back online and needing help

geeshock · Posted: Fri Jul 04, 2025 10:52 pm Post subject: back online and needing help

hey all, the wife finally got me a laptop and a card and i need some help. she just got me a sony vaio and was curious if anyone has had any problems setting up a dual boot system on this type of computer. I don't have any recovery disks so I'm a little nervous to say the least about just downloading the latest version of slack or freebsd and dualbooting. not sure how to do it. might just have to call them up and request the disks

Germ · Posted: Fri Jul 04, 2025 11:18 pm Post subject:

If there are no disks, there should be a recovery partition (probably hidden) and a way to boot recovery mode.

The manual is your friend. Wink

_________________
Laptop: Mandriva 2025 PowerPack - 2.6.33.5-0.2mnb
Desktop: Mandriva 2025 Free - kernel 2.6.33.2-1mib

nukes · Linux Guru Joined: 29 Aug 2025 Posts: 4558

Some laptops give you the option to burn the recovery cd's afterwards. if this isn't the case then fair enough.

Most of the time a dual boot will be fine but you will want a recovery technique. whether that's a different OEM copy you have of windows which will install with the key on the sticker underneath the laptop, then hunting round for the drivers, then getting all the software set up again - or whether it is slapping arch on there and having a usable system in minutes - is up to you.

Point being, if you've anything you care about keeping off the machine, make a backup first.

_________________
Gentoo x86-64 2.6.29.1
FreeBSD 7-CURRENT
Arch x86 2.6.30

JP · Posted: Sat Jul 05, 2025 2:56 am Post subject:

jester · Sr. Member Joined: 19 Apr 2025 Posts: 1166

crouse · Site Admin Joined: 17 Apr 2025 Posts: 11833 Location: Iowa

dual boot ------- pppppppfffffffffffftttttttt Razz

Install Arch..... forget the rest Laughing

Hope to see you around here alot more Wink

_________________
Veronica - Arch Linux 64-bit -- Kernel 2.6.33.4-1
Archie/Jughead - Arch Linux 32-bit -- Kernel 2.6.33.4-1
Betty/Reggie - Arch Linux (VBox) 32-bit -- Kernel 2.6.33.4-1
BumbleBee - OpenSolaris-SunOS 5.11

Germ · Posted: Sat Jul 05, 2025 9:54 pm Post subject:

My two month old Acer laptop came with vista and had a hidden restore partition at sda1. sda2 was vista. I dual-booted at first. Installed Mandriva with three partitions; /, /swap/ and /home, in a extended partition. The hidden partition was no problem. Mandriva found it and treated it just like the vista OS partition.

Also, everything worked out of the box except the onboard 56k modem but I never expected a winmodem to work. I'm Linux only on it now. I've never used Arch, but of all the distros I've seen Mandriva seems to be the best for laptops if you want minimum hassle getting your hardware up and working. Even the atheros wireless and broadcom ethernet worked out of the box. Both tested at my job site.

_________________
Laptop: Mandriva 2025 PowerPack - 2.6.33.5-0.2mnb
Desktop: Mandriva 2025 Free - kernel 2.6.33.2-1mib

geeshock · Posted: Sat Jul 05, 2025 10:15 pm Post subject:

thanks all, I'm in thr process of burnning a live cd and looking around at the partitions and seeing whats there

geeshock · Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2025 12:02 am Post subject:

well, i found the hidden partition, now i guess I need to read up on restoring the thing if I need to restore. I know most resizing tools today can resize without destrying the data but beter safe than sory ya know. also it's a vgn nr460e/w vaio. going to need plenty of advise on this thing once i get linux installed on it

rumbarg · Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2025 12:52 am Post subject:

Which windows?
I found somebody that said this worked for vista on a Sony , but didn't mention whether it was system or applications restore. Sounds like this works only before installing programs, may not after doing that.

masinick · Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2025 2:52 am Post subject:

masinick · Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2025 3:17 am Post subject:

I may elevate Mandriva use, at least on the Lenovo system. I am VERY happy with what I ended up with in sharp contrast to my disappointment with openSUSE. I was also VERY PLEASED with Kubuntu 8.04 KDE 4 remix.

Though this is my fastest home system, I am using the Dell Latitude D600 for every day stuff. It is plenty fast enough for routine activities. I am using the Lenovo 3000 Model Y410 laptop system to test. With enough memory, I can set soem systems up and run them from Virtualbox. I have not done that yet, having spent my time just quickly setting up partitions and testing. I have a bit more of that to do, but once I have things in place, I believe I now have my keeper setup: 1. sidux is still the king and the first distro. 2. AntiX is the second one. 3. Kubuntu is the third one. 4. Mandriva is the fourth one - may jockey with Kubuntu, very happy with both of them, 5. openSUSE got the axe. 6. Vista is still out there, but only really used to test and possibly to use the Webcam if I cannot figure it out with Linux - low on my priorities.

I have a lot of free space, so I am going to set up some test partitions but I am also doing to leave some large data partitions too. Then I can install either to a partition or to Virtualbox. I think I will start doing test releases in Virtualbox and compare them to direct partition installs.

_________________
Brian Masinick
Distros: SimplyMEPIS
sidux - no CAPS!, antiX, Debian

masinick · Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2025 3:24 am Post subject:

Was not intending to hijack the topic - like Germ I believe that Mandriva will probably work really well with a Sony Vaio, but I would recommend getting some more details about what hardware is in the system and compare it to what known hardware Linux supports. I suspect that Sony is a major enough vendor (and relatively high end stuff) that distros and hardware driver writers get to it pretty early on. Mandriva does a lot in getting really good drivers early on and is among the top three Linux vendors. I have, for ten years now, had really good success with Mandrake, the original company name, and now Mandriva. The Mandriva software will even resize the disk partitions on your system as one option to co-exist with other systems, based on unused space, and it will also create a boot manager consisting of all the systems it finds. I think you have a 90-95% chance that it will work, but raise that up to 100% by verifying your hardware is commonly recognized by Linux software. If yes, then I stand by this recommendation.

Of course, sidux, my favorite, would also work, more than likely, but I won't push that on you unless you want the best cutting edge software! Wink

_________________
Brian Masinick
Distros: SimplyMEPIS
sidux - no CAPS!, antiX, Debian

geeshock · Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2025 5:15 pm Post subject:

just got off the phone with sony, by they don't know a thing. tech support has taken a nose dive, the lady i talked to said there is no way to destroy the backup on the disk becuse it is truely a hidded partition, if so how did i see it w/my live disk in linux, she had no response. well, i finaly am getting the backup disks sent this way. wish they still came with the disks to begin with

crouse · Site Admin Joined: 17 Apr 2025 Posts: 11833 Location: Iowa

yeah...... us geeks can destroy any data...... hidden or not .... lol. Razz

At least they are sending you the disks, that's a plus Smile

_________________
Veronica - Arch Linux 64-bit -- Kernel 2.6.33.4-1
Archie/Jughead - Arch Linux 32-bit -- Kernel 2.6.33.4-1
Betty/Reggie - Arch Linux (VBox) 32-bit -- Kernel 2.6.33.4-1
BumbleBee - OpenSolaris-SunOS 5.11

	USA Linux Users Group Forum Index » Installation and Bootloaders	All times are GMT Goto page 1, 2 Next
Page 1 of 2