Im planning to install linux for the first time on my PC, but I’m a bit lost as to how to set it up.
My PC consists of two 500gb drives in Raid0, and one 500gb drive that I keep my documents on.
I currently have Windows 7 and would like to dual boot. Windows is on the Raid0 drives.
I have a few questions…can I install openSUSE on the raid0 drive that windows is on without creating a partition beforehand? (i.e. will the install do this for me?). Also, is this a good way to set it up? Both drives have enough space on them but it made more sense to me to keep all installs on 1 drive and all docs on another.
Also, can I ‘share’ the 500gb data drive between linux and windows, so I can access and edit all my documents from both operating systems? How would I go about setting this up if it is not already automated?
Before you try to install on Raid 0, do some research. A while back Raid 0 was a messy situation, but I’m not sure on the current state.
As far as the installer creating it for you - it will if there is empty space. To get unallocated space, boot into Windows, right click on “My Computer” -> “Manage” -> “Disk Management” -> Right click on windows partition -> shrink. This will create some unallocated space for the installer.
Linux uses several partitions, but the ones you need to worry about your first time around are root “/” and swap “/swap”. Swap space is hard drive ram, the equivalent of a Windows page file. If you plan on suspending your system a lot, you’ll want to create a swap partition (via the installer) double your RAM. You need to keep in mind that amount and the amount you’ll want for the OS. 20 GB should be plenty if your data is on a separate partition.
Yes, you can share the 500GB drive for data. You can also do that setup through the installer. It may be under an advanced tab “mount points” or something similar. You may find some answers to the “where do I do that?” questions in some of caf’s guides: HowTo Compilation
If you have any more questions, feel free to ask.
It is still bad. If one hard disk fail, you lose everything. If speed matters, just use a SSD hard disk instead.
If you have a softwaire RAID under Windows (although I don’t even know if that exists), there is nothing we can do. If it’s a BIOS raid (faked hardware raid), I have no idea how openSUSE setup would deal with the situation but IMHO, it doesn’t sound reasonable. What we do and works under Linux is software RAID. It is as fast if not faster than BIOS raid and much more reliable (if your mainboard dies, you might not be able to recover you RAID unless you can still get the same mainboard).
You could also create free space by shrinking your Data drive. Most use about 20Gb for a / (root partition - Linux root drive like C), 1-2Gb (for a /SWAP partition), and whatever 30Gb for a /HOME partition (configuration files and other data files).
OTOH, if you backup your Windows installation and break up your RAID0 you could leave Windows on 1 500Gb drive, and free up 500Gb unallocated space. Instead of 1TB of store, 1.5TB of store.
On 2011-04-21 20:36, please try again wrote:
> If you have a softwaire RAID under Windows (although I don’t even know
> if that exists), there is nothing we can do. If it’s a BIOS raid (faked
> hardware raid), I have no idea how openSUSE setup would deal with the
> situation but IMHO, it doesn’t sound reasonable.
The fake raid is actually a software raid, with bios support for reading
only, allowing booting from it till windows starts and loads the driver.
In Linux it works if the card is recognized and the driver works. I know no
more than that. Some types work fine, some do not at all.
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Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” at Telcontar)