recovery disc for SUSE?

woot, i just recieved my r61!

but anyhow i was just wondering if there are "recovery discs" for the linux OS option that they have. the laptop came with a SUSE installation DVD but i just want to make sure before i go nuts with the formatting and install windows on there.

also i'm just curious about this since i've been reading about how the recovery disc is like 1 cd + 2 dvds or something. is it possible to burn the recovery discs if you didnt get the dvd burner option? will it span across like 20 cds instead?

 

I don't quite understand. Why would you want to get rid of your SUSE installation? That's what's gonna happen when you go ahead to install Windows on it unless there is an empty partition /dev/sda1 on your hard drive. Windows always requires to be on the first partition of a system hard drive.

I never purchased a computer with Linux pre-installed so I don't really know but I never heard of anything like recovery CD's or DVD's for any Linux system. The SUSE installation DVD is all you need or better, the SUSE installation DVD is the recovery DVD in your case.

Going back to your plan to install Windows. Do you just want to install it so you can use a few Windows programs here and then? If so, you should have a look if these programs (e.g. MS Office) are supported by wine. You can also run the entire Windows system from within SUSE by using VMware or VirutalBox. You should have a look at those also.

If you still want to install Windows beside SUSE and keep your SUSE installation, you'll have two options:

1. Partition your hard drive so you'll get at least two partitions - one for Windows and one for SUSE. Copy all SUSE data onto the second partition (/dev/sda2) with the command rsync (read about the options that are given). Install Windows. Download and burn a good Live Linux CD like Knoppix, run it from CD and move all SUSE data to the root folder / of your hard drive (/dev/sda). Start SUSE on your hard drive by using your SUSE DVD and reinstall grub so you can decide which system to boot next time you start your computer.

I would only recommend the option above if you know what you're doing and if you already configured your SUSE system lots. The second option is much easier but you'll get rid of your current SUSE system.

2. Install Windows. Then, grab the SUSE installation DVD and install it from scratch. You'll need to partition your hard drive again. SUSE will automatically suggest how to do so. I'd still do it manually. In addition to the Windows already installed, you'll need a partition with the mount point "/" for your SUSE system. Give it at least 10GB. Then I recommend a partition for your personal files on SUSE "/home" and a partition for data you want to access from Linux and Windows. You can call it /"windows_d" or so. You have to format it with fat32 and it'll show as "windows_d" in SUSE and as drive d:/ in WIndows. Last but not least you need a swap partition.

Option 2 is easier, faster and cleaner. I still recommend you look into wine, VMware and VirtualBox though before you start modifying your system.

 

i mainly use linux for my programming assignments for school otherwise i prefer windows. i'm not a big linux fanatic and i actually like window vista (well i dont like how its hogs all my memory and how a lot of programs dont work for it). i actually have an extra copy of xp as well but i like vista because its new and shiny (and i feel that i should know how to use it since its probably going to be the standard in a year or two)

i can probably live with just one operating system but i feel that i need to learn/know linux better before making the jump . as of now i'm fumbling for every little thing and have to on a googling researching spree in order to find do anything.

i ended up installing windows vista and left about 10 gigs for ubuntu. actually i would probably like to try out SUSE but school is almost ending and i need linux like NOW for some of my homework assignments and i don't feel like learning "another" operating system.

chances are, when i have time over the summer, i'll probably mess around with SUSE and linux in general. i feel that ubuntu comes with waaaay too much software and i generally like stuff with the bare minimum. so i'd probably end up using another distribution of linux eventually.

 

It's up to you how much software you want to install with ubuntu... If you want to go purely minimum you should have a look at xubuntu.

openSUSE can be quite blown up as well. It's a great distro though. It may not be as good as ubuntu in terms of software management; however, it's very good when it comes to system and hardware configuration. Some people also say that it's a lot faster than ubuntu. That probably depends on how your system is configured.

Good luck with your homework and have fun trying ubuntu and SUSE.