BrandSpanky new laptop.. want to start real clean...help ?

Stocky · Post by **Stocky** » Tue Nov 22, 2005 12:48 pm

I'm real new here... please be gentle

Got a Acer 4402 100 gig hd... shows 90g but..
ques:
I brought the 2 partitions over to ntfs... no prob... but is there a hidden 10 ggr I haven't seen in Fat32 I should also address?

Can I break it all into 4 or maybe 5 partitions without losing anything?
XP in one...
etc
I read FP's blog... super stuff.. but do I have to repartition...then format... then reload xp... then etc etc etc ?

Any specific direction greatly appreciated...

Also... I think I want to get bootit or acronis ???

Lastly and very important to me...
I want open office... not ms.
Can I obliterate ms stuff except xp-pro, and then do OO, and thunderbird/FF etc ???

Thnx a ton !

ps... should I leave a small partition for trying linux at some fut-time?
Thnx again
Stocky

smb · Post by **smb** » Tue Nov 22, 2005 1:06 pm

If you want to start clean, do a complete reinstall.

You can break it up easily with Partition magic, it's money well spent.

b-man1 · Post by **b-man1** » Tue Nov 22, 2005 1:23 pm

the "missing" 10gb is probably a utility/restore partition from the manufacturer...dell does that now rather than sending out restore CD's. be careful if you blow that away.

Badmojo · Post by **Badmojo** » Tue Nov 22, 2005 1:48 pm

Originally posted by smb
If you want to start clean, do a complete reinstall.

You can break it up easily with Partition magic, it's money well spent.

and with Partion Magic you can make that linux partion at a fut-time with out nukeing the primary partion(hence the "worth the money"). Wait thought the line was SHow ME da MOnay!

Was the 100 Before or after being partioned =P If you dont want to lose space on your HDD i suggest not partioning them. Its just a waste of time and space

Stocky · Post by **Stocky** » Tue Nov 22, 2005 6:32 pm

So youze guyze don't like acronis or bootit ?

How about the MS vs. anything ques.'s ?

and if the missing 10g is on purpose,
how do I see it to confirm???

and then ..... really....?..... I can't just make partitions and use them? Acer does one thing right...
they leave norton and a bunch of other stuff on the cd for you to decide what you want to install.

how about nod32 ?

Now I'm making a mistake.... I should have learned long ago not to ask more then 2 ques. in a post...
more then that never get talked about... my mistake... sheeeesh!

thnx
Stocky

wpublic · Post by **wpublic** » Tue Nov 22, 2005 7:01 pm

boot to dos with a bootable floppy or bootable cd. run fdisk from dos and you should be able to see all the partitions. it would be wise to make backup images of the partitions you see. also note the structure and file size incase you want to put it all back together again.

if you want all the disk on one partition, then delete all the partitions in fdisk and reboot. boot back to dos and fdisk again create primary partition using max disk space. reboot(i always reboot between these steps as good practice but i am not sure it is necessary)

go back to fdisk and make the partition active, then reboot to dos. the previous step should have made your partition drive C:

at a dos prompt, type format C:

it will give you warnings and ask you are you sure. then if you let it, it will format that partition i believe fat16

then you can install OS. from here you can change filesystems FAT32 or NTFS

i use nod32 and i think it is pretty cool.

impuresoul2k3 · Post by **impuresoul2k3** » Tue Nov 22, 2005 9:08 pm

That 90gb is because the formatted size is smaller than the advertised size. My 40gb, for example, formats to 37.2 gb, a difference of 2.8. So I assume 90gb on a 100gb hard drive is right on.

eGoCeNTRoNiX · Post by **eGoCeNTRoNiX** » Tue Nov 22, 2005 11:26 pm

Originally posted by impuresoul2k3
That 90gb is because the formatted size is smaller than the advertised size. My 40gb, for example, formats to 37.2 gb, a difference of 2.8. So I assume 90gb on a 100gb hard drive is right on.

Hit the nail on the head!

eGo

swinada · Post by **swinada** » Wed Nov 23, 2005 12:56 am

And my 2 cents about Open Office, used it like it. But I still mainly use MS just because it complys with what we use at work.
However there is also EasyOffice which I prefer over OO, its free open source and has more choices then you ever will need. http://www.e-press.com/index.asp 100MB download, trial version anoyes with the log in advertisment but other then that its very usable. The full purchased version is only $39, way better then the 400 for MS. There is some differences compared to MS, i like Excel and the options of formatting cells are somewath less in EO, for instance I didnt find a way yet in EO to apply conditional formatting to a cell. And if you import a excel sheet, conditional formatting will be lost, but everything else formatting and formulas will work fine.
Good luck....

Stocky · Post by **Stocky** » Thu Nov 24, 2005 8:23 am

Create a 10 g partition... transfer the OS there now to it... then format the remaining partitions that I set up?

And will "anyone" please tell me if acronis or bootit/image for win are an ok way to go?

Thnx

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BrandSpanky new laptop.. want to start real clean...help ?

BrandSpanky new laptop.. want to start real clean...help ?

Y not create a 10g partn... then just