Backup Windows installed on BIOS RAID with SUSE

From openSUSE

If this article: [1] sounds very familiar to you, well, then you already know it all. I am not such expert to write an article of similiar worth, but newbies and intermediate users might find this useful...

So, Billy and the Gang sold you their inferior OS for exorbitant price and, worse yet, now that it *should* be yours, they have more claims on their piece of marketing (more than anything else), supported by human laziness, greed, hypocrisy and... often plain ignorance.

I hate that approach as it's virtually privatizing/globalizing (same in essence) a giant chunk of computing along with internet.

At least I try to mitigate these circumstances by using as many as possible free tools when dealing with M$ stuff:

Backing Windows Vista installed on a BIOS RAID partition with OpenSUSE 10.x install DVD

Or some other Windows, or with some other Linux. Or any other partition on a RAID device (but Linux for one you would not have any reason to put on such inferior and expensive RAID other than to coexist with a Windows OS on the same computer, through dual boot).

This howto is necessarily not only technical. The reason lies with the enemies of the open source, the masters of the impenetrable GUI, as will be explained.

The title I'd like to keep the same, regardless of the same procedure, other than the part concerning "dmraid -ay" can be applied to backup any other device. You sure can use this procedure, modified in the respective parts, for backing up your Linux installation, for example, and it doesn't have to be over you home network. But the title I think should remain as it is now, because it offers you a way to do a little something with your MS little OS in the open-source way... I am not, and never wish to be, familiar with MS things and ways (other than what I had to learn about those), but I don't think they can offer anything such as the reputable GNU Linux dd program, the true engine performing these backups I am writing about.

Disclaimer: No guarrantee of any kind. Use at your own risk. This is a potentially nerve-wrecking exercise... Worked for me though (cost me nerves as well).

A word of caution: You may wish to skip to the notes at the very bottom and read what this procedure cannot be of any help with, since some intrinsic M$ qualities weigh in on the ways of the world and carry clout!

But the foremost word of caution needs to be put here. As soon as you tell MS you used Linux on your it-seems-privatized-by-MS computer, be it for anything but most typically dual booting, and most certainly backing up an MS OS partition, you are entitled to no MS tech support at all. So, since they generally still can't tell (but do find about "shred" below) who read and wrote the partition in question (I don't think anyone can tell who made the good restore if it's performed correctly, some program by Symantec or Norton, or your good old Linux --if it's executed correctly, all the, read slowly, bits, are where they were at the time the backup was taken from that partition in question... So just use a more appropriate description of your problem, and problems you'll be having on that stuff, and get the support... Of course these are wary of that issue, so, when I was trying to get MS support they kept asking me repeatedly whether I had Linux to dual boot with my Vista on my system... My brother manages booting, I only work on this Vista and it boots in automatically.... would be a good answer to such hypocrisy. It'd be great someone challenged them legally on this issue!

Vista Business. Abit KN8 Ultra. nVidia nForce4 RAID. stipe-mirroring 2x2 200GB WD2000KS HDD (SATA 2). That's 4x200GB = 800 commercial GB. 2x200 striped equals 400 GB, and it's mirrored to as much, so the other 400GB is ...for security (don't expect much of that on any of Billy the poor man's stuff).

Vista won't install on less than 40GB, and won't even tell you why... Oh, what can you? It just doesn't explain the necessary. Go search the web when you encounter stupid difficulties with Windows.

Some time in mid to late October 2007, with activated and updated Vista, I was able to shrink the Vista partition to 1/2, yes one half, in Vista's "Administrative Tools". Of course, you can also use Suse Linux to shrink it. But this way, they should give you tech support (your Linux dual booting brother being away).

A digression: anything big, don't keep it in the partition Vista is installed on; I have separate partitions for all my video files, and actually for anything that is not part of the Vista OS - both the OS and the data are easier to work with that way).

Click the link just below and you'll find there's a way to boot into your Linux installed into a partition on the BIOS RAID, alongside Windows of some kind, by inserting a floppy disk upon firing up or restarting your computer, that is into your Linux installed without the Master Boot Record on the privatized-by-MS-they-would-want-it-to-be computer with being touched at all!

http://forums.suselinuxsupport.de/lofiversion/index.php/t50039.html

(that was for 10.2. For 10.3, pls. bare in mind there seem to be issues with BIOS RAID, at this time:

http://forums.suselinuxsupport.de/index.php?showtopic=62333

at least I had issues)

That much for those wishing not to have to deal with the Microsoft aversion to Linux. If there's no dual boot, and the Linux is being booted from the floppy, they must give you support, because the Linux didn't touch anything that Windows Operationg System is installed on, or is having it's programs in, whatsoever. And if they should claim all of your RAID space disallowing you to even install something on a partition of it, I think so insane only that gang can get... Hopefully they wouldn't.

