Linux next to Windows just in case
polycounter lvl 3
Hey guys, so I recently (last night) had my computer completely just screw me over, and I had to wipe it clean (I think reset is the actual term) so I ended up losing all my work for 3 of classes, which sucks cause I have 3 projects due next week.
So now I'm all paranoid about losing my data and am backing it up in every way I can, but just to be safe, I was considering installing Linux next to Windows on my laptop. The only time I'm planning on using it is if something wrong happens to Windows again, so I can access my files.
Problem is, I don't actually know if this will work, and I don't know how to do it, so I was wondering if anyone could tell me if this is a viable option/how to do it?
Thanks in advance for any help.
So now I'm all paranoid about losing my data and am backing it up in every way I can, but just to be safe, I was considering installing Linux next to Windows on my laptop. The only time I'm planning on using it is if something wrong happens to Windows again, so I can access my files.
Problem is, I don't actually know if this will work, and I don't know how to do it, so I was wondering if anyone could tell me if this is a viable option/how to do it?
Thanks in advance for any help.
Replies
Google is your friend, good luck.
If you don't want to install both operating systems together, you can actually just put a linux distribution on a USB drive and boot off of USB to recover your files. I'd suggest Ubuntu since it's pretty user friendly.
If you want to actually install both operating systems however, the process is pretty simple. Install Windows first and when partitioning your hard drive, just leave some "unallocated space" for the Linux installation, once Windows is installed, just install Linux over the remaining space. You should google how to make a bootable linux usb drive, there are tons of step by step tutorials out there.
Good luck!
you could also plg in your hdd into another pc and salvage the data
Yea. Can we have some details on what's actually wrong with the HD?
If your Windows install got corrupted or something or another part on your computer broke, the safest bet is to buy a new HD (or just an old one if you have an extra) and re-install windows on that and have the second one as just another disk. If it's fine you'll be able to read/backup all the data that way.
If the hard drive actually died. Yikes. If there's nothing too important on there you could just accept that you lost some work, make better stuff
I already wiped my computer clean, I really just wanted to know if that was a viable option, and to get pointed in the right direction. I wasn't backing up my data before, which was stupid of me, but now it's like, my number one priority (aside ofc from making good art) and I wanted to make sure I took advantage of every possible option.
Thanks for the help guys, guess I'll start looking into Ubuntu.
Your house could flood
your house could burn down
your house could get swept away in a tornado/hurricane etc
someone could steal your computer
your drive could fail and become unrecoverable
etc
The only solution to the above problems is frequent, offsite backup.
I back up locally to a NAS, and offsite with google drive ($10/month for 1TB).
Installing linux will do nothing other than give you a false sense of security.
Also, splitting up OS/content to two different drives, really this doesn't do you much good. What if your content drive fails completely? That's all your work gone. Again backup is the only actual solution.
Is there a way to set up Google Drive so that it backs up selected folders on your computer? Or how do you go about backing up with it? I've been using Mozy but if there's a good way to do it with GDrive I wouldn't mind switching for a lot more space.
I don't think there is, but there might be some third party tools to do it. Its something I've been meaning to look into, atm I'm manually archiving a lot of my stuff which isn't ideal.