Is this possible?

kidkhaos · 30 May 2008 at 15:13

On my m1330 i have a dual boot set up vista with the power button and ubuntu with the midia direct button. What i wanted was a third partition that the other two cannot access, also on that partication i wanted an antivirus , antispyware and defrag software on it. So ever week or so i could boot up the third partition and run the antivirus, antispyware and defrag program on my linux and vista partiton without being either partition, thus hopefully speeding it up and improve the quality of my defrag also have no chance of a virus or something infecting my antivirus as my main two partitons will not be active at the time.

The best way i though i could achieve this is with a usb flash drive to be my third partition and have my laptop bios set up to boot from there first. I will have a firewall set up on the usb drive to block all in and out going communication except for the 3 software mentioned above to allow them to update.

Is this idea sound? If so what do you feel is the best version of linux of have as the the third OS, it need to be small fast and have avalible to it a good antivirus, antispyware and drefrag software.

I'm new to linux, in fact i just install my first version a few mins ago...............go easy on me lads

,thxs

p.s i still will have an an antivirus install on my other two partitions for real time protection.

Ethics · 30 May 2008 at 15:27

There are boot cds and live cds you can use for this purpose (will have to google i'm afraid).

If you wanted the 3rd partition not accessible you could put it on an encrypted filesystem. Vista can't see most FS' anyway without drivers, and Ubuntu is a choice whether to mount it or not. You could use a flash drive if you wanted.

No need to defrag Ubuntu, fragmentation of files is minimal if it even happens at all. Anti-virus is also different on a *nix system, for one you have limited read/write access to most files, and secondly virus' are a lot less common on linux due to several factors such as lower market share and more sane security policies. You're better off checking for rootkits, using things like rkhunter.

kidkhaos · 30 May 2008 at 15:35

thxs for you reply, the point of the third partition is so it can run antivirus scans on my other two partitions and defrag them to. Would i be able to do something like this?

,thxs

Tobes · 30 May 2008 at 15:47

kidkhaos said:
thxs for you reply, the point of the third partition is so it can run antivirus scans on my other two partitions and defrag them to. Would i be able to do something like this?

,thxs

Ethics just said. Linux does not need to be defragged or virus checked. So you might as well stick with your current duel boot and virus check and defrag when in windows for that partition.

kidkhaos · 30 May 2008 at 16:00

ah right, thxs

thegoonden · 31 May 2008 at 07:49

As for hiding....as someone said, Vista supports NTFS, and that's about your lot (I plugged a VFAT external disc into my vista and it was like kryptonite to it, I cannot be sure if it was the bare fact of it being VFAT, or because it was larger than windows is willing to make a vfat partition normally). So formatting it to ext2/3 or reisersfs (if you don't mind a FS made by a highly dubious human being). And if you want to hide something from Linux, don't tell linux about it. If you don't put it in your etc/fstab Linux wont mount and use it. Ubuntu might do something retarded and windowsy involving supermounting filesystems, so you'll either need to kill that nonsense off (it'll sneak up on you one day anyway), or specifically exclude that partition (ubuntu will have docs for this).
And really you do not need to defrag, that's a legacy thing for legacy filesystems like fat, vfat and ntfs. As for viri, well if you don't run as root all day, what's a virus gonna do, move the icons on your gnome dekstop about?
Rootkits are worth worrying about. They are rare, and hard to get onto a system, but doing so is quite a prize. As I always explain it to my mate...windows is a water pistol protected by a sign saying "please don't steal this water pistol as you will upset Bill". Whereas Linux has barbed wire fences and minefields because it's not a waterpistol it's an ion cannon. A compromised Linux box is a SERIOUS weapon for any prospective cracker/script kiddie.