[ale] Linux Kubuntu install

[Paul Cartwright]

On Saturday 10 February 2007 19:37, Robert Reese wrote:
> >I backed out of the installation, and rebooted windows. Windows wasn't
> >the same.
>
> Can you elaborate?

screwed up?? broke?? hard for me to elaborate, since I didn't see it. I think 
what he was saying was it looked like his theme had been replaced, the 
windows were all different, and things "didn't work".

>
> >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.

true.. I had him take out SP@ to see if it would reinstall then, but no luck. 
He also had a buddy come over and they tried a few things to reinstall, no 
luck.

>
> ?
>
> >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 is an older PC, and I'm not sure how often he defrags....


>
> 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.

I'm TRYING to get him over to Linux.. no defrag required:)

>
> 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.

my laptop is dual-boot XP/Kubuntu, my desktop is dual-boot XP/SUSE 10.2
I've never tried to run VM...

-- 
Paul Cartwright
Registered Linux user # 367800