<--Total n00b. Need some advice.

[McCordRM]

So I made the decision to leave Windows for good. Yay, me.
I installed Kubuntu (hated KDE), installed Ubuntu (meh, needed MP3 codecs and stuff)
and then Mint. I like Mint.

Anyhow, the only thing holding me back was Gaming. When I installed Ubuntu, I decided
to give Wine a go and try to get Lord of the Rings Online running... and did it on the first
try. Yay, me again. So then I decided to try Mint and here I am.

I did some reading up and found that many users create multiple partitions upon install
so that if they decide to wipe and re-install, those folders are still intact and the settings and
installed programs are not lost. I am not, however, seeing how to accomplish this. I have certain
things I will want for the forseeable future, namely my working Lord of the Rings install and
current visual setup. How I can either re-install so that if I install again later my stuff is still there,
or backup my current settings to protect them and make it easier to implement after a re-install?

[nujinini]

Welcome McCordRM!

So I made the decision to leave Windows for good. Yay, me.
I installed Kubuntu (hated KDE), installed Ubuntu (meh, needed MP3 codecs and stuff)
and then Mint. I like Mint.

Loving Mint too!

I did some reading up and found that many users create multiple partitions upon install
so that if they decide to wipe and re-install, those folders are still intact and the settings and
installed programs are not lost... How I can either re-install so that if I install again later my stuff is still there,...

I'm pretty sure that there are more ways than one to achieve you desired set-up.

But if I may share this is how I did mine in my machine. I have 6 OS running on different partitions. 5 linux and 1 XP, just in case somebody borrows and can only use XP. Apart from these, I still have 2 separate partitions working as Storage Bins, one formatted as NTFS and the other as ext3 (to hide from windows users).

Anyway, one advantage I see in my set-up is that if I destroy or corrupt any of my OS, my data is intact in both Storage. The little downside is that when I save data from any OS, I have to add another step to specify that I want it saved in either Storage.

backup my current settings to protect them and make it easier to implement after a re-install?

Sorry I'm not sure how to backup settings though I have a little idea. I suggest you start another thread for this particular concern so that the big guns can notice and give their advise

Enjoy linux!

[oz]

Hello and welcome!

You can check out utilities such as Clonezilla, FSArchiver, PartClone, and PartImage to create archives or images of your current partitions, then restore them if something should happen to your working system. I've used all of these tools and each has its own advantages and disadvantages so you'll need to decide for yourself which if any of them would satisfy your own needs. I'm currently using FSArchiver and it's working quite well for me, with Clonezilla being my second choice for backups.

[McCordRM]

I'll look into those.

I think the part that's confusing me, being Mr. n00b, is the whole partition thing.
With Windows, some programs had dependencies in other folders, others did
not. This led to being able to copy a program's folder to another location and
effectively back it up- you just copy it back and run from it.. done! While with the
first example you would have to fully install the program again to get its files in
all the right locations.

That being said, I thought everything in Linux was treated like a file- whether it
was a file, a directory, ect. So if I have Linux, itself, installed on my C: and put
everything into partitions on my D:... what happends when I erase my C: and re-install? How do I get Linux to configure based on files on the D: ? Does that make
sense?

[nujinini]

That being said, I thought everything in Linux was treated like a file- whether it
was a file, a directory, ect. So if I have Linux, itself, installed on my C: and put
everything into partitions on my D:... what happends when I erase my C: and re-install? .... Does that make
sense?

You are right, everything is treated as a file in linux.

Contrary to windows reading partitions as C: D: E: etc. The linux environment communicates it to users this way. /dev/sda1, /dev/sda2, /dev/sda3 etc.

And so if you happen to install linux in /dev/sda1 (C: ) and your data is in say/dev/sda2 (D: ) and /dev/sda3, you just have to reinstall your linux and afterward use your data on partitions.

How do I get Linux to configure based on files on the D: ?

After installation, you might want to make an extra partition and use any of the tools that Ozar suggested to make an archive of your working OS. So as he said if anything happens, your just a few steps away from restoring instead of going through the whole process again. Your data will be all safe since it is still stored in another partition. Hope this helped clarify