Wanna lose data!? Install Linux MCE!

[nuno416]

I am still in a state of shock over what I just realized.  I attempted (and boy do I regret it) an install on my laptop (Dell Inspiron 9400 - CoreDuo-2Ghz, 2GB DDR2, 160GB HDD, nVidia 7900 GS), this machine has a single 160GB HDD that I partitioned into the following:

C: 15GB -- ntfs (XP)
D: 25GB -- ntfs (Vista)
E: 15GB -- ext3 (Linux)
F: 100GB -- ntfs (Data)
G: 5GB -- swap (Linux)

I had spend the previous week (littlerally), installing, configuring and setting up every aspect of XP and Vista, including installing all necessary drivers, applications, accessories, tools, etc.  A lot of work, to tell you the through and something that I had been putting off for a year, but I was pretty glad that it was finally done.  One last step in the creating of my ultimate pimping triple boot of XP/Vista/Kubuntu/LinuxMCE, and that was the killer.

I put in the Linux MCE Quick install and when I get to choose where it installs it shows to partitions, which I assume are the ext3 and swap partitions that I left setup before installing Windows, so I selected the ext3 and it autoselected the swap for swap area.

At least that's what I though, and after installing and playing around with the system (and loving most of it it's features), I rebooted and expected to see  a Windows option in GRUB to boot my previous O/S.  Nope.  None of that.

Booted back into Linux MCE, got a terminal going and found that my drive had been repartition into an ext3 and swap area and weeks worth of work just got erased in the same of an hour. 

I'M NOT HAPPY ABOUT THIS (obviously), thankfullly I hadn't yet put any data on this system and everything can be recreated, reinstalled and reconfigured (guess I know what I'm doing this week, and I'm definetely ghosting that system so that if misbehaved "operating systems" (and i used term very loosely) decide to repartition/reformat my drive without LETTING ME TO KNOW OR CONFIRMING IT WITH ME, at least I have a backup.

Who designed the installation process?  Obviously a g33k, not anyone with usability or design experience.

Anyway, rant off, but you guys should probably add a bin confirmation dialog before partitions get even read, much less written to!

nuno.

[jo006]

Nuno

I assume you installed from the quick install DVD.  You probably should have read these instruction http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Download_Instructions before installing.

Quick Install DVD
This installs both Kubuntu and LinuxMCE at the same time in 20 minutes with only 3 keystrokes. You pick the hard drive you want it to install onto, and it will partition it, format it, install everything with default options, and set your location and regional settings using an IP2Location service. The DVD installer essentially takes a pre-installed image and copies it to the hard drive. This is why it is so fast and easy. But you also don't have low-level control over the installation process. Note: this installer will erase all existing data from the selected hard drive. The DVD Installation page contains a walkthrough of this installer

I am new to Linux and LinuxMCE and thought it was made fairly clear in the download instructions.

Justin

[blackoper]

um you didn't read the notes as the past user mentioned. The beta was designed for a complete install from scratch on an empty drive

[totallymaxed]

I am still in a state of shock over what I just realized.  I attempted (and boy do I regret it) an install on my laptop (Dell Inspiron 9400 - CoreDuo-2Ghz, 2GB DDR2, 160GB HDD, nVidia 7900 GS), this machine has a single 160GB HDD that I partitioned into the following:

C: 15GB -- ntfs (XP)
D: 25GB -- ntfs (Vista)
E: 15GB -- ext3 (Linux)
F: 100GB -- ntfs (Data)
G: 5GB -- swap (Linux)

I had spend the previous week (littlerally), installing, configuring and setting up every aspect of XP and Vista, including installing all necessary drivers, applications, accessories, tools, etc.  A lot of work, to tell you the through and something that I had been putting off for a year, but I was pretty glad that it was finally done.  One last step in the creating of my ultimate pimping triple boot of XP/Vista/Kubuntu/LinuxMCE, and that was the killer.

I put in the Linux MCE Quick install and when I get to choose where it installs it shows to partitions, which I assume are the ext3 and swap partitions that I left setup before installing Windows, so I selected the ext3 and it autoselected the swap for swap area.

At least that's what I though, and after installing and playing around with the system (and loving most of it it's features), I rebooted and expected to see  a Windows option in GRUB to boot my previous O/S.  Nope.  None of that.

Booted back into Linux MCE, got a terminal going and found that my drive had been repartition into an ext3 and swap area and weeks worth of work just got erased in the same of an hour. 

I'M NOT HAPPY ABOUT THIS (obviously), thankfullly I hadn't yet put any data on this system and everything can be recreated, reinstalled and reconfigured (guess I know what I'm doing this week, and I'm definetely ghosting that system so that if misbehaved "operating systems" (and i used term very loosely) decide to repartition/reformat my drive without LETTING ME TO KNOW OR CONFIRMING IT WITH ME, at least I have a backup.

Who designed the installation process?  Obviously a g33k, not anyone with usability or design experience.

Anyway, rant off, but you guys should probably add a bin confirmation dialog before partitions get even read, much less written to!

nuno.

I am sorry but all the LMCE quick install DVD's have always had this limitation - and it is clearly stated all over this forum and anywhere you can download any of the iso's that this is the case.

If you want to retain your existing partitions and create a multi-boot system then you must in the future install from the Kubuntu 7.1 Live CD using the Kubuntu installer to manage the creation of your new partitiona, while retain your existing ones, then use the LinuxMCE-0710 installer CD's afterwards to add LinuxMCE (These CD installers are not available until after LinuxMCE-0710 is released)

[nuno416]

Thanks, I should know better and when in doubt RTFM.  I actually did download the 2 CD package first and was going to use that, but for some reason the first CD wouldn't boot in any two machines and after making about 5 copies of that CD thinking I had bad media, I just gave up and grabbed the Quick Install DVD, thinking it was the same process as the 2CD package (who'se install instructions I had read and didn't notice anything about a complete repartitioning/formatting of my drive).

Oh well, you live you learn.  At least I didn't actually lose any data, just time in reinstallation/reconfiguration.

I thought this would totally turn me off Linux MCE, but since it was my stupidity, I suppose I have to give  it another shot down the road when it's a bit more mature.

Having said all that, I think adding a small "YOU ARE ABOUT TO LOSE EVERYTHING ON YOUR DRIVE, PLEASE CONFIRM?" prompt, wouldn't be very hard and I'd be willing to bet that every user would rather press that extra keystroke (make it 4 instead of 3, even numbers are luckier, anyway!) to be safe!

Thanks,
Nuno.

[hedkz]

ahhhhhhhhhh norton ghost
ahhhhhhhhhh acronis

ahhhhhhhhhh you spent a week setting something up, and didn't image the drive between each experiment???

hmmm, and external drive and a bootable cd with acronis on it goes a looooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnngggggggggg way
in preventing anxiety, well worth a few bucks. imho.

ahh but then again, the hard lessons are the ones we never forget ;-), I'm sure we've all got stories, I know I've got a few.

have fun.