Of course, you should some day, if you're a novice, learn how to possibly use/rescue/anything-else your Windows partition, through GNU Linux programs such as ntfs-3g:

http://www.ntfs-3g.org/

Of course, remember how averse they are to open source, support-wise.

Now the HOWTO itself.

So you may need as many as three or more blank DVD's to back up the partition Vista installed on. Two blank DVD's suffice to me at the time I started writing this (the Vista partition I was backing up was just over 42 GB or so). It did prove later, after many Suse updates (smart I like best, I'm afraid it's still not the default, so search for tutorials on it; I myself use it thanks to the advice a Suse developer gave me a few months ago, this is his site: http://jengelh.hopto.org/), that even one sole DVD disk sufficed, regardless of which of the two versions I used, Suse 10.2 or Suse 10.3.. Improved some code? Which exactly is our of the reach of my understanding of Linux.

I tried partedmagic-1.6, and I did learn very useful tricks with it, so I suppose in many an occasion of rescue partedmagic is the way to go. But Suse seems to offer more support with this particular hardware of mine.

You need local network. And a computer to back up your dd's files to. Or it could be the Vista computer itself if you have enough room on a suitable partition (a plain Linux partition of any kind, a Windows VFAT partition, or even an NTFS partition other than the one with the installed Vista -- but then you have to use ntfs-3g -- on the Vista computer itself).

There is one consideration concerning backing up anything M$. They seem to regard any kind of backup writing such as by some kind of Linux OS (be it on CD or from an adjacent partition), wrongfully as pirate business. I remember backing up another Windows locally on the host computer, and I understood clearly that there is no way of ultimately knowing by restoring somewhere else on the local computer, that your backup was successful. No way! The Windows would simply detect there was another clone of it on another partition on the same host, and... refused to log me in for that mere reason (I was left in the log in - log off loop). So take notice!

And, regardless of having a number of computers in my local network I don't need but one or two of them to run theirs, the MS Windows, stuff, so I'll know for myself if the backup was successful only when I will need it (and I usually do).

Once Suse 10.2 (same later with 10.3), in the menu of which, once the splash showed upon boot, you chose the rescue option, is up, run:

$ dmraid -ay

You should get something like this:

$ ls -l /dev/mapper

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 16 Jan 8 10:30 control -> ../device-mapper

brw------- 1 root root 253, 2 Jan 8 10:30 nvidia_djcbfhff

brw------- 1 root root 253, 0 Jan 8 10:30 nvidia_djcbfhff-0

brw------- 1 root root 253, 5 Jan 8 10:30 nvidia_djcbfhff-0_part1

brw------- 1 root root 253, 1 Jan 8 10:30 nvidia_djcbfhff-1

brw------- 1 root root 253, 4 Jan 8 10:30 nvidia_djcbfhff-1_part1

brw------- 1 root root 253, 3 Jan 8 10:30 nvidia_djcbfhff1

brw------- 1 root root 253, 6 Jan 8 10:30 nvidia_djcbfhff_part1

Command used (from "history" command I ran later):

  11  ls -l /dev/mapper/ |cat >> /tmp/AT8-Cmn/dd_70420_KN8-WVB/70420_KN8-WVB.devMapper

(actually I used just "l /dev/mapper", but that is Suse specific).

Purposefully I made one single partition so far, and that is what you see. Easier to explain.

nvidia_djcbfhff-0 or nvidia_djcbfhff-0_part1 is that 40 odd commercial GB partition that Vista is being installed on. And nvidia_djcbfhff-1 or nvidia_djcbfhff-1_part1 is the mirror of the same size, so nvidia_djcbfhff1 or nvidia_djcbfhff_part1 or both (I am not sure, but using any of them seemed to work for me) is the partition stripe-mirrored proper.

This backup of this story I was making on the first reboot after the Vista installation started. If it was to work, then at least there wouldn't be any more typing of that stupid code, the so called "Product Key" ... Arghhh... (and then I would not turn into a zombie - grin).

