qfunk wrote:
I was reading the manual pdf and read the following line, mentioning to rename by /media/ followed by their name...
What name does that refer to? Should it be like /media/sa1 (in case of linux naming) , or /media/music (or whatever I want to name it as...)
If latter is correct, then why /media/?? Can it be /music/parttn1 ?? Really confused in this regard.
For a linux OS you will have certain names as a necessity: / , /swap. Many will recommend having a separate partition for your /home directory. On one system I have a separate partition for /home on the other it is in / , the root partition. These partitions are fixed on installation. Fred posted a
guide on partitioning, this is best read before installing.
On both systems I have several data partitions. You can give each partition a name that is relevant to your use. (They could be called volume names.) I had the separate data partitions before I ever started using Linux. It would be best if the partitions were named without spaces, use an underscore to separate words if you like. My_Files. I am not sure if you can use hyphens or not. As a side note, I had spaces in my partition names and have not had a problem.
However, I have not tried sharing files across a network nor use a network printer. You can partition and format these partitions at install or wait until after Linux is installed and divide up any freespace and create the partitions after you have Linux running, it doesn't matter. To do so when you are installing Linux, you will need to use the option to manually partition your hard drives. This is
explained a little more by cathbard.
Until sometime post install you will not need to be concerned with /media/sda4 /media/music /media/My_Files or however you decided to name your partitions. You may have also seen references to /dev/sda4 Don't worry about these either, at this time. You may see the same partition referred to in several manners on the same working system.
This manner of naming is important in mounting drives and partitions. Mounting is how Linux makes files on another partition or optical drive available for use. On my laptop I had to manually edit a file for my data partitions to be automatically mounted on boot - I have Mint 7 on it. On my desktop I recently installed Mint 9, Isadora, and did not have to edit the file for the separate partitions to be mounted. Fred explains
auto-mounting partitions on boot.
qfunk wrote:
I've tried installing linux mint from previous versions atleast 2-3 times and then gave up... some problems due to 2 harddisks I had on a single machine, with primary secondary problem. But now I've got only one hard disk and I'm hoping I can install mint on this one.
I've just installed fresh windows xp SP2 on it's C drive and it's running pretty smooth without any errors.
-Qfunk.
At the very beginning of your post you referred to your D drive and just above you say you only have one hard drive, is D: a separate drive or a partition on the same drive that holds Windows in C: ? Could D: be a restore partition on the one hard drive put there by the manufacturer?
Since you already have WinXP installed, before you do any partitioning, defrag your Windows drive.
If you need help after reading the above references just post a request. With it include information about the current state of your system. You can get this from a screenshot of Disk Manager from within WinXP. You could get a screenshot from GParted running off of the live Mint CD. You could post text from a terminal running on the Live Mint CD.
and
let us know how we can help