On Fri, Feb 13, 2004 at 05:36:57PM -0500, Red Wolfman wrote:
> I partitioned the second half of my HD with 4 Gig ext2, 2 Gig SWAP,
> remainder ext2
>
> click on the MEPIS Installation center- meinstall----password (root).
> Install MEPHIS on Hard Drive--next
>
> USE disk pull down choice sda or hdb ??????
> At this point I'm lost help please
"sda" refers to something other than your hard drives, unless they are
SCSI. Most likely a zip or CD burner. "hdb" refers to the second hard
drive on your primary IDE channel.
Here's the way this works under Linux. Hard drives are (typically) hda,
hdb, hdc and hdd. The "a" and "b" are the first and second hard drives
on the first (primary) IDE channel, in that order. The "c" and "d" are
the first and second hard drives on the second (slave) IDE channel. Like
this:
Linux HD name IDE Channel HD order
------------- ----------- --------
hda 0 (primary) 1
hdb 0 (primary) 2
hdc 1 (secondary) 1
hdd 1 (secondary) 2
Within a given hard drive, there are additional subdivisions, which are
really partition numbers. So for example, hda1 would be the first
partition on the first hard drive on the primary IDE channel. hdb3 would
be the third partition on the second hard drive on the primary IDE
channel.
>From here, it's up to you to determine which partition/hard drive
represents data you wish to preserve, or which can be wiped. I don't
recall, but most likely, after asking you which hard drive, Mepis will
ask for specific partitions, if it detects something already on a
hard drive. Most likely, you can back out if an action looks like it
might erase your data.
I believe Steve mentioned ext3. Mepis does indeed support ext3. The
standard Linux filesystem is ext2. Ext3 is nearly identical to ext2,
except that it includes a journalling capability. This lessens the
likelihood that a catastrophic event (like accidentally hitting the
OFF switch) will corrupt the contents of your partition.
Since you're having some difficulty with this, I'd strongly suggest
installing Linux on its own hard drive. That way, if you mess up, you
can always start over. And you won't be in danger of messing up your
Windows data. Chances are, Mepis is smart enough to figure out you've
got Windows data on your drive and not mess with it. But if you're
paranoid about it, the safe bet is to install on a separate drive.
In perfect world, Linux would be pre-installed on your hard drive, and
you wouldn't have to mess with this. But since we haven't achieved World
Domination(tm) yet, you get to slog through some difficult stuff like
this on installs. Windows isn't that much easier to install; it's just
that we tend to be more familiar with Windows terminology and methods,
after dealing with it for so many years.
Paul
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