On Sun, Nov 26, 2006 at 19:03:18 +0000 (+0000), Clive Woodfine wrote:
> machine but there is the facility to backup the system files and data
> to DVD which I have done. The documentation (what little there is)
Hopefully those will rebuild the machine for you (although the ones
for thinkpads that I've seen trash the entire disk (i.e. you wipe out
linux if you use them)).
> Now to my question. Are there any particular precautions I should
> take
> before installing Ubuntu as I am concerned that if I inadvertently
> delete partition one or damage the partition table I shall not be
> able
> to restore Windows.
I have just used parted (and ntfsresize which I think has been rolled
into parted) in the past. OTOH I'm paranoid so I'd take a copy of any
data (e.g. documents) that you want. A copy of the old partition
table is handy. Since you've posted it, you'll be able to search the
archives :-)
> Below is the result of running sfdisk -l /dev/sda from the Ubuntu CD
> Device Boot Start End #cyls #blocks Id System
> /dev/sda1 0+ 1033 1034- 8305573+ 12 Compaq diagnostics
> /dev/sda2 * 1034 8328 7295 58597087+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
> /dev/sda3 8329 14592 6264 50315580 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
> /dev/sda4 0 - 0 0 0 Empty
> /dev/sda5 8329+ 14592 6264- 50315548+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
How odd - a 4th partition which is empty - not seen that before. You
should just be able to shrink sda2 and/or sda5 down in size, then use
the freed up space.
8GB for the compaq diagnostics! I guess that's a "rapid restore" i.e.
it has full images of windows on it.
I find it really galling when you get a disk and they put all that
junk on it. They could at least put it at the end so that you stand a
better chance of using it (OTOH with LVM, who cares?). I know that
most people don't use much of their disk so you can use space like
that, OTOH there are those of us who do want to use the hard disk
space that they've paid for.
Adrian
--
Adrian Bridgett - adrian@???
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