Omnimaga

General Discussion => Technology and Development => Computer Usage and Setup Help => Topic started by: Deep Toaster on July 04, 2010, 10:23:49 am

Title: Question about OSes: when it comes to computers, I have no idea what to do
Post by: Deep Toaster on July 04, 2010, 10:23:49 am
So I've decided that I have to try running Ubuntu off of a flash drive (I'm getting tired of having Vista all the time :P). But before I do that, I have to make sure of something, and seeing that many people here use Linux (especially after seeing the Post Your Desktop (http://ourl.ca/3395) thread), I decided to ask about it here: If I were to boot Linux from my thumb drive, would it affect my computer's drives in any way (in other words, the next time I turn on the computer, can it boot Windows normally with no change to it)? (Sorry if this seems like an obvious question, but I have no idea with computers :-[)
Title: Re: Question about OSes: when it comes to computers, I have no idea what to do
Post by: calcdude84se on July 04, 2010, 10:30:13 am
It's fine to ask, and I've known others to worry about it. If you boot off a flash drive (thumb drive, w/e you call it), it should not modify your hard disk unless you write to it on purpose.
If you doubt Linux's ability to correctly write to NTFS (the file system Windows uses, and this can be a concern), just don't write to it, and you might want to remount those partitions as read-only, if you mount them at all.
Edit: Error 404, post not found :P
Title: Re: Question about OSes: when it comes to computers, I have no idea what to do
Post by: Deep Toaster on July 04, 2010, 10:38:33 am
It's fine to ask, and I've known others to worry about it. If you boot off a flash drive (thumb drive, w/e you call it), it should not modify your hard disk unless you write to it on purpose.
Oh, okay, thanks.

If you doubt Linux's ability to correctly write to NTFS (the file system Windows uses, and this can be a concern), just don't write to it, and you might want to remount those partitions as read-only, if you mount them at all.
Remounting partitions? What? :-\ What partitions?

Edit: Error 404, post not found :P
Weird, the link worked for me.
Title: Re: Question about OSes: when it comes to computers, I have no idea what to do
Post by: calcdude84se on July 04, 2010, 10:48:16 am
Remounting partitions? What? :-\ What partitions?
Partitions contain file systems, sorry for not explaining. If you're like most people, your computer has one partition (or only one that you know of), which contains your "C:" drive. (or whatever you labeled it)
Mounting is a process which allows you to read and write files on a partition. A partition has to be mounted to be accessed. Since most OS's run from flash drives will automatically mount all partitions for reading and writing, I'm suggesting you remount it as read-only if you are afraid to write to it, and don't want anything written automatically.

Weird, the link worked for me.
I was celebrating my 404th post :P
Title: Re: Question about OSes: when it comes to computers, I have no idea what to do
Post by: Silver Shadow on July 04, 2010, 03:33:19 pm
If you don't want to partition your hard drive and want to be able to install/uninstall your Linux OS like any other Windows program, here's a nifty little thing:

http://wubi-installer.org/

Note that it's only for Ubuntu.
Title: Re: Question about OSes: when it comes to computers, I have no idea what to do
Post by: Deep Toaster on July 04, 2010, 11:39:21 pm
Remounting partitions? What? :-\ What partitions?
Partitions contain file systems, sorry for not explaining. If you're like most people, your computer has one partition (or only one that you know of), which contains your "C:" drive. (or whatever you labeled it)
Mounting is a process which allows you to read and write files on a partition. A partition has to be mounted to be accessed. Since most OS's run from flash drives will automatically mount all partitions for reading and writing, I'm suggesting you remount it as read-only if you are afraid to write to it, and don't want anything written automatically.
Oh, I see.

Weird, the link worked for me.
I was celebrating my 404th post :P
Ha, didn't see that. 222th post!

If you don't want to partition your hard drive and want to be able to install/uninstall your Linux OS like any other Windows program, here's a nifty little thing:

http://wubi-installer.org/

Note that it's only for Ubuntu.

Ooh, that seems useful. Thanks.