There thousands of references on this topic and many go into great detail. I wrote this article with the basics in mind so that you might go away with answers and new ideas rather than more questions you had to start with.

Note: I basically use the same principles below when partitioning for Linux.

There are three main variables and one main process I consider when partitioning Windows hard drives.

• How long files live on the hard drive
• How often files are accessed and updated
• The size of the files

The biggest reason to consider the variables above in a partitioning scheme is fragmentation. The Windows system partition is very active. Operating system files and software are being accessed, updated, changed, added and removed. This drive should be defragmented on a regular basis.

Some files rarely become fragmented to the point of performance loss. These include documents, audio, video, images of all types (including large ISO images) and even virtual machine files if applicable. Some of these files are huge and if located on the system partition, your defrag software will move the large files around while defragmenting the drive whether they are fragmented or not. This increases the time it takes to defrag the volume, not to mention the added and unnecessary stress on your machine.

• Reinstalling Windows

There are times (for whatever reason) Windows needs a fresh install. After formatting and installation, it’s only logical to have your work, pics, audio, video, downloaded software, virtual machine files, etc., already in place on separate partitions. This saves time and system wear and tear by eliminating the need to recover files from backup. Although this does not eliminate the need for backups; your partitions will not help you if your entire drive should fail.

Partition Sizes

Determining the size of any given partition can be the most difficult part of the procedure. There are many variables, the biggest one being the size of your hard drive.

Fortunately, if you are doing a fresh Windows installation and intend to use a partitioning scheme similar to the one below, you only need to determine the size of your first partition. This is where you will install Windows and will be the system partition. The rest can be done from within Windows (from Administrative Tool > Computer Management in Control Panel on XP) post installation or using software like GParted.

Example Windows Hard Drive Partitioning Scheme

NOTE: You are able to create 4 primary partitions per disk (unless you have converted your disk to dynamic), or 3 primary partitions and one extended partition to hold however many logical drives. These logical drives will have letters assigned just like primary partitions. Just remember, if you think you need more than four partitions, create an extended partition over the rest of the free space after your third primary partition.

C:\ Defrag Frequency - Every 6 to 8 hours of use
Windows System Drive (usually C:\)
I have Windows XP, a LAMPP server for localhost, and 32 programs/utilities (not including those installed with Windows) running on this partition. All this uses only about 14GB. Since I like running system partitions below 50% full, I give this partition 40GB.

D:\ Defrag Frequency - Much less often (As needed)
My Documents along with downloaded software, work files and other stuff that’s not too large. In my case, this volume needs to be as large as my Windows system drive. So I give this partition 40GB.

In my opinion, if your hard drive is at least 60GB - 80GB you should at least have the two partitions above.

E:\ Defrag Frequency - Almost never
Large video (over 5 minutes playtime), and saved ISO images.

We have created three primary partitions. It is now time to create an extended partition to span the rest of the free space to hold more logical drives so we are not limited to four partitions.

F:\ Defrag Frequency - Never
The next partition (logical drive) could be used for whatever. Install a Linux OS, or keep your virtual machine files and hard drives.

My partitions go on to other hard drives. Including external drives for backup. Which leads us to one more thing. If you like your partition letters to stay in order. You will need to change your other device letters and paths. This includes CD-ROM 0, CD-ROM 1 and some printers. Anything you see listed in My Computer other than your partitions.

For example, my ROM drives use the end of the alphabet.
CD-ROM 0 is Y:\
CD-ROM 1 is Z:\

Tips

1. Make your partitions available via the Quick Launch on your Desktop. Create a Desktop shortcut and drag it to the Quick Launch bar. Then delete the Desktop shortcut. Or just use the shortcut from your Desktop and forget adding it to Quick Launch.

2. Name your volumes something appropriate when creating them. Like D:\ Docs

As always your questions and comments are welcome.

Tim Valentine
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You connect your Sansa mp3 player to your computer, start your music sync software, but the music you know to be on the player cannot be seen by your sync software or your computer via drives/devices in My Computer.

