moving stuff in windows "my docs" to new linux install

[barsoomian51]

i have a friend who has a windows xp installation (all bogged down with spyware,
malware,etc) and she wants to get rid of it and put a linux opsys on her hard drive.
i know how to wipe a disc and put a brand new pclinuxos install on it, but there's the question of some personal stuff she has in "my documents"...?! can she just burn that to a cd/dvd and copy it to the home partition after the linux install, or is the microsoft file system going to present a problem(i usually do fresh linux installs w/ext3 file sys)? do i have to format the new /home to fat32 or something? i hope these Q's aren't too terribly naive.
                   thanx for your help, guys

[muungwana]

There is nothing special about files that can be accessed through a file manager in windows. She can safely copy all files manually to an external storage device and then copy them back to a linux system. It could be easier to copy folders(document folder or any other folder) if there are many files. Windows doesnt do anything to "tie" files to its operating system or its file system.

It will be wise to check first if she has any specialized files that require special software to open them and if there are acceptable linux alternatives or it the linux versions run acceptably under wine.

home and root partitions must be in native linux file system. windows file system do not understand unix file attributes like symbolic links and a lot of programs will break without access to these file attributes.

[menotu]

i know how to wipe a disc and put a brand new pclinuxos install on it

Hi barsoomian51

When you are wiping and preparing the disk for PCLOS you may want to consider creating another partition and format it as NTFS, then you can simply install PCLOS in the normal way (to /root and /home etc)

Then copy your Windows data (from your USB or CD) over to the the NTFS partition.

From their you can then copy any files over to your /Home partition for day to day use.

You could also use the NTFS partition for your backups from your linux setup

[thorper]

I would recommend backing data to a USB device. You can restore the data on to the new linux install in /home but also, and I think this is important, you will have a backup in case of major hardware failure. USB flash drives aren't expensive these days.

[barsoomian51]

ok! thanks for the help everyone. menotu, i'm a little unclear about your suggestion. after i read muungwana's post i thought i could just format her disc with a root, a swap and a home. it's not registering with me why a fourth partition formatted in ntfs would be necessary (maybe desireable?!). if you read this could you elaborate a little more please? i'm not a complete newbie with linux but theres still gobs of stuff that escapes me. thnx again

[T6]

some of the files present in my documents can be just a part of what you have available

some users are smart enough to save files outside my documents folder, some users also keep things on desktop and that folder(my desktop) is not contained inside my documents folder

when a user wants to abandon windows and jump to linux usually the smartest thing to do is leave a dual boot machine

with xp is very easy to do

the recommendation made by thorper is very good if you have a big usb device like a external hard disk

most of the people i help fixing their machines say that they have few files, when you verify this it is usually 20 to 40 gbs so burn to dvd is a pita, 3 or 4 hours doing it

about home, swap and root, i never had a home partition so i avoid the space limit for root and home, if i have 40 gbs free all goes for both and usually this is perfect, it is a little inconveninent when doing backups of linux when it fails and you need to reinstall but being honest this only happened to me once 6 years ago while playing with mandrake linux and i found the way to recover the files form the / partition so i didn't lost a single bit of information

have a home partition on fat32 afik it is impossible and if it would be possible it would be a bad idea, fat32 can't contain files over 4 gbs so it complicates some dvd edition/creation operations

"Then copy your Windows data (from your USB or CD) over to the the NTFS partition."

this is useful when you have a dual boot system, to share files with both os(specially for xp) linux can access perfectly ntfs(xp, vista and win 7 version) and fat32

form windows there is apps and drivers to access the ext partitions but usually is better to leave isolated xp to avoid any damage done by it on linux

how much ram and hard disk are we talking here?

swap doesn't have to be too big, the swap can be 1 to 1.5 times bigger than ram but if it is a desktop and has more than 2 gbs of ram, 3gb swap is perfect, in a laptop the suspend to ram and to disk will require the 1.5 times bigger size

[menotu]

ok! thanks for the help everyone. menotu, i'm a little unclear about your suggestion. after i read muungwana's post i thought i could just format her disc with a root, a swap and a home. it's not registering with me why a fourth partition formatted in ntfs would be necessary (maybe desireable?!). if you read this could you elaborate a little more please? i'm not a complete newbie with linux but theres still gobs of stuff that escapes me. thnx again

Hi barsoomian51

Lets see if I can clarify it slightly 

You got it right - desirable, not essential but desirable. The extra partition formatted as NTFS (Ext 3 or 4 if you wish) would simply give you an extra area where you could keep the Windows data AND use it as an area for your PCLOS backups.  I find an extra partition useful for copying  /home data into it and any other data I may want to keep.

I choose NTFS as its an format which can be seen/used by Windows as well as Linux.

If you would rather go with the "regular" /root /home /swap setup please do, as that is absolutely fine and will work a treat. You can always backup to USB or CD if required. (as you've probably guessed I'm one who thinks keeping backups is important  )

How big is the hard disk on your friends PC ?

Please holler if you need clarification (probably  ) on anything I've written.

[Bald Brick]

Usually the only problem with copying or moving files from an NTFS partition to a Linux partition has to do with the fact that Windows doesn't recognize Linux permissions and ownerships. Seen from Linux the files will probably all be seen as executables owned by root, and with root as the group. Easy to fix once you've copied them.
 

[menotu]

Usually the only problem with copying or moving files from an NTFS partition to a Linux partition has to do with the fact that Windows doesn't recognize Linux permissions and ownerships. Seen from Linux the files will probably all be seen as executables owned by root, and with root as the group. Easy to fix once you've copied them.
 

I can't recall ever having permission issues either way!  Can't ever remember my docs / spreadsheets / mp3s / bmp's / jpg's / Mpegs etc being seen as executables.

