On Wed, 2002-10-02 at 15:29, Stanley A. Schultz wrote: > > Jesse and All: > > Thanks for all your consideration and responses. > > On 26 Sep 2002, Jesse Kline wrote: > > > Well considering that you don't need to backup your OS, since you can > > always reinstall it from the CD. > > I've heard this argument before, and not so, mon ami. Using Window$ as a > bad example, the operating system is constantly making changes to the > registry to keep track of what the applications are doing. Many, if not > most, applications are constantly making repetitive changes to the > registry as well. Most applications load specific drivers into the > \Window$\System subdirectory as they are installed so Window$ can find > them when the application needs them to run. Many applications lodge data > and backup files into some Window$ subdirectory or another as they > function. (e.g., Netscape 6.2 stores bookmarks.html in > C:\WIN98\Mozilla\Users50\schultz\ncjou279.slt on my machine.)
I would agree with the comments that Kevin made.The way that Linux is setup is quite different than Windows.You are correct that I don't know what you use your system for, or how hard it would be to get everything working as it was. However in my experience, once I have set something up once, it is fairly easy to do it again. The nice thing about Linux is that the apps are so accessible. Unlike with Windows, most of your apps. are probably on the RedHat CDs, and the rest of them can be d/l for free from the 'net. This saves lots of time when you are installing from scratch. Another plus is that most distros are very easy to upgrade. I spent over 3 hours upgrading Win98 through Windows Update, while with Linux you just tell it to update everything and it actually does it. Another plus is that all your user configurations are stored in the home dir. so a backup of your /home partition will save all your configurations including your Netscape bookmarks, etc. For system with configs. these are stored in your /etc dir. Backing this up should save you the hassle of setting up X11, Samba, etc. all over again. If you have spent lots of time compiling packages like Apache from source, you can always save it in your home dir and do a make install to get it back. So I would have to say that you should be quite safe with the default partitioning scheme, as long as you keep your users home dirs. the size of your backup media, and backup your /etc dir. you shouldn't have very many problems. At the very least I think it's worth a try (even for the 14th time) just to rule it out as the source of your headaches. Jesse
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