In this example Windows XP is the OS, Windows Media Player is the synchronizing medium, using the Sansa m240. The fix should work for other Sansa versions and some other players. This problem probably would not have happened using Linux as one would have unmounted the device before disconnecting it. Which leads us to what I believe may cause this problem, at least sometimes.

Possible Cause

Just because Windows Media Player says “you can now disconnect the device” does not mean you can just rip it from the computer. Your mp3 player goes through a process of updating its library after it is properly and safely removed from your system via the ’safely remove hardware’ located in the Task Bar in the lower right of your desktop. Look at you players screen after you safely remove it and it will tell you “please wait - updating library”, or something to that effect.

The Fix That Worked For Me

1. Close all software and connect your Sansa m240 (whatever model) to your computer.
2. Navigate to My Computer and locate your Sansa device.
3. Right click the device and choose Properties. Click on the Tools tab, find the error-checking option and click Check Now. Choose both options - Automatically fix file system errors and Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors, then click Start.
4. When the scan has finished, close out and you will still be in My Computer. Right click your Sansa device and choose open. You should see something like the image below.

5. Select all files and choose Copy. You may or may not see the Music folder; this is not important as we will be creating a new music folder on the device once this process is finished. You cannot avoid re-synchronising your music. You may as well leave the Music folder behind.
6. Paste, move or otherwise copy these files to a safe location.
7. Close the Sansa device and stay in My Computer. Now right click the Sansa device and choose Format. There will only be one file system option and it will be the devices default (probably FAT).
8. Once your player has been formatted navigate to where you stored your Sansa files. Then copy these files (all but the Music folder). Get back to My Computer, Right click your Sansa device and choose open. Copy your old files back the the device and then create the Music folder.
6. Safely remove the device as described above, give it time to run through any process before pulling it from your system.

That’s it. You should be able to connect your mp3 player, open your sync software and re-synchronise your music.

As always your questions and comments are welcome.

Tim Valentine
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You find the fix that will bring your Windows XP (pro / home versions) OS back inperfect working condition. You make your way to the Recovery Console using the XP Installation CD, you are asked for the administrator password, you type it in with confidence only to discover that access is denied because your password is not accepted.

Well, the fix is easy and hopefully you have found it while you are still able to boot into Windows XP and set one Registry Value.

1. Go to ‘Start > Run – In the open field type regedit.exe
2. In the Registry Editor navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\
Setup\RecoveryConsole
3. Change the value of SecurityLevel to 1
4. Close out of regedit and reboot your computer.

You will not be asked for the Administrator Password again while in the Recovery Console.

** Click the link below to see a visual demo. **
Topic Demo

Error: failure: repodata/repomd.xml from rpmforge: [Errno 256] No more
mirrors to try.

–==–==–

This repository connection error can happen after a fresh OS or repository installation. In this case the example will be the third party repository rpmforge which I based my decision to use CentOS as a Desktop OS.

Fortunately this matter was resolved with one Yum update option. Hopefully it will work as easily for you.

–==–==–

rpmforge connection error

Before you do anything, make sure you have ‘yum-priories’ installed and priorities set correctly in your installed repository files located in the /etc/ym.repos.d directory.

/etc/ym.repos.d/CentOS-Base.repo
[base] priority=1 [updates] priority=1 [addons] priority=1 [extras] priority=1 [centosplus] priority=2

/etc/ym.repos.d/rpmforge.repo
[rpmforge] priority=10 (You may or may not need to uncomment the ‘baseurl‘ below. In my case I did.)

# Name: RPMforge RPM Repository for Red Hat Enterprise 5 - dag
# URL: http://rpmforge.net/
[rpmforge]
name = Red Hat Enterprise $releasever - RPMforge.net - dag
baseurl = http://apt.sw.be/redhat/el5/en/$basearch/dag
mirrorlist = http://apt.sw.be/redhat/el5/en/mirrors-rpmforge
#mirrorlist = file:///etc/yum.repos.d/mirrors-rpmforge
enabled = 1
protect = 0
gpgkey = file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-rpmforge-dag
gpgcheck = 1
priority=10

–==–==–

The Fix

Run the yum update option below even if your rpmforge repository is already enabled. The ‘check-update’ option will set everything into motion without actually engaging the update process.
yum --enablerepo=rpmforge check-update

You should see something like the example below, depending on your installed plugins and the number of files excluded due to priority configuration.