[muungwana]

barsoomian51,

how does your friend plan to use her computer? If she plan to commit the entire computer to linux, then there is no point in having a window's partition.

If she plans to dual boot btw linux and windows, then it is a good idea to have an extra partition in window's file system(NTFS) for data that is to be accessed from both systems.

[Bald Brick]

Usually the only problem with copying or moving files from an NTFS partition to a Linux partition has to do with the fact that Windows doesn't recognize Linux permissions and ownerships. Seen from Linux the files will probably all be seen as executables owned by root, and with root as the group. Easy to fix once you've copied them.
 

I can't recall ever having permission issues either way!  Can't ever remember my docs / spreadsheets / mp3s / bmp's / jpg's / Mpegs etc being seen as executables.

Have you checked your copied files? Actually, having a file marked as executable will seldom be an issue; even if it really isn't executable, that wouldn't interfere with your normal use of the file. But if you have docs, spreadsheets, mp3s, bmps, jpgs or mpegs on an NTFS partition, check the permissions from within Linux....

On the other hand, having a file owned by root may be an issue.

Or not. If you just copy a file using your file manager, the copy will be owned by the user doing the copying.

[exwintech]

Barsoomian51 - We do a lot of transfers from MyDocs to Linux here. The others in our Bunch are all Windowsers, and I'm PCLOS. You can back MyDocs up to DVD+RW, DVD-RAM, or Flashdrive formatted FAT32. All will be readable in Linux - just Copy into /home. Or create new directories (folders) - in /home to sort them into.

> You can also back MyDocs up to an XHD (external hard-drive) - partition, formatted FAT32 - and that will Read and Copy into Linux. If you dual-boot - Data, Videos, Movies, etc, will be Usable / Saveable / Transferable between systems, if the XHD is formatted FAT32.

> Linux copes well with running Videos and Movies directly from an XHD - SMplayer and VLC seem to be best for this. XP-Pro will usually run Videos - MPEG4-etc - from XHD, but can glitch with MPEG2 Movies. If for some reason forced to play such Movies in Windows - Copy them to Desktop in Windows and use PowerDVD, then delete the Movie from Desktop later.

> Windows-any sadly has some unfortunate customs, the "WAAAHHH....! Me-Winders-won't-go...!" - one being fairly common. So set it up to deal with that. With XP-Pro a reinstall is sometimes a better "fix" than messing around De-Viroiding it or arguing with crankitatious Registries and such.

> Set up C:-drive as a System-drive only. Give it 15-20GB for XP-Pro... (For Vista, do whatever your Psychiatrist directs.) Then have at least 2 other partitions - that is, have a D:-drive (or E:, if the burner has defaulted to D:) - then E: can be another partition, or left as "rest of drive".

> Copy the C:-drive MyDocs to D:-drive. Then delete MyDocs from C:-drive. Don't use C:-drive for any data-storage from then on. Use an app imstalled on C:-drive - Word will be okay - and Browse-Save a document to MyDocs in the new D:-drive location. Office and other apps will then default-save to MyDocs at its new address.

> While you should of course Backup everything you need to keep OFF the PC anyway - this then allows you to just Format-C: and reinstall XP-Pro - without losing MyDocs and the current-use status things in it. While it installs ensure that the friends for whom you're doing that, keep you well-supplied with nice Drinks, Steak-Dinners, etc. (Seems to work like that in our Bunch...)

> If, when you first install XP-Pro, and the applications - Office, Photoshop, etc - you first Copy the apps to a directory in the Rest-of-Drive partition. Put each in its own sub-directory, as Windows is very easily confused... Then, from original install of XP-Pro - and all subsequent reinstalls - the apps will install much faster than from their disks.

> That's still "Microsoft legit" - as you will still have only one "working" instance of each app, per app-disk-contents you are renting from the Monster. (You "own" the plastic disk you bought - not the contents....)

Edit:- If you are dual-booting an NT system with Linux - in Windows create a partition and name it - "F:-Trans", etc - and convert it to FAT32. Boot across to Linux, go to Storage Media. Linux will show the name "Trans", etc. Left-click it to mount it - and drag a Link to Linux Desktop. Close Media. From then on, Trans will mount and open in Linux on 1 Left-Click. As it's FAT32 - you can use it as if it was in Linux - Copy and Move to-from, etc. On Windows side - just shift things from NTFS partitions to Trans to easily access them in Linux. See Pic.
 
Regards, Dave.

[menotu]

Hi barsoomian51

Sincere apologies if you've been overwhelmed with info in this thread.

I'll let the others take care of you - good luck!

[thorper]

This thread does seem to be getting over complicated, but this is the setup on my laptop. Hope it helps.

My laptop only has 50GB HDD and was originally XP. This contain 2 partitions, Drive C and a restore partition. I resized drive C to 20GB and left the restore partition alone. The free 20GB I formatted as ext3. Onto this I have installed lxde with no separate /home partition  but a small /swap. Reason for this configuration is because although I only need XP for one app, I decided it was better to store some data in the XP partition which I can access via linux using pcfile manager and I didn't have to do any additional setup to do this.

It's not a perfect solution but it means that if I need to reinstall linux for any reason, I can make copies of data to the XP partition knowing full well that /home will be overwritten during linux install because /home isn't a separate partition. It also means that if I do boot into XP I can still access the data.

20GB linux partition isn't a lot but it is sufficient on my laptop.

I hope that makes sense.

[T6]

"This thread does seem to be getting over complicated"

no, just imagine if he doesn't do a complete backup and later create a adequate setup

that will create a over complicated post, specially when you format and loose files and then after installing linux you see you can't recover them