[ltp] pre-installation advice?

[SOTL]

You may want to call IBM and get a set of recovery disks.

I would also advise you to partition your HD into 3 sectors: MS, Common_Data, 
Linux. I have linux split into: /boot, /, swap, /home, and /Linux_Data.

When you crash [which I do frequently due to my playing] the system if you 
have your data NOT stored with the operating system your nights will have a 
lot more sleep in them.

Frank

On Wednesday 30 June 2004 13:46, sltp@rhythm.cx wrote:
> I got my Thinkpad on Monday and I just wanted to let the list know how this
> went in case any future Thinkpad linux users have the same concerns:
>
> After I got my Thinkpad I powered it up and allowed it to boot into XP and
> fully complete the XP setup. Once that finished, I played with XP briefly
> to make sure the machine worked ok. I did not install any software at this
> point however. Once I was done, I started the XP Disk Degragmenter utility
> and verified that the disk did not need any defragmenting. Then I rebooted
> and began SuSE 9.1 installation.
>
> I was able to resize my 80GB NTFS partition down to 25GB in the SuSE
> installer with no problems at all. I tried to use XFS for my linux
> partition, however the SuSE 9.1 installer kernel paniced from somewhere in
> the XFS code when it tried to format my root partition (reproducable). I
> tried reiserfs instead with the exact same partitions, and that worked.
> After that, the SuSE install went just fine. I rebooted the system after
> the install, and everything worked fine in both Linux and XP. I did not run
> into that problem where some installers with 2.6 kernels will modify the
> partition table in a way that confuses XP.
>
> One thing I noticed is that the partitioning or formatting process
> apparently destroyed my recovery partition. I tried to get into the
> pre-boot GUI after the SuSE install, but instead of the usual GUI area with
> the recovery options I got a standard-looking textual BIOS setup program.
>
> Although I did not have any problems with the machine, I called IBM to
> order recovery disks just in case. I was pleasantly surprised by their tech
> support dept. Low hold time and the phone was answered by a native English
> speaker who was nice, competent and did not give me any fuss about getting
> the recovery disks. They shipped the disks to me via Airborne overnight at
> no cost to me.
>
> Glad I got a Thinkpad... wonderful notebook, and unexpectedly good service
> & support from IBM.
>
> On Fri, Jun 25, 2004 at 04:13:45PM -0400, sltp@rhythm.cx wrote:
> > Hi everyone. I ordered a T40 today, should be here sometime next week. I
> > plan on dual booting the shipped XP Pro and SuSE 9.1. With that in mind,
> > before booting the laptop for the first time, is there anything I should
> > know? Would it be best to resize the NTFS partition before booting into
> > XP for the first time, or does it not matter?
> >
> > Also, do Thinkpads usually come with some kind of recovery/reimage CD or
> > DVD, or is that on a hard disk partition somewhere, or do I have to order
> > one separately?
> >
> >
> > Thanks
> >
> > --
> > The linux-thinkpad mailing list home page is at:
> > http://mailman.linux-thinkpad.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-thinkpad