Loading “skip-broken” plugin
Loading “priorities” plugin
Loading “kernel-module” plugin
Loading “fastestmirror” plugin
Loading “installonlyn” plugin
Loading “kmod” plugin
Setting up repositories
http://apt.sw.be/redhat/el5/en/i386/dag/repodata/repomd.xml: [Errno 12] Timeout:
Trying other mirror.
http://rh-mirror.linux.iastate.edu/pub/dag/redhat/el5/en/i386/dag/repodata/repomd.xml: [Errno 12] Timeout:
Trying other mirror.
rpmforge 100% |=========================| 1.1 kB 00:02
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
Reading repository metadata in from local files
255 packages excluded due to repository priority protections

Once you see rpmforge loading with the rest of the repositories (below), you will have cashed the necessary files in your /var/cash/yum/rpmforge directory and you have got the repository connection problem fixed.

rpmforge 100% |=========================| 1.1 kB 00:02

Or, try installing packages you wish to install from the repository like the example below.

yum --enablerepo=rpmforge install fuse fuse-ntfs-3g dkms dkms-fuse

That should do it. Keep in mind that like any other site/repo, rpmforge may actually be down from time to time.

As always, your questions and comments are welcome.

Tim Valentine
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Our choices of Linux desktop operating systems have to do with everything from personal needs, technical ability, to our machine hardware. I have always hosted our websites on Linux servers because I learned in this environment, and up until the last few months I’ve done most of my work and play in a Windows PC environment with the aid of great free and open source software like XAMPP and OpenOffice.org for the same reason.

However, after deciding not to upgrade our four small office machines to Windows Vista (only two of which could actually run Vista) and with support running out soon for XP, I started taking the Linux desktop environment more seriously. Once I did, I became fully conscious of the restrictions of one and the freedom of the other, it was only logical to shift my use and support to Linux and the free and open source software communities and their philosophies.

I think the main thing is to find a distribution you like as quickly as possible and then invest some time in learning it. That is if you want to get some work done. Linux distro hopping and actually getting some real work done do not go well together.

The CentOS 5.1 - Fedora 8 & 9

As a semi advanced Linux Desktop user, CentOS and Fedora (both Red Hat based) provided the perfect combination of available automation with the right amount of flexibility. Allowing the freedom of customizing the environment as far as my technical ability would allow.

By the way, I knew that I wanted consistency with the operating systems on all of our computers. Both CentOS and Fedora installed and updated flawlessly on everything from an eight year old 850 MHz machine, a four year old mid-range machine, to a two year old (built for the future) power house.

CentOS 5.1

NOTE: I no longer use CentOS as a desktop OS because to me it is best suited as a reliable server and I needed a solution that provided newer software. When and if I ever set up a production server, CentOS will be my choice.

Thanks to third party repositories and Yum Utilities like yum-priorities, CentOS, more often thought of as an enterprise class server solution can in fact become a very useful, rock solid (tough I dare say) Desktop OS.

I use this OS as a one-step away from Windows. Installing all the binaries needed to have full multimedia support, including all of the so called bad and ugly plugins, w32Codecs etc.. I also installed mpalyer, mplayer-codecs, mplayer-codecs-extra, wine and of course fuse, fuse-ntfs-3g, dkms, and dkms-fuse. All of these coming from one third party repository listed below.

Resources

* Yum Priorities
http://wiki.centos.org/PackageManagement/Yum/Priorities

* CentOS and Third Party Repositories.
I would recommend installing only one third party repo, that being the rpmforge repository. Give it a priority of 10.
http://wiki.centos.org/Repositories/RPMForge

* Setting up Multimedia Applications on CentOS.
http://wiki.centos.org/TipsAndTricks/MultimediaOnCentOS

* Get CentOS and other news at http://centos.org

* This site offers a great tutorial on CentOS 5.1. Check it out after you have gone over the CentOS Wiki links above.

http://www.howtoforge.com/installation-guide-centos5.1-desktop

Fedora 8 & 9

Note that Fedora 9 provides the latest in cutting edge (newest) software and utilities. This is usually a good thing for me. However from time to time this can cause temporary problems. There are almost always work arounds and these problems are usually discovered and quickly fixed by the Fedora team. See the Tips section below.

