Installing SLED10 and need to know how to preserve windows files

totalnoobiknow · 02-26-2010, 06:26 PM

I'm trying to make sure all my windows files stay put, so i'm wondering how to go about installing SLED 10. I can't log onto windows due to a virus infection, so i'm trying to install SLED10 and get all my files from there. Any help is much appreciated. I wanna be able to use windows as well as linux as well.

lupusarcanus · 02-26-2010, 06:31 PM

Why SLED 10? Why not go with openSUSE??

totalnoobiknow · 02-26-2010, 06:35 PM

it's just what i've got for now. if i like it, i'll consider upgrading.

lupusarcanus · 02-26-2010, 06:41 PM

SLED costs money doesn't it? Why not opt for the free, open-source version?

Anyways, you will want to resize the windows partition to make some free space. Then you will want to install the OS to the freed space partition.

totalnoobiknow · 02-26-2010, 06:44 PM

so which partition option do i choose? would i need to log in to compress files?
and am i sure not to lose any files?

lupusarcanus · 02-26-2010, 06:50 PM

Well, as long as there was free space in the partition (depending on how much) you can resize it without any data loss. You won't really be compressing any files per se, but rather shrinking the file system.

Are you trying to do this via the installer?

If so, please post the ptions you are given.

totalnoobiknow · 02-26-2010, 07:05 PM

the defaul option is to shrink. there's also create extended, create swap, and create root. so you're saying as long as i have enough space on my hard drive - i've got about 30gb minimum - i shouldn't lose any data?

lupusarcanus · 02-26-2010, 07:08 PM

Well, say you had a 30 GiB Windows and 29 GiB was used, and you shrunk it to 25 GiB; you would lose about 4 GiB of data.

But say, you had, a 30 GiB Windows partition and only 15 was use and you shrunk it down to twenty, you wouldn't lose anything.

Hopefully that clarifies it a bit.

totalnoobiknow · 02-26-2010, 07:10 PM

alright thanks. the max is 8gb i should be fine.