disk (or floppy disk depending on which ISO image you download below) and booted from the CD drive (or floppy) when your computer is turned on. You will not be installing anything to the hard drive or modifying it in any way. This will allow you to boot into a stand alone operating system free of any Windows dependencies to see if your DVD-ROM works. I think you can remove the boot CD-ROM after AROS is loaded and insert another CD-ROM to look at files and folders, as the disk handler will be loaded into memory. You won't be able to burn CD's or play CDDA based music CD's. This is bare bones just to see if your CD drive works.

Option A:
AROS INTEL Based CD Boot Image 58.63 MB

You will need to burn the CD Boot image however to a CDR disk before attempting to boot into AROS. NERO Burning ROM can mount the image so it can be burnt to a blank CDR, simply load it under the Nero file menu and it will bring up the CD burning wizard/screen.

Once you have created the boot CD, simply insert the CD into the first CDROM drive and reboot the computer. The boot is fully automatic, and if everything works you should see a nice screen after a little while.

Option B:
AROS INTEL Based Floppy Disk Boot Image 1.74 MB

Rawwrite for windows to write the Floppy Disk Boot ISO image to a physical floppy disk

Update: Make sure to format the floppies (2) to be MSDOS bootable in the format floppy window under Windows. Do this before writing the ISO images to the floppies in RawWrite. The system disk is one you boot off, the AROS disk gets you to the desktop. There will be a screen menu when booting to choose display adapter and the floppy disk option midway down the menu. You have about 3 seconds to scroll the menu with the arrow keys before it boots by default setup. Once it continues booting there is a pause and clicking of the floppy disk drive, insert AROS disk and it will be a few seconds until it continues to boot into the desktop. Once in there you can insert a CD ROM disk and browse files if your CD drive works.

If you have a floppy drive on your system and hear a clicking noise, that is "DiskChange", a part of the OS that checks to see if a disk is inserted or ejected from the floppy drive. An icon will appear on the desktop representing the inserted floppy disk with the name of the disk or df0:?? if blank. Similar to what the Macintosh OS does.

Should mention, the link to the AROS ISO changes daily by date, these are nightly builds. You can copy the old link here and edit the link for that date as follows in bold.

http://aros.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/nightly-download?20090926/Binaries/AROS-20090926-pc-i386-boot-floppy.zip

[Fla._Deadheader]

OK. I understand what everyone has said. I have a corrupted computer, or infected, or whatever is wrong. IF I set up the drive as a slave, (I know how to do that), won't the slave still mess up the new drive ???  This is what I am trying to avoid, and would like to get off the Microsoft OS.

  I have read on the FF, that several members have switched, and it's just like running MS OS ???

  I'm not doubting what y'all are saying, just want to be sure that I'm not doing something I will regret.   I'm really tired of having a mal computer all the time.  : : :

[Ianab]

When you set up the drive as a slave nothing on it should run. Nothing is in the startup list or system registry etc of the new clean Operating System. It's just a bunch of files sitting there doing nothing, unless you actually go and hunt out a file and run it. Plus if you boot the system under Linux then none of the windows malware that may have infested your drive will run anyway.

Ian