HD Install :: help install



ok, this is my first experience with linux so i dont want to have this  a permanent change in case i dont like it so i want to have a dual booting computer and i want dsl on an existing partition.  so to figure it out, i went to the installation tutorial on this site at http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/talk/node/64.  there i read something that scared me. "Assuming that you are ready to blow away all of your existing data storage
(you might want to back up any special drivers and other important stuff in
case you want to re-install the original OS), create 2 new partitions:

hda1 Linux Swap Type 82 Size (at least 128mb)
hda2 Linux Type 83 Size (the rest of the disk space, I reccommend at least 2gb)
If your hard disk is really big, try leaving some unpartitioned space for future use.

Your DSL installation will go to partition hda2
Your DSL swap partition will be hda1"

now the part i dont like is the first line. if i have a c drive and d drive (both as primary partitions) will it wipe out drive c if i try to install to drive d?  also, the rest of it sounds like i have to completely re-partition my drive instead of working with the existing partitions.  can somebody clear this up or tell me if i'm reading everything correct?
Quote (brandon_r87 @ June 18 2005,20:58)
ok, this is my first experience with linux so i dont want to have this  a permanent change in case i dont like it so i want to have a dual booting computer and i want dsl on an existing partition.


Why don't you boot DSL as live cd and evaluate it that way?
well, i have and want to install it.  but i might end up using either pclinux os or a full knoppix.  but, if i may ask some other questions, i need help connecting to the internet.  first of all, when configuring w/ netcardconfig, i'm assuming eth0's ip will be the ip address for the computer.  secondly, i don't know what a "nameserver" is.  i looked it up but the explanation i found was too confusing for me.  i'm starting to wonder if linux is too advanced for me, or if i simply need a less technical distribution.  my second problem is that i dont know how to access my hard drive or removable drives.  i read on a faq that i have to mount the drives (at least the floppy anyway), but i dont know how to do this.

edit: stupid me, i forgot that i was in the hd install forum instead of just a general help forum.
Quote (brandon_r87 @ June 19 2005,19:51)
my second problem is that i dont know how to access my hard drive or removable drives.  i read on a faq that i have to mount the drives (at least the floppy anyway), but i dont know how to do this.

I was confused with mounting drives for quite a while too. But it isnt that bad. You can look at fstab to see different drives/partitions you can mount by typing cat /etc/fstab .  For your floppy drive and cdrom drive you can use the mount app in your dock in the bottom right hand corner, simply click on the little screw. To mount a flash drive for example it is typically called sda1 (your hard drive is usually hda*  with the * being a number based on the partition), so here is how you would mount the flash drive.

sudo su

mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/sda1

to unmount

umount /mnt/sda1

If I made a mistake or forgot something please feel free to correct me.
ok, i have the floppy mounted, but i still dont know how to access it or the hard drive partitions (i have hda1 and hda2).  after mounting i double clicked the icon of the floppy and i get a program called midnight commander.  inside this program, i seem to be stuck in the files on the cd.  this is my first time every using linux so absolutely everything is new.  so whatever you were saying about fstab meant nothing to me.
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