That didn't go so well....

...I have an older laptop with Vista on it. I want to image it and store the image (in case my family or I need something like pics, docs, etc) on a removable disk. Then maybe install Ubuntu on this laptop. Several family members use and have stored data on this laptop.

If we need to look at or retrieve something from this image, will we be able to see and maybe use most of the programs on the image like we can on XP and W7? I know you need things like "jpeg" and other extensions, but will Ubuntu "know" most extensions (especially pics, address books, "windows" versions of browsers, etc), or do I just have to retrieve stuff on my other XP desktop computer?

Thanks for the insight if you have any, lol

Cat in Seattle

I put it on one of my son's computers who could find a way to break a marble. He killed his Windows machine so many times, it was aggravating. I have found that Ubuntu was friendly with most extensions. I'm not an Ubuntu expert, but I do like it. He still hasn't found a way to kill it.

I have heard some talk of perhaps Ubuntu preferring file names with the lowercase extensions, .jpg instead of .JPG.

If you duplicate all the files on the laptop to an external hard drive, and then on the laptop put Ubuntu as a replacement, then for most external hard drives you can plug it in, Ubuntu will recognize it, and the files would be on the external drive just like any other.

If you have plenty of disk space on the laptop, then if you're looking to try Ubuntu you can, during the Ubuntu install, partition your disk. Then the laptop will give a choice of booting into Ubuntu *or* Vista. Ubuntu can see all the files on a Vista installation just fine so reading will be OK... writing is a different matter, it's supported but on reboot into Vista, Vista may ask to check the integrity of the disk.