Actually, I had done this previously so I was confident that it would work, and I was to do the restore as I was writing... Yes, I piped in the history (pls. type "man history" without quotes) from the two consoles I used back then (when I first started this howto, I am doing a revision seven months on, it's November 2007) to do the backuping work, and was to get going. I had started writing this howto out of respect for the Open Source, GNU Linux, OpenSuSE and all the good guys, but I had little time, so I had to cut on some explanation.

  27  ifconfig eth1 192.168.100.19
  28  ifconfig

man ifconfig, search google... (remember to "man ..." for more explanation for any other commands below or any other place)

  30  ping 192.168.100.3
  32  mkdir /tmp/someNetWorkDir
  34  mount -t nfs 192.168.100.3:/Cmn /tmp/someNetWorkDir
  36  mkdir /tmp/someNetWorkDir/dd_70420_KN8-WVB
  57  cd /tmp/someNetWorkDir/dd_70420_KN8-WVB

(WVB is for Windows Vista Business, KN8 is my MBO. Also 70420 is a kind of time stamp. It stands for 2007-04-20. Good thing timestamps in the filenames of backups.)

On another console:

  48  mount /dev/mapper/nvidia_djcbfhff_part1 /tmp/Win_Vista

Of course, here you see all the M$ exuberance... like autoexec.bat, config.sys, Documents and Settings etc. etc. If not, you made something wrong, or something in your system is not supported, or I made a typo or some such, so you couldn't get what I meant (if you suspect of that, try contacting me, see in bottom, http://www.exDeo.com) :

  49  ls -l /tmp/Win_Vista
  54  umount /tmp/Win_Vista
  63  mount 

I believe it is imperative to unmount it before backing it up. "mount" alone lets you check if all is OK.

Now the engine of the backup needs to be put to work.

  65  dd if=/dev/mapper/nvidia_djcbfhff_part1 | gzip -6c  | split -d -b1080m - 70420_KN8-WVB_nvidia_djcbfhff_part1.dd

dd if=/dev/mapper/nvidia_djcbfhff_part1 reads the Vista installed partition on the RAID. That is piped to gzip to compress it at a good compression rate (of course if your preference is bzip2, substitute to your likeness), and further the compressed backup is split into 1080MB (not commercial but true megabytes, the "MiB"; actually I like to use -b1085m as 4 times 1085MB fit nicely on any DVD, to my knowledge), so that four of each such files can be comfortably burned on a DVD. "man split" for more. The "-" on it's own after b1080m, allows me to name the backup. "-" only means end of options and what follows it will be the backup file's name.

For the novices that might be reading this. The character "|" is the pipe, and I can't remember what else it might be called. On US keyboard, it's Shift + the closest key to the right Shift key. On UK keyboard it's Shift + the closest key to the left Shift key...

On the backup comp, reached through the local network, as above, these files I got, when I first started writing this howto, in the backup:

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1132462080 Apr 20 2007 70420_KN8-WVB_nvidia_djcbfhff_part1.dd00

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1132462080 Apr 20 2007 70420_KN8-WVB_nvidia_djcbfhff_part1.dd01

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1132462080 Apr 20 2007 70420_KN8-WVB_nvidia_djcbfhff_part1.dd02

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1132462080 Apr 20 2007 70420_KN8-WVB_nvidia_djcbfhff_part1.dd03

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1132462080 Apr 20 2007 70420_KN8-WVB_nvidia_djcbfhff_part1.dd04

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1132462080 Apr 20 2007 70420_KN8-WVB_nvidia_djcbfhff_part1.dd05

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1132462080 Apr 20 2007 70420_KN8-WVB_nvidia_djcbfhff_part1.dd06

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 815104337 Apr 20 2007 70420_KN8-WVB_nvidia_djcbfhff_part1.dd07

As I said above, later, I got the whole of Vista partition on one DVD (improved Linux code?).

At this point you might want to store these files somewhere else than where you've made them (in my case on another computer running Suse Linux 10.x). I burn them on DVD disks. I don't have time for much explaning, but if you "man" in your console (my preference is konsole in kde), you might understand:

md5sum 70420_KN8-WVB_nvidia_djcbfhff_part1.dd?? >> MD5SUMS

mkdir 1 2

mv -i 70420_KN8-WVB_nvidia_djcbfhff_part1.dd0[0123] 1

mv -i 70420_KN8-WVB_nvidia_djcbfhff_part1.dd0[4567] 2

cp MD5SUMS 1

mv MD5SUMS 2

mkisofs -R -J -ldot -allow-lowercase -o 1.iso 1/

mkisofs -R -J -ldot -allow-lowercase -o 2.iso 2/

wodim -v 8 dev=/dev/hda 1.iso

wodim -v 8 dev=/dev/hda 2.iso

Of course, the mkisofs line is for Suse 10.2. Suse 10.3 has genisoimage instead.

