> > FIPS, eh? Yeah, I read that it could resize partitions as well. Does
> > anyone have any success stories? Any reports of failures?
>
> Fips basically performs one function: It takes a DOS partition, and splits it
> into two smaller partitions. It cannot resize Linux partitions, and it cannot
> (as far as I know..) make DOS partitions larger, it can only make a DOS
> partition smaller.
>
> So it is perfect for the typical user who has Windows on one partition that
> takes up their entire HD, and wants to make some space to install Linux without
> wiping Windows. I used it myself for that and it worked fine.
Thanks. I'll keep that in mind.
> > Since I'll have to reformat the disk to the BIOS format instead of the
> > Ontrack Proprietary Format, I'm going to lose my data anyway.
> >
> > <lightbulb>
> >
> > First, I think I'll empty the C: (which is a compressed partition ala
> > DoubleSpace). Then I'll move all the important DOS/Windows files onto
> > it. Next, I'll reformat and repartition the big hard disk. I can
> > reinstall everything I want onto it, and I can recover the important
> > data and hard-to-find programs from the C:. After that, I can redo the
> > old hard disk so that it has two partitions (one msdos and one ext2).
> > This plan will reduce the need for floppy backups (except for backing up
> > my Linux stuff--which I don't have much of yet).
>
> Things will be a little easier on you if you make at least TWO Linux
> partitions, a / partition and a /home partition.
Either I forget to mention that or I forget to mention my swap partition
(or both!). Don't worry. I am planning out (on paper, no less) my
partition structure so that it works great in Linux *and* in DOS (with
the drive letter names I want). I will have a total of four
Linux-related partitions: /, /home, <swap>, and backup. I'm not quite
sure how to mount the backup into things yet...
I think I should make a /backup directory (is there anything wrong with
adding straight to the root directory?). I would like to assign each
user a folder on the backup disk, but that's not too hard. What I
*really* would like would be if each user had a ~/backup directory. I
guess I can do that with symlinks and an enhanced adduser script.
By the way, what's the difference between symbolic and hard links?
> Most of your user-specific
> configuration files go in your home directory, and you can toss anything else
> you might want to hold onto there too (I keep all the tar.gz and rpm files I
> download there, so I can reinstall them conveniently later without
> redownloading).
/home/download
or
/home/package
would work.
> Then if you reinstall Linux, choose to reformat / but NOT to
> reformat /home, and you will keep everything that's in your home directory.
Good. Now that that's settled... is there anything wrong with making a
/backup directory and mounting the secondary hard disk to it?
