I am just migrating to Linux and have built a new box. It has 2 - 120bB Western Digital Hard Drives. I just set it up as a "normal" hdc/hdd config (used the auto partition/install after I crashed trying to manually configure as a raid 0 array; need to read more first).
Anyway, I have an XP box with dual 200gB hard drives (also Western Digital - 7200 rpm, 8 mb caches). I would like to migrate these two drives into my Linux box once I'm a bit more comfortable with the RH 7.3 o/s, and I was wondering if there's a way to do it and maintain the data? These two are currently configured as a Raid 0 array with NFTS file(s).
This is sort of a "tire kicker" question, but I'd love to know. Also, has anyone set up a Wacom Intuos tablet on their system? How's that?
Thanks for your help and support. I'm glad to be home.
Scott

If you want to preserve the drives as they are (OS intact) you can do so by pointing the bootloader to them as well (you should even be able to mount them quite easily - read-only of course). if you want the data, I'd back it up and go from there. The only thing that'll hold you back maybe is the RAID. Read up on that first, for sure.

Yeah, I tried to do my first install using Linux RH 7.3 and configure 2 brand new 120gB harddrives as a software Raid 0 array. I screwed it up so bad my 'puter crashed hard and wouldn't reboot until I flashed the CMOS.
I'm not really interested in preserving the O/S from the other computer (it's Windows XP Pro). I think what I'll do is just set up a network where I can utilize the storage space on that computer, too.
And then I'll get to the raid array.
Thanks for the feedback.
Scott

RAID doesn't help much for storing OS files. You are better off using one hard drive. Then setup software RAID 0. RAID should only be used when you need huge bandwidth for raw video, raw sound, raw graphics, web pages, database. RAID arrays can not be transported because there is a very high risk that the raid array will work properly on another system even though you brought over the same controller. You have to first backup your data or compress the data and store it on a 320 gigabyte hard drive. Since you are sharing your files from your Windows system to the LINUX system using SMB protocol you will not have any trouble.

Red hat 7.3 is old. You are going to have a hard time setting your system up with that old OS. Use Red hat 9.0. It has much better support for software RAID and more support for your tablet.

People said that tablet's work. Do a google search and read throughly.

RAID won't help much in 100 Mb (megabit) ethernets but it will help in 1000 Mb ethernets. If you have only 100 Mb ethernet hardware. You could look into LVM. LVM stands for logical volume management. Its design to add additional hard drives to create infinite capacity. No, it does not increase bandwidth but the bandwidth is limited by each hard drive that files are on.

As I said, I do have dual 120gB drives already on the new box. I was just thinking of the future, when I'd like to consolidate and fully gut my "old" box (not that old. It's a P4-3.06 that I built last Jan.)
I originally got the Red Hat Linux 7.3 because it is the only Linux version that SoftImage certifies to work flawlessly with their software (XSI 3.5 and Behaviour are the cg content creation s/w I'm using, as well as Maya, 3Ds Max and Lightwave). My intent was to make this a "render box" and, yes, huge amounts of raw data is the nature of that beast. I'll talk with Soft about 9.0 though.
I have the 1K Enet onboard this new Tyan i7501 mb. I'd have to add a card to the "old" box, but that's pretty doable, and may be the easiest method. Then I could install Linux on the old box and make it dual boot AND accessible for rendering/data storage via a high speed lan.
Problem is, I need to actually spend some time learning Linux. I'm not new to computers, building or programming or end using, I'm just new to the Free World.
Onward, into the fog.
Scott
thanx for all help and input. If you're interested in looking at my art, check out: www.3dcolorgraphics.com

Cheers.

Your program should work in Redhat 9 as well as other distributions. What they say on the site is we only support Redhat 7.3 but any problems with other versions or distributions of LINUX is left to you to correct. The problem you may incounter is GUI support if SoftImage used certain commands that are still in the latest GUI packages.

On your web site please squeeze down the image file size because even with cable connection (3 Mb/sec) it takes a long time. Also internet users usually have their resolution set at 800 X 600 or 640 X 480 and they do not want to see scroll bars. There are more 56K users out there so these people should be on the highest priority during design time.

Do you mean 1 Gb ethernet instead of 1Kb ethernet because there is a huge difference in bandwidth.

You may want to have a look at http://linuxshop.ru/linuxbegin/win-l...en/table.shtml

Thanx for the tip(s). I did mean 1Gb...I get lost sometimes.
I'll look at changing the image sizes, although most of the target audience for these images are digital content creation people, and their rez is usually 1280x1024 [unless I've been sadly deceived], but I will look at reworking the size. Actually I was going to make them percentages, so they'd just fill to the given user's monitor, but I was sitting on that until I get this new site redesigned using Flash.
Thanks to everyone for the help. I'm moving in a couple weeks, then I'll have a month to get this Linux box up and running. First I have to reset the bios -- I'm getting a checksum error on start every time I boot; no biggie, but it stops the flow. Anyhoo....
I'll check the site and use your tips.
Scott

I have the USB Intuos2 Tablet, it did provide me basic mouse functionability at least with Suse7Prof as well as RH9, and then I tried installing the 'true' drivers pointed to from the Wacom site here:

http://www.lepied.com/xfree86/
or
http://www.levien.com/free/linux_intuos.html

Was a bit of a hassle, but it DID work finally, the documentation was ok, and the hassle was more due to my awkwardness with Linux installs than nasty software.

Some functionality I still miss however, most importantly the relative setting of the mouse, now I have to move all over the A4-sized tablet to get my mouse pointer across the screen, unworkable.
For a pen I think that's ok, but not for regular mouse operation. There ARE settings for it, but they did not fix things for me alas.

(making this issue another thread here)

Success with that!
jan

Thanks for the link(s). I'm one of those rare people that are in my right mind (spell that left handed). I learned to "mouse" with my right hand, but I still draw with the left, so for graphics content creation you can't ask for better: I have a tablet on my left side and the mouse on my right and all I have to do is remember to lift the pen far enough off the tablet so it doesn't interfere when I use the mouse.
Of course that's the current M$ setup, so I want to make it happen on my new box. With your help and the help of everyone in the free world, I'm sure it will happen.
Thank you.
Scott