Restoring as I said I would. Familiar enough with command line to know that it will actually write back that backup onto those 4x200 GB disks at the appopriate place where the original partition is which Vista is installed on. You can also see the HDD led giving up the HDD activity on the Vista comp (of course, issuing just "top" on another console will let you watch how the commands you issued use your computer resources).

$ top

This is the command for restoring: cat 70420_KN8-WVB_nvidia_djcbfhff_part1.dd0? | gunzip | dd of=/dev/mapper/nvidia_djcbfhff_part1

The "cat 70420_..." command concatenates them in the order these files were made by split (by dd, gzip and split actually). And that is piped to gunzip to be uncompressed, and it is dd'd into the original partition. Of course, again, a neat way to see what is happening, is just to issue "top" on another console and see dd and gunzip contending the first position...

Yes, the backup worked for me back then. And it just nearly always work. When it doesn't it's either some bad hardware or another matter (the aforementioned aversion e.g., possibly. Can not elaborate, but they sure are dangerous, with all that collusion of theirs with anything global, and, regardless of dishonesty never truly winning anywhere, as God is and will be the True Winner ever, and Himself and His own is solely honesty, still with all that dirt of extreme finance involved, they are bound to be successful at times in playing their trick on the open software) might be the reason.

And I ran out of time resources back when I started with this HOWTO seven months ago in April 2007, and now when I'm revising it, to update it to the benefit of the better users of computing and the internet, the Linuxers making for the best among those...

Note 1: At one particular time I had really hard time getting this backup procedure to work. This was why I couldn't. Those 4x200GB SATA2 disks I used previously on another system, Suse 10.2, with, sure, true software RAID-5 (a digression: dont' use RAID-5, use RAID-6, you then have twice the allowance for disk failure than with RAID-5), and there was no problems for the BIOS to initiate BIOS RAID on them, but they showed, once I fired Suse 10.2 install DVD on it, rescue option... they showed those Linux software RAID partitions on 2 of the 4 disks, and, man, they couldn't be -zero-superblocked (mdadm option), and I just couldn't see or mount or anything, with the actual BIOS RAID. Solution, in my case: WD diagnostic utility, quick erase the drives, reinstall Vista. Of course, here [2] you can find more elegant Linux solutions.

===========================================================================

At this point here, readers who needed to learn this procedure for backing up something non-Windows and are not interested in Windows tricks against open source can stop reading. It's boring issues left to relate to those who have to live with having to use Windows a little longer yet, like me.

===========================================================================

Note 2: I wrote this in one of the first versions of this howto.

There's nothing to really guard you from that Gang's brazenness. Not even this backup, that was OK (restored fine, actually not even another one that I made with fully installed Vista, that restored fine as well) helped against their greed, their selfrighteous resolve to keep on plundering the world... I'll explain: I forgot to set the current date on my newly got Abit KN8 Ultra. The date was originally around when these boards were made, I suppose: January 2006. I forgot to set it to the current date **before** installing Vista. Didn't they jump on it as Vista having been installed back then and as if being used for that long time? You bet! Never mind programming, they only need it to check on such things as defending their monopoly and masking their mistakes... and putting up stupid look to their piece of marketing... Never mind the Vista was used almost strictly consecutively for 10 or 20 hours or so... Oh no. As soon as I adjusted the date once I remembered to, on the next login there was them not letting me login at all... I was suppose to activate it right there to use it. Sunday. Croatia, aaah, comm'on. Province. Big M$. What's that small country for the Big Gang? Croatia, who're they? Never heard of... So the small M$ Croatia has no one on the phone. Just if you speak English, they may let you through to someone out there in the M$ Europe, probably. OK. I chose the option. But I only get, in a truly unnerving voice the automaton or tape replying: "We're sorry!..." and some excuse. And that backup was Vista uptime only 10 or 20 hours! What a hypocrisy. Get a life if you work in M$ or with M$ in any way, if any of those guys are reading this.

Note 3: Another word of caution.

Actually, a few words of caution.

