Re: Cannot create a partition on my harddisk for Linux
From: Cliff Hewitt (somebug_at_att.net.nospam)
Date: 11/21/05
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Date: Mon, 21 Nov 2005 02:52:14 GMT
Harold Stevens wrote:
>>This is a rather difficult matter for me to comprehend, since these
>>companies are already charging a good price for their systems.
>
> This "innovation" truly mystifies me as well. The paranoid in me says it
> is simply another version of vendor lockin. For most consumers who crash
> a disk without time, resources, or interest for it, they'll just toss it
> like a borked DVD player and buy another. Great for the OEMs but it just
> sux as a quality of implementation and budget busting issue.
The ecologist in me tells me that tossing a computer before its time
isn't good for the environment either, especially because there aren't
enough electronics-recycling facilities in existence today.
Also, this hurts the consumer as well. Granted, we can be told that if
we will never use the pre-installed Windows on the machine, we can save
some portion of money, but I've never seen or heard it done in practice.
That means that companies we don't want to support are being given our
money by proxy.
> I have a Compaq Deskpro tower with a "hidden" partition which apparently
> is needed for "normal" booting as well as restore. The original drive is
> still running; I haven't had to fool with replacing it. So, I don't know
> if a vanilla Linux install can grok a funky boot design like this.
This is also something new to me. I have never had a problem with
installing onto the formatted hard disk a fresh copy of Windows using
the recovery DVD I was forced to make. On the other hand, I haven't had
to do this too often, because I tell people not to buy into the
manufacturers' idiocy.
> Just in case, I used dd to make a copy of this nonsense for possible use
> if the original drive is replaced, and the rebuild pitches a snit.
>
> But again, I agree--I think it's silly for manufacturers to do this, and
> haven't heard one good explanation for it, after all these years.
>
> I'll also build my own, or order from places like ASL, if this becomes a
> hassle (re)doing Linux on bigname OEMs like Dell.
For what it's worth, I have never bought a name-brand computer except
eMachines ones. (Do they count? I was saving money for my family.
Plus, those two computers were designed to basically get them familiar
with computers, while we saved money so I could buy the components to
put together good computers for them.) The computer I eventually built
for my mom is still running strong after something like five years, I'll
guess, and has been running almost non-stop during that time, too, aside
from the typical Microsoft-imposed reboots, of course.
Matter of fact, my mom's computer was built around the same time as the
one on which I'm typing this message. In other words, I see no reason
to buy mystery components when I can build something better for an
equivalent price, which is the only reason I'd pick one over the other,
anyway. The only problem with building custom machines for others is
that when something does break, I'm the guy who gets to fix everything
all over again. I wish backing stuff up was as easy to do in Windows as
it is in Linux, but Ghost is my friend for their systems.
To the original poster: Writing about Ghost for backing up the entire
C: partition, and maybe that DELLUTILITY one as well. If you have your
C: partition set up just the way you like it with Windows, get yourself
a real back-up utility like Norton Ghost. My personal favorite version
is the 2003 one; the newer version (9.0) requires a subscription, and I
hate having to renew subscriptions about as much as I hate having to
burn restoration DVDs/CDs. In this case, Ghost can create restoration
DVDs in the event that something gets hosed and you wish to revert a
partition to the way that your C: partition was at the time of back-up.
A bit more cumbersome than creating a tarball of a Linux installation
and burning DVDs off that, but I that's how I do it and wouldn't trust
my laptop's Windows installation to any other back-up plan.
Thanks,
Cliff Hewitt
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