Resources

* This site offers another great tutorial on Fedora 8 & 9.
http://www.howtoforge.com/installation-guide-fedora8-desktop
http://www.howtoforge.com/the-perfect-desktop-fedora9-gnome

* Get Fedora 9 and other news at http://fedoraproject.org

* Popular Fedora third party repository mentioned it the tutorials above.
http://rpm.livna.org/rlowiki

File System Backup

It can take many hours to customize your systems configuration, settings and software. You don’t want to do all this work only to lose it for whatever reason. My choice was partition image backups of only used file system data minimizing backup storage needs. I am now using Ping, which is a very tidy wrapper for Partimage. You can learn more about it at the link below.

http://ping.windowsdream.com/ Don’t let the name fool you.

Tips

* After installation disable the screen saver. You do not need or want it starting up while updating your new system.

* Edit your /etc/yum.conf file. By default, Fedora does not keep cache stores in /var/cache/yum, and only keeps two kernel versions available after updating. If you don’t know why you would need to do this, you probably do not need to worry about it.

To change this edit the following in your /etc/yum.conf file.
Change keepcache from 0 to 1: keepcache=1
Change installonly_limit from 2 to desired amount: installonly_limit=5

* Your first system update will be quite large. Resist the natural impulse to update all packages at once. I would recommend updating yum (your installer/updater) and kernel first. Then update the rest of the packages. Make sure to reboot after the kernel update. Also reboot after your first large update.

Command:
yum update yum yum-packagekit yum-utils kernel

* At the time of this writing, there is a bug (I believe having to do with the newest udev) that makes CD or DVD burning a pain. When burning as a normal user, your CD/DVD burning software cannot get permissions needed to properly access the ROM drive and burning/copying will fail. Also, as soon as your drive is unmounted and ejected, it will quickly close with your disk still inside.

I get around this by starting my burning software as root via the terminal. This takes care of the permissions problem. As for the ROM drive closing on its own with your disk still inside, well, my solution is not technical but it works: Be ready to grab the sucker before it closes. You have about two seconds.

Problems & Solutions

Repository Connection Errors

As always, your questions and comments are welcome.

Tim Valentine
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This article/tutorial will show you how to install Linux directly to your hard drive without disturbing your Windows master boot record (MBR).

The most important part of this method is the simple to use, absolutely spectacular boot manager GAG. GAG is an open source graphical boot manager which supports up to 9 operating systems. It can be installed on the first track of the hard disk. It can also be installed on a floppy and this is the method we will be using here in this demonstration. This will allow us to install the Linux boot loader GRUB in the Linux Root partition. For future reference remember – I said Linux Root partition, NOT Linux Boot partition. We will NOT be creating a boot partition.

When we want to boot Windows normally, we will leave the GAG floppy out of the floppy drive. When we want to boot Linux, we will insert the GAG floppy into the floppy drive; GAG will turn the boot process over to Grub, which we installed in the Linux Root partition and Linux will boot like a charm. There are several methods of accomplishing the same thing, but this is by far the easiest.

Very Important!

I do not recommend using this method for Linux distributions that use portage for updates as I believe you need a small boot partition to compile new/updated kernels. In this case you could simply install Grub or Lillo to floppy and get the same result. GAG just makes it easier to use one floppy for more than one OS as it takes much less time to configure and nothing ever goes wrong. If I install Grub or Lillo to floppy, I always use separate floppies for each Linux operating system. GAG likes to be installed on the Root partition rather than the Boot partition, and once you make a Boot partition most Linux installers do not give you the option to install Grub or Lillo on any other partition.

NOTE: Although there are some installation tips in this tutorial, and a quite simple openSUSE 10.2 installation is used as an example, this article is intended for semi-advanced users and assumes you already know something about partitioning hard drives (outside and/or inside a Linux environment) and installing Linux in general. This article/tutorial is offered as is and I take no responsibly for any mishaps. With that said – You can do it!

