On 25-Jul-99 Andy Goth wrote:
>> > 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.
Nope, nothing wrong with adding to the root directory.
> By the way, what's the difference between symbolic and hard links?
A symlink is basically just a pointer to another file, and a hard link is like
actually having two copies of the file except that they take up the same space
on the disk (so it doesn't take up twice as much space). I can't think of any
advantages of one over the other off the top of my head, but personally I
prefer to use symlinks since with a symlink it's obvious that it's a link when
you use ls with the -l option. (A symlink will show up as <link> -> <file>
and a hard link will look like any other file.)
>> 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.
I use ~/dl but those are good too. :)
>> 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?
Nope, nothing at all, in fact coincidentally I have my second hard drive
mounted in /backup as well. :)
-Tom
