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Quote pkpara:

ummm.... 2 quick questions

Quote pkpara:

1. Partitioning a disk-- partitioning a disk erases all of the information on the disk, correct? (or at least it changes the allocation tables or some such where i won't be able to use the info)

Quote pkpara:

2. the distros-- the hard drive I'm going to use isn't really meant for running an OS, so i was going to ask which ones ran in ram (id also want to know because I'm thinking of putting one on a flash drive, and id rather not test to see how many write cycles it has). So I'm not really asking for ones specifically made for flash drives, just maybe for a list or a link so that I know which ones run in ram/don't give much stress to the hdd/flash :]

Quote pkpara:

oh, and question 2.5-- when you put an OS on wherever, it won't erase information from other partitions, will it?

Quote pkpara:

I don't mind being given links to where i can find the info (outside of google, thanks. tried that one :P) and having to read up on it on my own

Quote pkpara:

thanks for any help :D
im new at this and trying to find my way

Partitioning doesnt always have to erase everything. All a partition does is divide your hard drive like a piece of pie. If you erase all of a partition and put a new OS on then it just takes the entire pie. You can dual boot (2 OS on the same computer), have a swap partition (2 OSes with a shared area), and even triple boot (3 OSes on the same computer).

About your second question. Most Linux Distros have a Live CD version. It's basically an operating system that runs of a CD. If you give me your system specs, Im sure I can tell you which one would be best. If you have a small hard drive and not so much RAM I would suggest a Damn Small Linux or Live CD Distro of Xubuntu which is very beginner friendly.

Ok what it sounds like you want to do is dual booting. I would read up on some how to guides when you finally decide on a Distro. You wont being able to just have one OS and keep all your data. What you will want to do is make one partition for Linux and leave the other one there for windows. When you boot up you will have the option to pick which OS you want to boot into. I would back up all my data anyway just to be on the safe side. Sometimes weird things happen during partitioning. I cant emphasize enough how important it is to back up all your data on your windows partition before you attempt this.

As far as hardware recognition goes, Ive never had a problem with it although I have heard horror stories. As long as your not using anything too exotic you should be ok. The reason the live CDs exist is so that you can run the OS without having to install it and check to make sure everything works for you before you go through all that. Rule of thumb is the distro is right for you if everything works without doing anything or if you are just missing 1 thing. You can still use the distro if you are having lots of hardware issues but it will be a frustrating fight.

I run Ubuntu 8.04 on 500mb RAM you shouldnt have any problems unless your processor speed is really low. If I were you just starting out I would get the live cd and make sure all your hardware works with Ubuntu. Keep in mind too that the Live CDs generally work slower than the real install so dont freak out if the computer is sluggish in the live session.

After your install if it is still slow, switch to Xubuntu. It has a lot lower system requirements. Just do a torrent search and download it that way.

For a new guy the Ubuntu flavors are the way to go because more stuff works out of the box with it and the community support is fantastic. Just google search for Ubuntu Forums and it will take you to their main page where a ton of people are there ready to help you usually within 5 min. (Im not joking either.)

Well if you want to keep Windows apps working with Windows then yes you need to set up a dual boot. If on the other hand you just want to keep them and not use them then no you dont. All you would need to do in that case is back them up, set up a single partition, and save them in your Linux home folder.

Yes there are many distros that run off a Live CD. In fact, I think almost all of them do. I know Ubuntu does (with all its flavors), Damn Small Linux, Knoppix (probably the best of all for running Live), and Fedora Core 9. There are too many for me to remember or count really.

You can do a search of Live CDs and check out other distros here. But I warn you there are A LOT of different distros.

http://distrowatch.com/
[Modified by: Drunk_Mexican on May 29, 2008 08:56 PM]

Ok first of all none of that applies if you run the Live CD. The Live CD lets you run Linux without having to partition or install it. When you eject the CD, whatever OS you had before will be the same as though nothing changed.

You can probably get by with no Windows install CD, but like I said before sometimes strange things happen when fooling around with partitions. Things might get corrupted and you might have to reinstall Windows.

If you dual boot with one partition as Windows and one partition as Linux then you will not be able to transfer files between the two. The only way to do that would be to set up the swap partition where each OS has a partition and there is one partition that is shared by both.

As far as the Flash drive goes, not all the distros work that way. They are designed for CD/DVD booting not Flash drives. You might have to get a special distro flavor for that or you might have to fudge around with the iso file. It all depends a lot on which distro you choose. When you have chosen a distro, I can tell you more about the specifics and it makes researching for yourself easier.

Also so you know, running Linux from a flash drive is like running it from a Live CD in that when you remove it things go back to the way they were before. You can edit things and add programs to Linux, but they will also return to the way it was before. In other words they dont save. (There is a way to do this depending on the distro, for the sake of simplicity I'm not going to get into that.)

Quote Drunk_Mexican:

As far as the Flash drive goes, not all the distros work that way. They are designed for CD/DVD booting not Flash drives. You might have to get a special distro flavor for that or you might have to fudge around with the iso file. It all depends a lot on which distro you choose. When you have chosen a distro, I can tell you more about the specifics and it makes researching for yourself easier.

Quote Drunk_Mexican:

Also so you know, running Linux from a flash drive is like running it from a Live CD in that when you remove it things go back to the way they were before. You can edit things and add programs to Linux, but they will also return to the way it was before. In other words they dont save. (There is a way to do this depending on the distro, for the sake of simplicity I'm not going to get into that.)

ok, well i guess thats the end to that idea until i decide on a distro :]
(I'm familiarizing myself with distrowatch as of now)

but know im kindov curious about this swap partition. How does it work? (besides the whole create it and both can use it thing. Or is it just that simple?)