Running XP and Linux?

[.JahJahwarrior.]

I have a MB, and love it. I also hav ea desktop PC, 2.5ghz processor, 1 gig of ram. I have a 120 gig drive as C, an 80 gig drive that's internal, and a 250 gig drive that is hooked up externally to the PC, and I access it over the network with my MB for picture backup.

In another few weeks, I'mgoing to finish editing a video on the PC with Sony Vegas. I've got almost everything backed up on the external drive, but I'm going to be cleaning out the folders and probably backing everything important up to dvd as well. Before college starts, I want to reformat both internal drives on the PC.

Then, I want to run Linux. Installing Linux shouldn't be too hard, I just download the stuff, burn the cd with the ISO images, then reformat my drives, and insert the disk, right? Well, I don't like XP that much, but there is always the chance tha tI'll need it to edit more stuff on, with Vegas. So I'd really love to partition my drives somehow so I can run both of them.

How hard is that to do? What do I do? In the future I'd also like to get another 250 gig external drive and mirror them to each other, and what might be neat is to, if it is possible, make the 120 into an effective 80 gig drive, by partitioning, and run Linux on a RAID setup, and use the 40 gigs on the 120 for my XP partition. But, I don't know anything about RAID and if itis hardware or software....but if I could do that, I understand you can split data 50/50, or something like 60/60, so if one drive fails, the other drive can recreate the failed drive. If I could do something like that, that'd be wonderful.

I am decently computer literate, but I really prefer simple instructions that don't explain how it works or the coding or anything.... If anyone can direct me to specific webpages or threads that would let me know how to do what I want to do, I'd appreciate it! Thanks!

 

[ProjektJ]

linux is no easy undertaking, which distro are you planning on running?
ubuntu is always fun, you can download and burn a livecd, and boot off of it without installing anything to get your feet wet.

 

[72930]

linux is no easy undertaking.

Have you used it recently?

I recently installed Ubuntu on a Dell, and with the help of EasyUbuntu, it wasn't hard for a first time user

A truly beautiful OS, with some things I would love to see in OS X...they are months ahead of us with an optionally transparent menubar...

 

[janey]

Then, I want to run Linux. Installing Linux shouldn't be too hard, I just download the stuff, burn the cd with the ISO images, then reformat my drives, and insert the disk, right? Well, I don't like XP that much, but there is always the chance tha tI'll need it to edit more stuff on, with Vegas. So I'd really love to partition my drives somehow so I can run both of them.

Depends on the distro. However, partitioning drives and setting up the bootloader to dual/tripleboot is not difficult. Directions however, depend on what you're using.

How hard is that to do? What do I do? In the future I'd also like to get another 250 gig external drive and mirror them to each other, and what might be neat is to, if it is possible, make the 120 into an effective 80 gig drive, by partitioning, and run Linux on a RAID setup, and use the 40 gigs on the 120 for my XP partition. But, I don't know anything about RAID and if itis hardware or software....but if I could do that, I understand you can split data 50/50, or something like 60/60, so if one drive fails, the other drive can recreate the failed drive. If I could do something like that, that'd be wonderful.

Read! Can't stress that enough.
There are a gazillion raid levels that do all sorts of different things, and the best way to find out is to read. You don't even need raid to dualboot.

I am decently computer literate, but I really prefer simple instructions that don't explain how it works or the coding or anything.... If anyone can direct me to specific webpages or threads that would let me know how to do what I want to do, I'd appreciate it! Thanks!

http://www.acnc.com/04_01_00.html is a good place to start for raid.
As for linux distros, that's really up to you. I'm a big gentoo fan but there are huge drawbacks (like compiling everything and having a huge learning curve) but I don't like Ubuntu that much...I like slack...i mean it really depends on what you want and like. Maybe you should just get a totally separate drive to play around with a few distros first?

Ubuntu is definitely a great one to start with, given that it's pretty simple and has a huge community where you can seek out help when needed.