I take it back. DANGEROUS COURSE.

Is there a better way to do this?

The only better way i can think of is to reverse the steps (ie, first do the fixmbr thing, then if that works, delete the linux install), but the only advantage that this has is that if fxmbr does not work you can use the mandrake CD to restore LILO.

Of course, you could always back up your system (including partition table and MBR) before installing mandrake...

I must say, i have a couple of other issues with some of the instructions presented in this lesson:

1. This may not be necessary, but i always thought you were supposed to defrag windows before resizing any partition in order to ensure that all of your data is at the start of the disk and you can mess with the end of the disk with a partitioner more or less safely. The author never mentions this.

2. They should at least mention that windows MUST be on the first partition. Also, there is no reason that i know of that / must be on the partition immediately following windows, as this lesson advocates. Does this even have any advantages?

3. Why advocate norton partition magic at $70 when the mandrake tool will do all this for you for nothing more than what you paid for the CDs (probably nothing)? The object of the lesson is to show users how to just to try GNU/Linux out, and $70 is a steep price to pay for a tool that you will only use once. If NTFS support is the issue here, partimage and qtparted on knoppix both support it, as far as i know.

4. How to back up and restore certainly needs more coverage, at any rate. The author is missing a golden opportunity to introduce potential GNU/Linux users to knoppix and the powerful administration tools included in knoppix, which is something that will probably stay with the user even if s/he does not want to run GNU/Linux in general.


Just my opinion.