Embarassingly dumb questions

[anonymuse]

I've just read newbie guides on a variety of topics (Tivo images to Linux) for about 2.5 hours. I've got a couple really dumb questions that I'm frustrated that I can't find the answer.

1) Say I go out a purchase a Seagate DB35, I'm assuming most drives are pre-formatted NTFS. The guides just jump into commands right away. Is NTFS the correct drive format? Is formating a drive NTFS using XP okay or must it be done through Unix?

2) I'm referencing Seagates, but this could apply to any HDD. Is there a difference between using ATA-100, ATA-300, or Ultra ATA-100 when it comes to putting a new HDD in a system?

3) As I sit here on my laptop, I know I have to head back to an old PC without a lot of bays to start playing around. I need my CD-ROM to boot directly to one of the many available versions with the Tivo software on them. I'll be trying to copy with dd_rescue from an existing drive to a new one. I can only fit 2 harddrives in my PC. Can I take my two HDD out of my PC and replace them with these 2 drives and run the O/S just from the CD?

You can keep the laughter to yourself on this post! :rolleyes:

[windracer]

1) Say I go out a purchase a Seagate DB35, I'm assuming most drives are pre-formatted NTFS. The guides just jump into commands right away. Is NTFS the correct drive format? Is formating a drive NTFS using XP okay or must it be done through Unix?
The drives isn't pre-formatted at all, and you don't need to format it before using mfstools or dd_rescue.

Can I take my two HDD out of my PC and replace them with these 2 drives and run the O/S just from the CD?
Yep!

[classicsat]

1: The process you use to prepare a drive for TiVo use totally writes over what is there, so it doesn't matter if and what format it comes in.

2: There is no practical difference, as far as TiVo is concerned, as long as it is a paralell 40 pin IDE drive, or a SATA drive with an adapter.

3: Yes. Disconnect the system drives and install your TiVo source and target drives, and the CDROM drive with bootable CD inside.

[anonymuse]

I'm first going to attempt to use something like dd_rescue to at least temporarily get the data off the first set of drives to transfer a few items I should have backed up a long time ago.

So, after I've used dd_rescue, it seems logically to me to start over fresh after I'm ready to just blank everything out before putting a fresh image on--but it now appears that the process used to prepare the drive should take care of that.