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SlashHeist
September 13th, 2010, 11:35 PM
Hey all,
I am back with another install question, this one is very easy. :D
I just wanna make sure.

I just recently bought an M17x Alienware laptop, and I have to 500gb harddrives. I am probably never gonna use up 500gb... thats ridiculous. Let alone two two drives.

I want Ubuntu back! So my question is this...

The one hard drive is C:/ obviously where Windows 7 and everything else is installed. The other hard drive is labeled (when I go to Start My Computer) DATAPART1 (D:). As far as I know there is nothing on this drive. These is a text file titled globdata that has a few lines of text saying Microsoft Visual C++ blah blah stuff like that.

So can I install Ubuntu on this hard drive? Does anyone know if that will screw up anything on my Windows 7 hard drive or what? I love my Laptop and how I have Windows 7 set up on the one hard drive, not to mention all my Steam games are saved on this hard drive. So I don't wanna mess with this, and I just wanna do a nice Ubuntu install on the other hard drive that seems to be unused.

Thanks!

rotave
September 14th, 2010, 06:08 AM
I've got a Dell laptop with two drives and have windows 7 on the first and ubuntu on the second. So you should be okay. Not sure what DATAPART1 is though, I can't remember that on mine, so you might want to look into that before you proceed. Also check out this thread for help installing Ubuntu on Dell Laptops. http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1519200

lisati
September 14th, 2010, 06:18 AM
*Friendly Aside* If your laptop didn't come with recovery disks, don't forget to make a set now, just in case you need a copy of your original OS to be present for warranty purposes.

SlashHeist
September 14th, 2010, 10:51 AM
*Friendly Aside* If your laptop didn't come with recovery disks, don't forget to make a set now, just in case you need a copy of your original OS to be present for warranty purposes.

Oh yeah, good thinking thanks!


Re: Installing Ubuntu on a new laptop
I've got a Dell laptop with two drives and have windows 7 on the first and ubuntu on the second. So you should be okay. Not sure what DATAPART1 is though, I can't remember that on mine, so you might want to look into that before you proceed. Also check out this thread for help installing Ubuntu on Dell Laptops. http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1519200

Thank you as well! I will check that page out.

Thanks guys!

grahammechanical
September 14th, 2010, 12:19 PM
I recently checked out my sister's laptop. It has Vista on it and the 160GB drive was in two partitions. C:vista and D:data. I am assuming that this data partition is where the OS stores data for system recovery points. When the OS crashes you can do a system recovery to a point set prior to the time of the crash. If you have set a system recovery point that is. The data to do a recovery needs to be stored somewhere. I am guessing that this second partition is to be used as a storage place for a drive images.

It seems a big waste of a hard drive to me. I much prefer to put /home on its own partition then a re-install of the OS does not wipe out my data or personal settings.

I suppose that is what you get when you use an OS that crashes and your have brought it from company that doesn't let you own what you have brought and limits you to a small number of re-installations and then needs to do something to overcome the bad publicity. Just remember, It wasn't my idea (joke).

regards