In all reality there is no way to mess up your Windows installations, because (so to speak) Windows will never know what you are doing as it is left out of the entire procedure; unless of course, you decide to change the size of your Windows system partition to make room for Linux. This can be done if you know what you are doing. If you don’t know what you are doing, I would recommend using a second hard drive for your Linux installs. These days they are quite affordable.

If you have not used this method before now, I would recommend going over all three parts below before you attempt an install.

Part 2a: Installation & Partitioning For Gag Boot Manager

The link below will open a description page with images in a separate window.
Installation & Partitioning For Gag Boot Manager

Part 2b: Installing The Linux Boot Loader For Gag Boot Manager

The link below will open a description page with images in a separate window.
Installing The Linux Boot Loader For Gag Boot Manager

Part 2c: Installing Gag Boot Manager

The link below will open a description page with images in a separate window.
Installing Gag Boot Manager

Recap and Tips:

1. Know your hard drive layout so when you get into the installation you know exactly what you have to work with. See Part 2a.

2. When you first try this method, stick to Linux distributions with GUI installation interfaces that offer advanced partitioning and boot options (most do). openSUSE 10.2 is a good distribution to start with and is used in this tutorial.

3. Once you have a custom partition scheme you like, go over the advanced partition settings and make sure that any Linux default partition recommendations you don’t need are deleted. Read and study the images in Part 2a thoroughly and you should not have and problems.

4. GAG also comes in handy if you choose to install GRUB boot loader on your hard drive MBR when you do not want to over write GRUB after installing a second Linux OS. You would install GRUB in the second Linux disto’s /root partition and use GAG to access your second installations ‘first boot’. This would allow you to get info. needed from your /boot/grub/menu.lst file so you can copy it to your first Linux installations menu.lst file (the one with GRUB installed on your drives MBR) and let you boot both installations from your MBR.

5. GAG will not recognize partitions within LVM. So with this method, Logical Volume Management is out.

6. Backup your hard drive data before proceeding with this or any other major change or installation.

Resources

GAG Boot Manager
http://gag.sourceforge.net

GParted Gnome Partition Editor
If you ask me, the new live cd needs work. Use the gparted 0.3.3-0.iso if you can find it.
http://gparted.sourceforge.net

Linux Distributions
http://distrowatch.com

As always, your questions and comments are welcome.

Tim Valentine
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Most of my machines run two versions of Windows and two versions of Linux. This is one of two methods I have found to keep both operating systems smoothly separate, yet happy together. In Part 2 (should be out in a week or less), we will talk about another method you can use to install Linux / Unix directly to your hard drive and get the same results.

There is a link to an image page in this post to give you some visual references.

There are some Windows and Linux users who passionately hate one system and love the other.

There are also those of us who realize the strengths of each OS and use them to our advantage. Unix and Linux has a rich and deep history that boggles the mind if you ever take time to research it. And since Windows XP SP 2 came along, instability is no longer an issue. Most people who talk about Windows XP being unstable have under powered machines and wouldn’t know OS or hardware maintenance from a hole in the ground.

Over the next couple of weeks we will cover two methods of running Linux on your Windows PC without disturbing the master boot record (MBR). The first is the easiest and the second involves a bit more work. Both have unique advantages and disadvantages.

When we are finished with the second method - Part 2 (should be out in a week or so), you will be able to install Linux on your hard drive, boot Windows normally, and boot Linux by inserting a floppy with a simple boot loader (no not GRUB - way to much work), which will then turn the process over to GRUB (a Linux boot loader). Your Linux OS will boot and you will be up and running. Your Windows boot loader will remain untouched.

Part 1 – Method One – Virtual Linux

This option involves running Linux virtually from within your Windows environment. For this to happen you will need virtual machine software. Some options are given below under Resources. The VM solution you choose will depend on your own needs. Mainly the supported host and guest operating systems.

When you run a guest OS virtually your host OS hard drive an expandable or fixed size file is created. This file is your virtual hard drive.

