[Axidos]

I currently use Vista. My hard-drive setup is as such: I have all my Windows files on one hard drive, C:/ (225GB capacity). I have a second internal hard drive in my computer, E:/ (180GB capacity), formatted and in working order but relatively unused.

I wish to clear my E:/ drive and devote it to Linux, which I will install upon it, and then be able to boot either OS (I believe this is called dual-booting).

However, I know next to nothing about partitioning and dual-booting and etc. I'm quite good at computers, though, and I learn fast.


Now, my questions:

Is there a guide anywhere that can show me how to install Linux such that it uses my entire E:/ drive, while C:/ remains entirely Windows? I will probably be using the latest Ubuntu desktop/GNOME version (see paragraph after next).

Will the two hard-drives need to interact at all (e.g. my C drive have Linux-related data on it, while the E drive has windows-related data on it) or can they remain entirely separate and independent of each other?
I would prefer the latter, though still be able to dual-boot, unless the process to achieve this would be overly complicated and generally not worth it (they'll both remain in the same computer, after all).

Which partition manager should I use to manage these partitions, if one is necessary? I've been told Vista's partition manager apparently only really deals with its own Windows partition (although my source wasn't altogether sure on this).



I'm absolutely new to Linux, but I've been looking at the variations. I'm considering Ubuntu (taking into account its similarity to Windows, its popularity and some of its features) along with GNOME (for its desktop integration, and both GNOME and Ubuntu have ease-of-use from what I gather).
I understand Linux as a whole is more programmer-friendly, doesn't tend to have freeze-ups, handles fietypes freely (no extensions or filetype data necessary or recorded), and scroll lock can pause a program. Although... that's about the extent of it. Any advice that can be given on which version I should use is welcome.

[saikee]

Take a look at Section A of this thread.

If you put an operating system inside a hard disk partition you can have up to 14 systems in each hard disk. None of them will interfere with each other.

You can also mount a Windows partition to read/write in Linux. Alternatively you can equally mount a Linux partition to read/write in a MS Windows.

The choice entirely yours.

You should always use the operating system's own partition manager to do the partitioning of that system. Having said that the Linux partitioning managers can be used for all PC operating systems as Linux supports over 100 different partition types.

A MS Windows does not support Linux and so it won't do Linux partitions.

[Axidos]

Originally Posted by saikee

You can also mount a Windows partition to read/write in Linux. Alternatively you can equally mount a Linux partition to read/write in a MS Windows.

Thanks for the reponse! I don't quite understand this bit though (due to my lack of knowledge about partitions). Have I understood correctly when I say that this would require some Linux information on my Windows HD and vice-versa, and would allow me to access both OS's files from either one of them?

[saikee]

Yes, a partition is a partition to any operating system. A MS Windows mounts those it can read or support and assigns a drive letter like "C", "D", etc.

A Linux call hard disks as sda, sdb, sdc etc and the 3th partition of device sda is sda3.

As a rule you can get any Linux to read the MS partition automatically but the majority would not write on NTFS partitions automatically. A driver called ntfs-3g has to be installed by the user if a user wants to write on NTFS partitions, although a small number of distros do this automatically. Thus a Windows "C" drive may be mounted as a sda1 in Linux for example. Mounting of a partition is automatic on some distro but not on the others but a user can always manually mount any partition in Linux.

Windows can mount Linux partitions via freeware. Thus a Linux partition like sda3 may appear as a "E" drive in a MS Windows.

An operating system can read a hard disk and find all the partitions inside because the information is already stored in binary bits in pre-fix patterns. Different filing systems have different ways of storing the data. That is all. You can put personal data in a data-only partition so that it can be used in every operating system.

If you download a Linux like Slax, burn it, burn it in to a CD, boot it up you will read your Windows spreadsheet/documents, pay MP3 music, view photos, watch video etc in Linux. You can change the information in the partitions as well as Slax mount all partitions automatically including NTFS types for both read/write access.