gedakc wrote:When GParted Live boots, it loads a small GNU/Linux distribution into your computer's RAM and does not write to your HDD unless you instruct GParted to do so.
If your laptop is booting directly to the hard drive when the GParted Live 0.16.2-11 CD is present, then that suggests that the laptop BIOS is not seeing the boot loader on the CD. This new version using syslinux 6.02 with some patches so it is possible there is an incompatibility with the updated boot loader and your laptop.
Which architecture image are you using (i486, amd64, pae)?
Would you be able to try booting GParted Live from USB?
See GParted Live on USB.
I'm using the i486 ISO downloads.
I believe you're right about the 0.16.2-11 boot loader incompatibility with my Laptop. My other bootable media works ok on the Laptop, Acronis. Macrium Reflect, etc.
As long as I can boot with the older version gparted-live-0.14.1-6-i486 on my Laptop, I'm ok for now. I have that ISO file saved on my HDD.
Flash Drive, I'll try that, loading onto it and booting. I've never loaded a bootable media onto the Flash Drive so I'm reading the tutorials at the Gparted site.
The first thing that I read is that I'd need to create a FAT partition on the Flash Drive in order to load "Tuxboot" or use the other methods to install Gparted on my Flash Drive. I'm guessing that this can be done using Gparted.
The Drive is currenly used as a mini-backup for my NTFS items so I'll need to obtain another Flash Drive to try this, unless there's a way to create a FAT partition alongside the NTFS partition on the Flash Drive.
This is getting into an area where I have no experience (custom partitioning) but I'd like to get up to speed with the basics about it so this sounds like I'll give this a try soon.
Regarding how Linux media loads into RAM, thanks for verifying how it works. The reason that I was curious about this is that I recently booted from another Linux CD (not Gparted, another imaging/cloning media tool) and my Desktop PC behaved strangely after I booted back to my HDD. I had a couple of minor issues that I had to fix, re-seating my 'net Ethernet connector to restore the Network Adapter enable, and I had to re-insert one of my USB cables to get Windows to recognize the device from that port.
Both issues hadn't been present prior to booting from that other Linux CD. That's why I was curious about where a Linux bootable CD loads into one's PC.
I was surprised when that happened, since I hadn't seen that before, when I've booted from my other Linux-based CD's, ie, "Clonezilla", and my other Gparted CD's.
for your replies and helpful info here. I'm in the "first grade" compared to other members here , regarding custom HDD manipulating/partitioning.
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[Edit Update] I just checked my Flash Drive and it's already a FAT32 drive. I'd not noticed that before today. So I can proceed with the tutorial and download 0.16.11 to my drive.
Will that remove any other items that are on the Flash Drive?