[KLUG Members] Multiple OS Installation on Thinkpad laptop

[bfdamkoehler at worldnet.att.net]

Other thing : is it possible to write an image from  a partition with 
 lot of free space to another partition with similar space minus the 
free space, where both the partitions are on different disks.

The mechanism is probably dependant on the type of filesystem (Windows 
or Unix) and whether it contains bootable partitions. An image made with 
a disk level utility such as dd will come out the exact same size even 
if you restore it onto a bigger disk. An image made with file level 
utilities such as tar, winzip, cp, etc will use only the space required 
for the existing files and can be restored into a smaller partition that 
you have created by hand.  If this is a bootable disk you will have to 
re-create the bootstrap loader which is typically stored in the master 
boot record (MRB).  You can use dd to backup or restore either the 
partition table  or the bootstrap loader, but this is more for disaster 
recovery of a disk than for replicating one.



Sanjay Chigurupati wrote:

>
> I am thinking of installing   FreeBSD, Open BSD and few flavors of 
> Linux  on thinkpad.
>
>
> My thinkpad has XP professional pre-installed on it.  It also uses a 
> hidden partition to store diagnostic tools,
> which are required for recovery.
>
> I would like to keep the IBM diagnostic and tutorial software as well 
> as the Burning software as they are
> pretty good and I dont think I can get a rebate for XP after using 
>  for a few months.
>
>
> My problem here is that Open BSD and Free BSD both require primary 
> partitions.
>
> It looks like I might run into partition limit imposed by PC Bios.
>
> Other thing : is it possible to write an image from  a partition with 
>  lot of free space to another partition with similar space minus the 
> free space, where both the partitions are on different disks.
>
> Any work arounds suggested?
>
> Thanks,
> Sanjay
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