Click here to see more virtual Linux Images.
(opens new window)

Installing the guest OS is simple, because the only hard drive the installation is aware of is the virtual drive your VM software has created. You simply let Linux go with its default partitioning scheme, or, choose your own if you wish and get on with the installation.

Resources

http://www.parallels.com

VMware Solutions - VMware Server, VMware Player, VMware Workstation
http://www.vmware.com

VirtualBox - I have found this software to be the best for Linux hosts.
http://www.virtualbox.org

Linux Distributions: http://distrowatch.com

As always, your questions and comments are welcome.

Tim Valentine
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As I read my own article defending table layout in design, I realize it should be pointed out that as time goes on, CSS structure and formatting is constantly playing a bigger roll in my work. This topic, being a happy medium involving table formatting using CSS and supports this statement.

*** Skip over my opinions and get to the piont. ***

There is a big push these days in most circles of the website authoring community to separate style, structure or appearance, from content, presentation or substance. This simply means leaving as much of the structural code out of the HTML (or whatever) as possible and importing it by means of another file such as cascading style sheets (CSS) or perhaps a server-side embedded scripting language such as PHP.

Most of this is brought on for the sake of creating some sort of web standards and aiding in handicapped and non-handicapped accessibility. And heaven knows that I am all in favor of it, most of it that is – I’m keeping tables in my designs.

As far as web standards go, it would be nice when developing a website to be able to analyze it in one browser and know that it will look the same in all the others, but this is far from the case. Web authors attempts to implement accessibility features (including some elements of CSS structure) are waisted time when developers of user agents (browsers) do not take advantage by implementing the use of these features.

As for accessibility, a properly laid out table structure can be just as accessible as any site using a pure CSS layout. I am not saying CSS layout does not work well in developing structure, because it does. I am saying that in regard to complex website layouts involving colspans & rowspans there are to many discrepancies in the different browsers to make it possible to come up with a consistent layout.

Anyone with any HTML or CSS experience can develop a simple CSS layout with a header, three columns and a footer. I know there are those better than I at designing complex CSS layouts and making them fairly consistent in most browsers, but I’m not there yet, and for now tables in design structure serves me well.

A large group of these website authoring communities maintain that pure CSS layout is the only way to go, as if those who still use tables are behind the times. This is simply not the case, and for now I am NOT one of them. Also, from the looks of 90 percent of sites on the web (including the big boys), table structure will be around forever; in fact, tables have been around forever. Table structure in design has stood the test of time because it is reliable and consistent in form and function.

However, we can separate style from structure in tables by using CSS and create a useful happy medium. So lets get on with it, shall we?

It’s quite simple and involves assigning ID’s to tables - <table id=”header”> - and CLASSES to columns - <td class=”time_date”>.

The table id and table data class are imported via and external style sheet by properties you declared within each id and class.

*** Click here to view image illustration ***

Note that if you need to use “cellspacing” markup within your table, you must still include it within the table declaration as there is no true CSS replacement for this attribute. I believe this is true for “summary” as well.

Like this: <table id=”header” cellspacing=”2″ summary=”">

Also, if you need “colspan” or “rowspan” markup within your table data declarations, you must include them as well.

Like this: <td class=”left” rowspan=”2″>

There are drawbacks to using this method. One of which is you may have problems with in-line text and image positioning if you declare “text-align” or “vertical-align” attributes in your table data classes . This can be fixed using relative positioning and floats. If you have too much trouble try formatting your table and table data normally in your HTML.

Subscribers to Articles, Reports and Tips can use the link below to download your free template. You will need your user name and password. This is a fully functional XHTML website template with all files included that you can use to learn about the topic we have been discussing. Play around with it, customize it and use it for whatever you wish.

Click here to download your template

If you are not a subscriber and you would like this template, simply subscribe using the form to the right, confirm your subscription via the email you receive, contact me and I will send your user name and password.

I hope this post has been of help to you, Tim

Tim Valentine
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Please visit the about page and read my plans for future content. Also I would like to see you leave some comments and let me know a little about who you are and what you think.

Thanks for stopping by, Tim…

Tim Valentine
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