I'm trying to switch completely over to linux but want a way to save my files. I was thinking I could create a separate partition to store my music/movies/programs and reformat the windows partition. Would this separate partition be accessible through linux when I install it to the old windows partition? Is there an easier way?
question about switching to linux
- Thread starter BassHead
- Start date
Yeah, it would be accessible. I would invest in a separate drive, or portable though, so you can partition the whole drive to ext. There's always a chance that your proposed shortcut could cause you problems when you try to open the files up.
I really recommend using an external drive to backup to, because it's sorta easy to completely fubar your partitions when playing around with linux.
I set up a crappy old HP laptop with an external drive to use as my 'media server'. Does all my torrent downloading and whatnot. Now I use my MacBook Pro with windows 8 and an SSD as my main computer, pretty bitchin'.
On my desktop I have 3 drives:
One for Linux
One for Windows
One for storing -all- my files, so they are accessible to both OSes.
On my notebook I do the same but with partitions. It works great, but if you aren't comfortable with your linux installer you could install over or erase the partition so either get another drive or don't be an idiot when you install
Make sure the filespace you setup for sharing is NTFS or FAT32. Linux can read and write to both, but Windows can't do EXT3 or 4 without a extra driver, end even then it's read only.
One for Linux
One for Windows
One for storing -all- my files, so they are accessible to both OSes.
On my notebook I do the same but with partitions. It works great, but if you aren't comfortable with your linux installer you could install over or erase the partition so either get another drive or don't be an idiot when you install
Make sure the filespace you setup for sharing is NTFS or FAT32. Linux can read and write to both, but Windows can't do EXT3 or 4 without a extra driver, end even then it's read only.
One laptop/harddrive with Linux currently which is reaching the HD limit. Buying another laptop and an external HD very soon.
Any suggestions on External HD's guys? Seems like the further you go in the TB with Externals the ratings seem to drop rapidly to 2-3 stars overall. Was looking at a 3TB external maybe.
Any suggestions on External HD's guys? Seems like the further you go in the TB with Externals the ratings seem to drop rapidly to 2-3 stars overall. Was looking at a 3TB external maybe.
I'm curious as to why? I've had 5 or six distros/oses on the same system at one time before, shouldn't be an issue if you know what you're doing.
There was a time when my HDD got hit by bad partition. It went like shit because I had both Windows and Linux on my HDD.
If your new to linux, check out Wubi. It lets you install Ubuntu Linux onto your Windows computer as if it was an application. Good way for you to test Linux out w/o screwing something up during install/not figuring drivers out/etc.
And, yes, you might screw up your HDD if it is your first time installing linux. I know this because I've been using linux for the past 7 years.
And, yes, you might screw up your HDD if it is your first time installing linux. I know this because I've been using linux for the past 7 years.
Get one that does USB3, like the Seagate GoFlex 2TB. Even if your system doesn't have USB3, you will probably upgrade eventually. USB3 is comparable to SATA3, and (in most cases) faster than the older ATA drives.
The fun part was writing the entire drive with random data to prep it for TrueCrypt. It took like 36 hrs, but I don't have USB3.
Also, for linux, most major distros now have a liveCD version, so you can try it out before installing.
If you just want a headless file server, check out FreeNAS. (FreeBSD derivative)
As does the linux mint installer. I have to say I'm liking mint more than ubuntu. More stuff just works out of the box.
Is Photoshop now fully supported? Last time (ok a few years ago) I tried to use Photoshop under Linux I had to emulate it with Wine and the performance was shit (long loading times, no shortcuts, lots of crashes).
no, it's not fully supported, and probably never will be. It's the single biggest reason I'll never go fulltime with Linux.