Mark Wallace wrote:
You could strip down the Windows install, getting rid of the bloatware, the Office package that it came with, etc., and just leave the diagnostics in.
Yes I could, but I'd still have to leave Windows itself on there too. To me, letting it have 60-80 GB (on a 750 GB HD) is acceptable, as there are still occasional apps with nothing comparable in Linux (and I'm also tech support for my parents who're using Win7). Someone else might refuse to do anything that can't be done with Linux. It's an individual decision. I rarely use Windows and don't like using it, but there are occasional moments when it makes some task easier.
The only problem that I can think of is that if you have a hard drive problem, the diagnostics will only check the Windows sector.
That's a possibility if /any/ of the HD is used for anything other than Windows.
As I remember (I don't dual boot,) Windows doesn't know that it is sharing a hard drive with Linux. It thinks that the Linux partitions don't exist and the hard drive is smaller than it actually is.
That's correct once Windows is installed. I /think/ the Windows installer can determine the size of the entire HD but can be told which partitions to use. I just used gparted from "System Rescue CD" to resize and create my partitions.
Adam _______________________________________________ Mid-Hudson Valley Linux Users Group http://mhvlug.org http://mhvlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mhvlug Upcoming Meetings (6pm - 8pm) Vassar College Dec 5 - Sysadmin Panel Jan 9 - High Performance Computing Feb 6 - February Meeting
