[ale] Linux Kubuntu install

[Robert Reese]

Hi Paul,

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********
On 2/10/2007 at 4:31 PM Paul Cartwright wrote:


>I backed out of the installation, and rebooted windows. Windows wasn't
>the same.

Can you elaborate?


>At that point he tried to reinstall windows, but it said the version
>on 
>the HD was newer than what he had on the CD. It was really the same
>version..

Actually, Windows updates many files frequently, so it comes as no surprise that one or more were reporting as newer than on the CD.

 
>A week later he finally gives up and reinstalls windows, just to get back
>to 
>where he was. He SWEARS it was the linux install that screwed up his
>windows 
>partition ( removing files? ). Is that possible?

Yes, it is certainly possible.  Obviously, without knowing what processes Kubuntu was using to perform its operations, I can't say it is the cause of the grief.  As a guess, I'd say his system hadn't been defragmented, or I should say adequately defragmented.  It sounds, too, that he's used more harddrive space in the past than he was using at the time you tried to install.  That unfortunately means that active files could easily have been in the space to which the new partition was going, including updated system files.  My educated guess is that's what happened to your son's computer.

It's a bit late now, but there are tools to help in this situation, such as file recovery and other partitioning softwares that may have rescued his system.  Next time I recommend a full system backup and then pare down all the junk (temp files, extraneous files, empty the recycle bin for all accounts, etc.), then use a good third-party defragmentation program (there's plenty of free and trial ones out there... my favorite one is Executive Software's Diskeeper).  Then try your installation.  Worst case scenario is the full backup becomes a full restore.

Incidentally, I'm smack in the middle of installing openSUSE 10.2 on my wife's PC and my laptop.  On the laptop I'm going to run XP Pro inside a Virtual Machine.  On my wife's computer, I'm doing a dual-boot and hopefully create a VM that will run the Windows XP partition inside.

Cheers,
Robert Reese~

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   * Microsoft is NOT a standard. *
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