[Techtalk] (no subject)

[Alison Chaiken]

Anne Wainwright <anotheranne at fables.co.za>  writes:
> On a 40GB disc /dev/sda we have 4 partitions.
> dev/sda1  19GB NTFS with Windows bootable
> dev/sda2  12GB ext3 mounted at / not bootable
> dev/sda3   8GB ext3 mounted at /home not bootable
> dev/sda4 1.1GB linux swap

A 40 GB disk is pretty tiny nowadays.    One thing to consider if your
budget allows is copying all your files on the system where you're
deleting Windows to a second host, putting in the new disk, installing
Ubuntu, and then copying all your files back.   Even in my notebook
computer, I have a 500 GB disk.     Actually I have two 500 GB disks
and I upgrade by swapping them back and forth, using my desktop with
its 1.5 TB drive to hold copies of the files during the transition.

Clearly you don't have lvm, but do be careful editing /etc/fstab.
If you screw up /etc/fstab, you won't be able to boot!   So first copy
the existing /etc/fstab to a backup copy so that you can move it back
using the shell provided by the rescue disk if need be.

Also, be sure to run "mount" from the shell to test the newly modified
/etc/fstab *before* rebooting.    If the mount fails from the command
line, you simply get an error message.   If the mount fails during
boot, you get a hang!

Good luck.

-- 
Alison Chaiken
(650) 279-5600  (cell)
             http://www.exerciseforthereader.org/
The only real deadline in life is the one where you actually die. -- Eliot D.