<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 TRANSITIONAL//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; CHARSET=UTF-8">
<META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="GtkHTML/1.1.8">
</HEAD>
<BODY>
I do this all the time because alot of my clients decide that xp is a cure-all for there ills and just install it, only to find out that there is no support for ISA hardware, etc and one guy actually lost all functionality of his previous m$ office stuff because he had not activated it yet! This pissed him off so much, he wanted me to save all his data and put him back on win98. I usually back up everything and since you tell me that you can mount this xp side from Linux, I am going to assume that xp is on a fat partition (versus ntfs), so this should be easy. If you have room somewhere for this, make a zip or tar the xp side. Keep in mind that windows (at least 98) cannot see a file size larger than 4gb. Once backed up, you can redo your windows side to whatever and restore the data. Any data you had saved can be reused, if it is not environment dependent (needs to be in registry, etc) All you doc's, mp3's, whatever should be fine. <BR>
In my dual boot scenario's, I backup the whole windows side to one file, keep in on the Linux side (don't have to worry about file size) and then use Gnome's file roller to extract the stuff, or show the clients how to extract files and then move them to the new windows side. Then when they are sure they have everything, they can delete the saved file.<BR>
There would be alot of bumps in the road for a newbie to do this, feel free to keep asking questions.<BR>
<BR>
On Mon, 2003-09-15 at 09:24, Mark Robson wrote:
<BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE>
<PRE><FONT COLOR="#737373" SIZE="3"><I>I have been having trouble with WinXP
(Ex-productivity?), and wish I'd learned to segregate
all those user-environment related files out before
the @#$($#@
driver-corruption/page-fault/IRQ_not_less_than/circus
started last month. Now I can't get past the
rebooting during load, cannot reinstall XP, cannot get
into safe mode. I've made a real mess of it, and want
to end the madness. Irony: I got into the mess
because I was adding CDRW so I could BACKUP MY FILES!
DOH!
I have an idea to use Linux as my solution, and please
advise how this might go; I have a dual-boot
setup, with RH8 linux installed onto a second hard
drive. I'm able to boot into RH8 and mount the xp
partition. (RH8 server, with Samba, although I'm
totally an enduser, not admin.) Can I sort out the
important files (*.doc/xls/htm mostly) and put them
aside in the penguin partition, then format the xp
partition and install 98? I can see 'how' to do this,
but here's the point:
Does transferring these files from xp to linux and
back to 98 cause any problems with the integrity of
the files themselves? As enduser, not admin, I'll use
a more gui (Gnome)than command line approach. Would
not open or operate on the files beyond moving them.
Original idea, which I can't make happen on the
Win/Loser setup any more, was to move the XP partition
up and create a new partition to install 98 onto. Was
going to do that after I got the drives backed up,
never got that far. I use PartitionMagic, and it
would do this in win non-destructively. Is there any
comparable Linux partition program that is also
non-destructive?
Other details:
About 2gb of user-environment related files to move.
Three hard drives altogether:
80gb WD, partitioned into two 40gb windows.
8gb Fujitsu, windows single partition
10gb Maxtor, Linux, RH8 server default partition
scheme
Celeron p3 400, 384mb, 16mb agp video.
Broadband connection
The machine is part of a home peer2peer network, but
that is just to share the broadband and printers. The
other machines are 98's.
Thanks in advance.
Mark
peter <pvant67@wnyip.net> wrote:
Sorry for the long absence, it's been strange/terrible
at best here.
My comment about partitions: Anything I think will
matter to me in the
long run gets a separate partition, esp. /home and
/usr/local.
That's the only reason I've been able to keep
essentially the same user
environment for so many years (1999-2000) to present.
Back then, I did
things on a Compaq 486. Now, it is 2 or 3 hardware
systems later, but
/home hasn't changed much. The contents are similar
but the capabilities
are greater.
The way I do things, the rest of the system is
disposable. You already
know there's going to be upgrades, betas, etc. /home
isn't disposable -
its the stuff you spent the last few years creating.
Hence, I never use
the default partition schemes (I use RH9), and I
default to a custom
install in order to preserve this.
Hence, I would definitely give /home its own
partition; you can safely
wipe and re-install the system without touching it, if
you opt to
partition it manually.
Hope this helps someone - Pete</I></FONT></PRE>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<PRE><TABLE CELLSPACING="0" CELLPADDING="0" WIDTH="100%">
<TR>
<TD>
-- <BR>
Cyber Source <<A HREF="mailto:peter@thecybersource.com">peter@thecybersource.com</A>>
</TD>
</TR>
</TABLE>
</PRE>
</BODY>
</HTML>