disk_upgrade_philosophy

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Subject: Re: linux with other os 
From: Joe Brenner <doom@kzsu.Stanford.EDU>
Date: Tue, 30 May 2000 15:54:09 -0700

"eagle" <eagle@mantrafreenet.com> wrote: 

> I have installed Rh 6.1(2nd partition)  in my system ; it coexists
> with windows95 . My system has 4 gig hd  and divided into 2 one
> allotted for windows and the other to Rh 6.1 .

> I wanted to install another disk of 13 gig [...]

> I wanted to know that when I install the other hd can I shift the
> Rh6.1 to it and allot the full 4 gig to windows ; if so how?

[...]

> Please give me a detailed answer if possible I am a newbie .

Well, this isn't a detailed answer I'm afraid, just a
suggestion of a strategy you might want to try: conserve
your time, and don't worry too much about wasting disk
space.

When I did something similar to this, I eventually decided
to just 
(1) Put a new installation of linux on the big disk. 
(2) Copy all of my existing user files from the old linux
installation to the new one. 
(3) Hack lilo so that I can boot to either the old or the new
installation. 
(4) When I was sure the new one worked okay, I changed the
default in lilo so that it booted the new one automatically.

Now, you could argue that the job isn't really done at this
point: 

(a) Currently when I boot my system, it goes to the MBR of
the *old* disk, which kicks it into lilo, which then kicks
it to the linux installation on the *new* disk.  

(b) My Windows partition (NT 4 in my case) is still only 2gb.

(c) There's 2gb of space on my old drive that's more or less
wasted (except that I have it mounted and accessible from my
new linux installation, and if I felt the need, I could 
stash something there). 

So maybe I should keep going, and if all I wanted to do was
mess around learning to be an ace sysadmin/hardware hacker,
I would.  But instead, I figure "it ain't broke, don't fix
it".  Life is short, and disk is cheap.

===


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