[Note 3] Word of caution [1] Firstly, don't expect much from Microsoft Tech support. If your expectation is low, your relief will feel more content if you do get a good support. I did get good support from the outsourced firm that worked for MS and worked as MS Croatia, but that firm left Microsoft, and I really spent terrible time getting help from MS Croatia (or anywhere MS) for more than a week altogether by this day afternoon, and got little if any. Little if any support, it's such a shame!

The good support feels fine to remember, as the technician (I'll use this occasion to say thank you to the guy by the name Hrvoje) was able to help me to get Windows Vista working in my Samba environment, his expertize of course being on the Windows side.

But these that hold the MS Croatia support now! Oh... First they asked irrelevant questions and tried to go through tedious near 5 minutes procedure on telephone support to even get you through to speak to the technical support, hey, only to speak to tech support you had to speak whatnot about yourself and why you were calling for support to a person who wasn't able to help you technically in any way... Why? Ask their chief, but I am not naming names although those people really hurt me by all their not replying to my mails and making me wait for the promised but mostly just never delivered answers! If you speak Croatian, take a read at this: http://forum.pcekspert.com/showthread.php?p=832553#post832553 (I started that thread... Don't expect wisdom from MS users either, when they claim to be knowledgeable, rare exceptions there.)

[Note 3] Word of caution [2] The backup of Windows Vista (nor of any other Windows either, in all probability) won't work (without hacking, and I can't do it), won't work if for some reason your original motherboard the Windows that you backed up was installed on, died (as mine did: the SATA controller started misbehaving, and the system wouldn't boot. When loading drivers in the Safe Mode chosen from the menu after the failed Windows Startup, it would only reach through to msdisk.sys and mschek.sys or some such, cannot remember for certain, and it would restart the computer from step zero, the BIOS screen etc.) and you are trying to restore it on the replacement MBO you got from your dealer, albeit it's the same exact model. No way! The Windows OS is made not to work for you, but to get money from you. Those people are worse than street robbers because they cripple functionality, they disable things, just to get more dirt called money for themselves, just to get what they don't need, to get that which they greed.

What's legal about it? Legal should be what is lawful, and lawful is what God commanded us. Period dot. And lawful doing so certainly isn't.

But, sure, every lawyer will probably tell you it's legal.

So, I'm afraid I will have to reinstall Windows from scratch. As I am not a shady personality. I gave the tech support guy in the current outsourced MS Croatia the link to this Suse HOWTO of mine. He didn't know much, I am afraid he didn't even understand what md5sum meant, as he asked me questions on the consistency of my backup regardless of my previous explicit writing to him that all the files of my backup show to have the same md5sums as when they where originally taken... Also he wasn't able to tell me how to copy and paste these messages, and this is what I need help on from some expert from the Suse team:

P.S. Help is no more needed on this. But I'm leaving it for those Linuxers (or honest others) who might bump into similar messages. Explanation though is still welcome!

Startup Repair cannot repair this computer automatically.

Sending more information can help Microsoft create solutions.

Problem signature:

Problem Event Name: StartupRepairV2

Problem Signature 01: ExternalMedia

Problem Signature 02: 6.0.6000.16386.6.0.6000 16386

Problem Signature 03: 6

Problem Signature 04: 655370

Problem Signature 05: CorruptVolume

Problem Signature 06: CorruptVolume

Problem Signature 07: 0

Problem Signature 08: 1

Problem Signature 09: Chkdsk

Problem Signature 10: 0

OS Version 6.0.6000.2.0.0.256.1

Local ID: 1033

Read your privacy statement:

http://....etc.

Pls. remember the P.S. a few lines above, and read on. I am not modifying these old passages I wrote earlier, other then minimally, typoes and little else.

My question for some Suse expert who hopefully happens to read this, or to a good-humoured and not envy and hate-for-Linux ridden Windows expert: is this really a disk corruption or is it actually masked refusal to work on a sound system, because it is judged to be cloned system, and not original Windows anymore? Any explanation of those lines above is welcome from anyone who understands this.

I had to write those lines by hand, and that is disappointing, having to do it by hand after consulting an MS certified engineer... Only to be able to discover later that I could simply select the window these lines were in by tabbing to it, then Shift+F10 to get the popup menu, and copy, then fire up MS command line from the advanced recovery options (or whetever it is named), then just issue "notepad" without quotes on the command line, then Paste, and then put a FAT-formatted floppy in the floppy drive and save it.

