Tatoos: how to deal with them?

[Manchunian]

Hello there,

I haven't installed Linux as a dual boot very often, as I'm 100% Linux and proud to be so! Now, someone at work is asking for urgent help to install Linux on her two year old Windows XP computer. Although she hates Windows, she needs to keep it, at least for the timebeing. But what's troubling me is this business of tatoos. On the few machines I've dual installed Linux on, I have never encountered this problem, but I'm still nervous about it, on her behalf. How should she install Linux? Would putting Grub in the MBR risk losing the tatoo? Maybe tatoos aren't really a problem, after all? I dunno, I just want to check just in case.
PS - I think I'm going to hand her a Ubuntu CD and tell her to do the guided partition - I presume Ubuntu does everything necessary?

Cheers.

[techieMoe]

I'm thoroughly confused by what you mean by "tattoo." When I read that title I thought you were talking about art for the human body, but you seem to be referencing something in the PC world I've not heard of. What is a "tattoo" in reference to a computer?

[Manchunian]

He!He! Sorry, this is French. I'm not sure what we say in English. I'm referring to the process that Microsoft uses to propect its beloved OS from being copied and put on another computer.

Edit: I've just found something on the French Ubuntu site. Could it be BIOS LOCK?

[i92guboj]

Just to be on the safe side, you should make a raw image and save it as backup.

You can use dd if you don't own a copy of norton ghost. Just boot from a livecd, and use something like this to backup the whole drive (make sure it's not mounted while doing this):

dd if=/dev/hda of=/mnt/<my-storage-device>

You can use an usb external drive or something to store the backup.

[Manchunian]

OK, thanks. Has anyone actually ever encountered this? Apparently it affects Packard Bell, Médion and Gericom (something I learned last night while trying to find the translation for tatoué). Now, my PC is a Packard Bell, and I did many Linux installs on this machine before I wiped Windows off it. I've also heard that it is mostly an issue with laptops. Can anyone confirm this?