how is the HD set up?

Ordered my AA1, just waiting for it to arrive!!

So im just wondering on how the harddrive is set up (ive got teh 120gb linux version on teh way). Is it just one big drive with Linux on? What about the 'recovery' partition Ive heard about, is that a seperate partition taken from the 120gb? And how does that recovery work? (Will it repartition anything? Or does it just put linux back on teh C: ?)

I want to make 3 partitions see, C: with linux on and kept as it was when I bought it (non-customized, just ready to use and quick), D: with XP (or vista) on which will be completely customized (and ill probably reinstall every now and then to keep it quick), and E: with all my music and college work on which hopefully will never get deleted.

Thanks

 

Congrats on your selection. You're going to be a Linux user, so the first thing is to get the terminology right - it's not C: D: and E: it's sda1, sda2, and sda3 (or, more completely, /dev/sda1, /dev/sda2, and /dev/sda3).

I went with the 120GB WinXP model (Microcenter didn't carry a 120GB Linux model). The first partition (sda1) is the recovery partition for WinXP, and is 5.85 GiB in size. The second partition, which originally took up the rest of the disk, is the WinXP partition; it's now 26.21 GiB in size. Recovery typically overwrites the whole hard drive; expect it to wipe out any modifications you make. FWIW Windows normally wants to be on the first partition of the hard drive; there are ways around this and plenty of reference to how to do this on the web, , but I've never pursued them.

As for dealing with Linux, I STRONGLY recommend at least two partitions; one for / (the root directory), and one for /home (a subdirectory under the root directory, this is where users' personal files are kept). personal files. On my system, I've allocated an 8GB partition for / for each of my Linux distros, and another 8GB partition for /home (which all of my distros share). I've also got a few other partitions for miscellaneous stuff (like digital photos and music).

God luck!

 

Thanks for the reply I've never really used Linux before (Windows fanboy ) so got a lot to learn lol.

My aa1 arrived today! Woo, lovin it, just getting used to the keyboard size and touchpad though! Keyboard seems tiny and the touchpad was soo sensitive until I changed the settings but ill get used to it. Overall though, damn small (but thats a good thing!), light weight as hell, really quiet (slight droning noise but compared to my previous computers/laptops its silent!) fast as lightening, and generally amazing!

So , being a total Linux n00b I'm a little confused on what you said in your above post lol, I think ill work it out though.

In file manager it says I have 101.1GB free out of 109GB. So I'm guessing I only have 109gb in total because of the recovery thing? To start with how would I access the recovery if everything went wrong? (EDIT: I mean the one on the HD, not by using the recovery CD/USB that came with it)

Second, as I only have 101gb of that 109gb free, I take it that 8gb is taken up by Linux, no?

I'll ask more questions after, got loads to ask, but I'll probably be better asking in more specific sections of the forum.

Thanks.
Lloyd

 

120 GB = 111 GiB (or so)
2GB might have gone to a recovery partition

 

Ok cheers. How would I access that recovery if I needed to?

Now that I know that, is it safe now to get a bootable partitioning software on USB and repartition the drive so Linux is on sda1 (I'm learning! ) then crate a new drive (sda2 and sda3) and then work on getting XP or vista on sda2 (leaving sda3 for all my music and personal files)?