[Note 3] Word of caution [3] Use sane judgment and Linux common tools like "shred" if need arises (I will explain below). You might have better chance to ward off the unwanted tricks being played on you by MS spywhere and paranoia as soon as the system is accessed by anything Linux, or worked on by anything Linux or opensource for that matter.

MS is not only prone on judging without actual proofs that the system was cloned and illegal (hey, the backing up of Windows by Linux, can there be any legal issues with that? Do they own the partitions and your computer because they sold you their Windows? I think not), but also don't allow for hardware failure and component replacement in any normal, civilized way.

This is how they programmed their Vista operating system to react on seeing that the motherboard wasn't the same anymore (exact same model it was, but it was a different serial number and things, it was a replacement MBO, the original developed bad SATA controller, probably due to heavy use, the video recording, Hauppauge HVR 3000 card):

It wouldn't tell what the issue really was. It would reveal so very little about why the sane system wouldn't start. I remember all I got when the truly sane system, just restored from backup wouldn't boot other than up to loading msdisk.sys and mschek.sys drivers (or some such) and it then would restart the system, and I only got it one of the times I tried to boot that system:

the checksum differs from the calculated one

(or a message to that effect, maybe to the one previously stored, but the actual wording of the message was different, I don't remember it anymore)

For the Good God's sake, Microsoft, why not tell people that you the poor team without financial resources, just plainly doubt that the system is cloned and that if that is the case, it is forbidden to do so, and kindly allow for the user to have a way of proving that his or her system isn't cloned but that he or she has a repacement system board with everything else being the same, every other piece of hardware (see the final note in very bottom concerning my case) is unchanged, is the very same as before?

How many people would decide to lie when phoning your support to explain their case and get their right, just to clone your best selling software and install it on another system? Which with your network checks anyone could only do with systems that don't go on line... I for one wouldn't lie, and many wouldn't.

But, no. The MS gang have to get their way. Deter people.

Be afraid!

Yes, be afraid. But be afraid of becoming like inspirers and creators of these and worse than these tricks are. I really would rather be hungry, I'd rather be tortured, than eat my bread from work on such despicable products that conceal workings of this kind underneath... I do hope not all of Windows is like these tricks are, and I do hope there are tech people in MS like the outsourced one I mentioned earlier on, but they are probably only exceptions.

Now on sane judgment and Linux common tools, as I mentioned earlier. Repair repeatedly showing impossible (since there was nothing to repair, other than Windows OS itself, but that cannot be done, these are probably irreparable gang), I decided to accept the offer and send Microsoft "more information" so they could "create solutions".

That is useless to you. My local MS tech support couldn't even get that which I sent, and obviously, MS can use it even to your harm.

Why "shred" (type "man shred")? That lengthy (hours or days) procedure will truly delete all that MS (or anyone else) wrote onto your partitions (NASA wouldn't recover what data previously were there anymore). You might have to use it when you need to start all over, and you don't want the records that might allow MS to play tricks on you, to be put in action.

You may sometimes have to do:

shred -zv /dev/mapper/nvidia_djcbfhff_part1

as long as you have to use MS Windows.

Of course, any other partitions also may need

shred -zv /dev/mapper/nvidia_djcbfhff_partX

where X is such as 2 or 3 or, depending of how many more partitions you have.

...and then reinstall Vista.

Myself, I at this point have a dual boot (didn't go for the floppy, as I'll anyway have to replace the local MS support with google-and-internet support if need be). Dual booting with Suse 10.2 for the issues that Suse 10.3 (at the time of writing of this howto) seems to have with BIOS RAID, see:

http://forums.suselinuxsupport.de/index.php?showtopic=62333

I used the Vista OS because I thought I didn't have to install and learn the Myth TV, or whatever programmes I need, for my Hauppauge HVR 3000...

As video for linux certainly is a little daunting and very time consuming.

(I found my page, but I still have to find my time for it: http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/pages/products/data_hvr3000.html)

But this time the Gang have wasted so much of my time and provided to me rather unbearable situations.

So video for Linux and things (I have yet to find out about these days od weeks or even months; I really have other work on my hands most always) will finally make me not depend on these impenetrable for sanity and honesty MS things.

The detail still missing that I know of (any other obscure parts of this howto, pls. let me know, look up http://www.exDeo.com click on Contact, you'll reach me, hopefully): I din't want to complicate things, but for people from the Suse team or the experts who might be reading this, I actually did also change the processor. 939 socket AMD Athlon 3000+ instead of 3500+ that was previously there. Just in case that matters in the story.

Stay away from MS if you can.