New Hard Drive- clearing out other data

hello guys, i have a question about my new 200 GB hard drive.

I want to tranfer all my important files to the new hard drive after i install an operating system to it. However, i would like to format my old drive and completely erase everything else on it. The reason i want to do this is so i wont transfer over any corrupt files and the likes, so i would like to know how to do that. Afterwards,(or maybe before) I would like to partition my new hard drive and have lenux running on the original harddrive.

Do you guys think this is a good/efficient setup?...do you recommend anything else?

im installing windows xp to the new hard drive...Im mostly trying out lenux out of curiosity and because someone recommended it...is it any good?

what are the benifits/disadvantages of partioning a hard drive?


thanks to anyone who has suggstions and or/comments

 

Welcome to MajorGeeks, waryuser.

Since you are not concerned about security, reformatting the original drive should be good enough. Mind you, files can be recovered from a reformatted drive. Reformatting a drive does not securely erase the drive, in and of itself.

I myself absolutely love Linux, and would encourage you to experiment with it.

200 GB is such a large drive. Partitioning is absolutely necessary there, so, as you said, why not, when you are partitioning the new harddrive, for the Windows install, leave about, oh, say, a 3 GB partition (for the eventual swap partition for the linux install), and maybe a 7 GB partition for the linux install itself.

Then, if you have no special distros in mind yet, you may be interested in some of these:

1) knoppix: a bootable cd that runs without touching your hard drive at all (Unless you WANT to install it, that is)

link:
http://www.edmunds-enterprises.com/linux/cart.php/ba/pdtl/product/263

Ubuntu: A very ``up & coming'' distro geared for first time linux users:

http://www.ubuntulinux.org/

I would also recommend these distros for the first timer:

MEPIS:
http://www.edmunds-enterprises.com/linux/cart.php/ba/pdtl/product/238

LibraNet:

http://www.edmunds-enterprises.com/linux/cart.php/ba/pdtl/product/63

Regards,



Robert

 

HEllo Robster12 and thank you for your suggestions. However, you spawned a brand new set of questions with your response.

Why do you say that I am not concerned with security?...Is there something in what I want to do that will compromise my computer;s security?...I wanted to delete my non-essential files because I am running windows ME (and want to get rid of it), and i want to replace it with linux. Can you "link me to/ tell me" how to reformat and how to copletely erase the Hard Drive? and tell me the advantages of each.?

I will try one of those distros soon. I was thinking about how using linux will serve me best. Is there a particular function that excells when using linux? The reason I ask is because I was told by someone that Linux's simplicity makes it less vulnerable to hiding files such as viruses and trojans etc. that can lie hidden in the many directory files inherent to the windows OS. Is this true?...if so will it be wiser to use linux when I access the internet?...

Also, about partitioning my hard drive. My hard drive setup program offers to partition my hard drive for me. However, it is not allowing me to decide how to partition the manually. Is there another way to partition the drive more accurately?...or do you recommend just letting this setup program take care of it? (by western digital)

Also, one more question. Will I be able to access all of my drive space from both operating systems? or will the OS's each hve its designated drive space that it can access?


oh, and i put my new drive 200 GB Hard Drive as the primary drive and am using the older 40 GB one as the slave.

I didnt mean to ask too many questions, really....haheh.

Best regards, and thanks again.

 

I mentioned security because you are obviously NOT interested in securely erasing the files on the hard drive now. You just want to reinstall. In other words, there exist no, say, incriminating files on the hdd that you must securely erase. So, a plain old reformat will do in this case.

How would I reformat?
Well, I would let the native tools of the OS's handle it. Firstly, make sure that you install the ME (or whatever Windows OS) *first* This is the ``easier, softer way''.
Trust me. Let the ME distro partition its partitions, and format them. Windows MUST be installed to a primary partition to be bootable, though you may put a seperate partition as a secondary partition for data, what-not...

Then, you can install the Linux of your choice. Let the install program of the Linux OS make its partitions and format those partitions. The linux, on install, should give you the option of putting the boot loader on the MBR (Master Boot Record). This will do nicely, because nowadays, it should prompt you to include the Windows OS in the start-up choices. This is why you install Windows first, because it does not ``play well with others'' regarding the MBR. It wants to take it all to itself, which will complicate things, though there are work arounds, this seems to me to be the simplest way in your case.

.My knowlege of Windows is small. Does ME use the FAT32 or the NTFS filesystem? I ask because Linux cannot write to NTFS. IF you have a partition that you want both OS's to both read and write to, then that partition should be formatted as FAT32. Mind you, Windows people tell me that FAT32 is not as good a filesystem as NTFS, by a stretch. Different topic....


<My dear fellow computer users on MG: I do *NOT* wish to start a flamer session!>
Regarding security. In the Linux world, generally speaking, if your computer works today, then it will work tomorrow, and six months from now. The number of viruses affecting Linux is so small it can be neglected. Security concerns always exist, but virus attacks and spyware issues don't happen in Linux. Period. Ubuntu installs with NO daemons listening to the net, which is inherently secure, even if you do NOT run a firewall. (People can knock on the door all they want, but nobody will answer).


If you run both of the hard drives in your rig, then this raises performance questions. If you have two seperate IDE channels, then you can put one drive on each of the channels, so that read/write accesses can be carried out on both drives simultaneously? That would mean putting partitions of one OS in different drives.... ie Linux /home on hard drive /dev/hda1 and Linux /var on hard drive partition /dev/hda2, for example.

I am quite new at this, but will be pleased to help you in any way that I can.


Robert

 

Hello robert, Happy Holidays to you sir.

I will go through your response in order to better address your it.

ok, gotcha...thanks.

i'll be using XP, becuase i was told ME is horrible. I will try this whne it arrives.

ok, i think i get this.

i have no idea. Im not at all familiar with these technecalities. I will try and look it up further though.

lol...i gues its been contested in the past. Thank you for clearing it up more though.

sorry, you lost me again. I dont know what a rig or IDE channels are. But i vaguely understand what you mean about two channels aiding the performance. HOw would i go about finding out if I have one or two separate channels?

thanks, I still have some more questions. You said let windows partion it, so i wil wait for that to arrive. but does that mean the hard drive is not usable till then?...it really doesnt matter, im just curious but i can wait. Also, for reasons concerning the younger part of my family, I want to know if I can make it so that windows does not have internet access when it is booted. Do i do that through user accounts or how? I only want the Lenix OS to be able to acces the internet. is it possible?