Prez Midnite wrote:

> I've just purchased [not installed yet] a 10.2 gig hard drive, onto
> which I intend to install Linux. I'd like to keep my current 1 gig hard
> drive running Win95, and have a dual boot system.

Sounds vaguely familiar.  I have Linux, Win95, and WinNT on one of my
machines.  I'd like to add a few more operating systems when I have some
free time. ;-)

> 1) Will I be able to access my common files [POV, INC, TGA, MPEG, MP3,
> HTML, etc.] from either OS? For example, could I render a .pov file that
> is on my Windows drive from Linux POV, or vice versa?

If you have them on a vfat partition (Windows95 native), you'll be able
to see them from Linux.  The other method I use is to keep things on a
separate machine which I use as a file server.  I bought a used P-75 for
$150.  Of course, you also need networking hardware if you go that
route, but I had that stuff sitting around anyways.

> 2) The partitioning and formatting program that came with my hard drive,
> EZ-Drive, is not compatible with Unix, according to the manual. How
> should I go about preparing my new drive for Linux?

The program isn't compatible with Unix, but that doesn't mean the drive
isn't compatible.  I've found the various Linux partitioning tools to be
highly capable.  If you want to run Linux on the new drive, don't bother
with their formatting tools.  They'll set up the wrong sort of file
system anyways.  The short answer: just follow the installation
instructions for the distribution you're installing, and make sure you
don't repartition the old drive.  The partitioning software should see a
1GB drive and a 10.2 GB drive and let you partition just the latter.  If
that's the way it looks, you're in the clear.

Unix handles multiple block devices much more elegantly than does
Windows (even WinNT).  None of this c:\, d:\, e\: nonsense; you can
mount devices pretty much arbitrarily.
 
-- 
Mark Gordon
mtg### [at] povrayorg

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