Help - Check my partitions with Knoppix before Debian install

[stytagm]

Hi All,

Sorry for asking first and reading google second, but is there a quick app I can use in knoppix to check existing partitions and drives before I go back to debian's installer?

Ie what partitions exist on hda and hdb, what number's they'll have etc, and what filesystem they're formmtted in (if any).

I've got a hard disk with a lot of spare space (allways intended for linux) and I think the remnants of an ancient red-hat install. while I've backed up my vital data in windoze, it would still be a pain to lose it so I wanna double check everything before I start.

Cheers guys - Andrew.

[ikonia]

boot knoppix and fdisk /dev/hda(b-c-d)
then "print"

[directhex]

or run qtparted if you like guis

[stytagm]

Thanks guys, qtparted is nice and easy, but only reads one of my drives...Hda, it reads no problem (including the ntfs partition), but hdb dumps out with the error "ntfs is not supported", slightly odd.

Anyway, I've poked around and think I've worked out most of the partitions. My only remaining question is: Will the drive designations be the same for debian as Knoppix? ie will hda5 on knoppix be hda5 on debian too?

[directhex]

as long as this isn't serial ata on intel ich5/6, where there's confusion between 2.4 and 2.6 kernels

[stytagm]

Thanks Hex, I've managed to consolidate all the ancient redhat partitions into a big ext3 partition on my old disk, and the spare space on my new disk is divvied up nicely.

I think the point when progress lept forwards most quickly was when I realised all my abortive attempts so far had been with the increasingly ancient "woody" release, A quick download of a "sarge - net install" iso, and Directhex' fantastic guide and I've got a system that works. Brilliant.

Thankyou thankyou guys, especially directhex, remember for the 1squillionth newbie you help you get a free set of crystal wine glasses

[stytagm]

Just thought I'd say thank you again to Hex and the rest of you, this post coming Via Firefox in Gnome on Debian, with a 2.6.something kernel and the proper nvidia drivers (which was fun I can tell you), and just like Hex' tutorial shows, I'm listening to MP3s shared from my gf's windows box.

On the nvidia driver front the following two links were essential, along with the tid-bit that the nvidia drivers had been removed from testing due to a bug, so you have to use unstable. (edit /etc/apt/sources.list changing 'testing' to 'unstable' whenever you can). Unfortunately for me x wouldn't work with the nv drivers, so I had to battle through this lot first, worth it though.

Nvidia driver install Linkies:
http://www.tinyplanet.ca/~lsorense/d...-dri-howto.txt
http://saraf.web.cse.unsw.edu.au/nvi...ver-howto.html

Right (rolls up sleeves) Now to get the winTV card working...