Computer Update

Ubuntu and Xubuntu are working great and are sharing the same home partition and swap along with the same username. Windows still won’t boot. I’ll try moving things around on its hard drive by putting the Windows Data partition first and Windows last.

I fixed the problem with ubuntu by, well I don’t know its initial problem but I had to adjust some settings in the profile folder (/home/jms1989) and fix the permissions and owner and groups. Once the bug was squashed, Ubuntu and Xubuntu loaded just fine. Still can’t get to the 6 console screens, I just have a blinking underscore. If you have any ideas why, please post them in the comments. Cheers!

Organizing the Hard Drives

Good morning, today I’m going to repartition my internal hard drives. My plan is to first move my /home partition to my data partition on my larger disk and then backup my operating systems, both Windows XP and Ubuntu Linux and my Windows Data partition I use for iTunes and large computer game data. Once backed up, I will repartition the entire master drive to hold my Windows partition and the Windows Data partition. The second disk will hold Ubuntu and all of its data files. I will leave room for a second linux OS that will also use my /home partition for its settings. What distribution I will use as the second Linux os, I have yet to decide.

I will keep a written log of time events of when a action starts to when it ends and then the next and then the next, well you get the idea. Moving my /home partition could take about 30 min. to an hour. Backing up my OSes and the Windows Data partition could take 2 to 3 hours. Repartitioning, 10 to 20 min. Restoring the files to their new homes, 1 hour to an hour and 30 minutes. Then with a few adjustments to my linux config files and a jumper swap to make the larger drive with linux to be the master. Restore grub (linux bootloader) and edit its menu.lst file. So, I’m looking at about 5 hours of reorganizing my disks.

I hope this is worth the effort because I’m desperate for better performance. When the task is complete, I post a new post indicating its finished and my comments on it. Hopefully, good ones. :)

What’s odd is Windows behaves annoyingly well when compared to Ubuntu in performance but Windows better behave after the adjustments and Ubuntu better get better in its performance. Cheers!

Update: Progress Log:

[07:32] Perform a hard startup to windows to disable access to the ext3 partitions.

[07:35] Reboot to Ubuntu to migrate /home partition files to the Linux Data partition.

[08:46] Finished migration, rebooting to backup OSes and Windows Data partition.

[08:50] Starting Backup, part 1 – OS.

[09:41] Backup, part 2 – Windows Data.

[10:21] Backup complete.

[13:15] Start Restore, Part 1 -OS

[19:08 Backup and Restore complete. Starting gparted live cd to reconfigure linux.

[19:16] Move linux root to the right to allow for a 1.49GB swap space and shrink it from 25GB to 24.2GB.

[19:55] Shut down to swap jumpers. Reboot to Ubuntu Live CD to reconfigure some linux files.

[20:20] Reconfigure /etc/fstab to allow for the new layout and reinstall grub to the master boot loader.

[20:43] Shut down, operation has failed. Windows does not boot, Ubuntu will not show any text diologes to dionose the problem. fsck in the live cd fixed a small problem but ubuntu still won’t boot. Will do some research to figure out this problem.