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Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2015 6:02 am

Hi everyone, I hope you guys can help me out. I have done a bit of research, but still have some questions.

My computer took a dump the other day. (The hard drive became locked and I haven't been able to unlock it). I am in the process of upgrading my laptop to use while I am building a new tower, in the mean time, I needed more RAM and a better processor for what I am trying to develop. I bought my laptop in 2008, so you can imagine the outdated hardware that is installed.

I put in the RAM the other day, no problems. I ordered a processor and it came in on Monday. In order to put in the processor, I had to update my BIOS to the latest version. Found the latest version and downloaded it. Before I could flash the BIOS, I shut down my computer and it would start. (I should say that my laptop was a dual boot Win 8.1 Pro and Win 7 Pro), but it didn't recognize the HDD. I poked around, ran some tests and it seems the MBR is corrupted. In order to be sure it wasn't a cable that connects the HDD, I took out the HDD and replaced it with an old HDD (that ran Vista) and it booted up fine. Took that out and replaced with corrupted HDD, ran commands to rebuild the MBR and all of that failed. So, since I was in the process of upgrading my laptop, I just ordered a SSD (256 GB) and that will be here in a week. Replaced Vista (after updating the BIOS and installing new processor) with Win 8.1 Pro for the time being and installed minimal applications needed so I can finish developing an LOB application for a client.

So, here are my questions:

1) I am going to replace my DVD drive with a Optical Drive Bay Caddy so I can have an extra internal HDD, I would like to use the HDD that took a dump on me to store files (and get to the files that are on that HDD). Will the fact that the HDD is locked prevent me from reading the files that are on the drive? (My understanding it's just the MBR and I am not going to be setting that drive for running OS and other applications) Or are those files lost forever?

2) I am going to do a dual boot and use the SSD for only installing the OS and applications and have files stored either on the extra internal HDD or on my external HDD or, of course, in the cloud. For the dual boot I am going to install Win 8.1 (as I am a windows developer) but thought instead of Win 7, I am going to install Linux. Do I install Windows first and then Linux? or vice versa?

3) Is the MINT distro for Linux a good option? I really don't know Linux, but heard that distro is a good choice for beginners. I started my computer experience on DOS 4, so I am not afraid of the command line, nor not having a GUI.

4) Which is better, KDE or Gnome?

5) How large of a partition do I need to install Linux and the applications? I will be installing development tools and databases, in Windows, those are fairly large applications, but since the files themselves are going to be stored on another drive, I just need to be sure I have a large enough partition to install these applications. (The SSD is 256GB and will need to have Windows OS and my development applications, which are large)

6) Can the files stored on a HDD be comingled with the files that were created for Windows? Or, should I get a second external HDD to store the Linux files?

I have found tutorials that help with the shell, so I will be using those. My understanding with Linux, you never want to run as a "super user", unless needed, so do I set up a second profile and use that? Will that profile allow me to install applications or just have the ability to "use" them? (I don't care if I install using a super user account and then anther account for using them, no big deal)

My main reason for installing and learning Linux is I am a developer and I think you should use the tools/OS that best meets the needs of the application. For example, I am a database developer by trade, so I really want to learn Oracle (beyond the SQL statements), and while you "can" install it on Windows, it's best run on a Unix like system. I don't want to be pigeon holed into one type development, I want to expand my horizons.

Sorry about this being so long (I just had a lot of questions and you guys are so awesome at helping out members here), and if you read the whole thing and can help me out, thank you and I appreciate it immensely!

Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2015 6:18 am

A few answers.

1) If the drive itself is still operational then get it out of the machine and you should be able to use a USB to SATA connector like this http://www.amazon.co.uk/SATA-Hard-Drive-Adapter-Cable/dp/B001OORMVQ (first one that came up in a search, not a recommendation) to get at the files.

2) I've alwasy installed Linux second, but only because the laptop usually has Windows on it.

3) I use Ubuntu, which does have a Desktop with it.

5) Ubuntu itself is fairly small (5GB), the extra will depend on what you're going to install with it.

For the superuser - you set up a normal user for everyday use and anytime you need the extra priviledges, you stick "sudo" in front of the command

*** BANNED *** Joined: 26 Jul 2012 Posts: 1123

The only time I have installed Linux first is on a flash drive to boot off of (portable Linux). Dual boot Win 7 and Linux is a nice option to have on a computer with separate partitions and all.

As for *nix variety Ubuntu tends to be very beginner friendly and well documented.

Baiting Guru Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 12237

Linux Mint using the MATE DE makes for a very smooth transition from Windows. The only issue I see is that when you start "Frankensteining" hardware you could run into some problems with proprietary drivers. I'd just burn a live CD and run it from there to check hardware compatibility.

As B8er said, avoid running as root and stick with sudo.

Ubuntu is running the Unity DE. I'm not a fan but YMMV.

As for the HDD throw it a case and plug it into a working box. I would try something like http://www.hirensbootcd.org/ and see if you can mount it and recover data. You should be able to mount it even if the MBR is greased.

I have no experience with SSD, but I sure would like one.

I have had experiences in flashing BIOS, all bad.

Good luck, I am sure there are enough nerds around here to help you get that thing patched together.

Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2015 11:30 am

Quote:

1) I am going to replace my DVD drive with a Optical Drive Bay Caddy so I can have an extra internal HDD, I would like to use the HDD that took a dump on me to store files (and get to the files that are on that HDD). Will the fact that the HDD is locked prevent me from reading the files that are on the drive? (My understanding it's just the MBR and I am not going to be setting that drive for running OS and other applications) Or are those files lost forever?

The MBR and the partition table are in the same sector. If you can read any other sector, but not the MBR, copy the whole disk to a new blank disk, recreate the partition table on the new disk, and see if you can mount it. If that doesn't work, consider the files lost.

Quote:

2) I am going to do a dual boot and use the SSD for only installing the OS and applications and have files stored either on the extra internal HDD or on my external HDD or, of course, in the cloud. For the dual boot I am going to install Win 8.1 (as I am a windows developer) but thought instead of Win 7, I am going to install Linux. Do I install Windows first and then Linux? or vice versa?

It's been a long time since I've run both on my computers. On Linux, you want to have a /boot partition, which should be first on whichever drive it's on. If you have two drives, put one on each drive. But if you have an SSD, and you do lots of compiling, use it for swap.

Quote:

3) Is the MINT distro for Linux a good option? I really don't know Linux, but heard that distro is a good choice for beginners. I started my computer experience on DOS 4, so I am not afraid of the command line, nor not having a GUI.

Ubuntu is good for beginners, as I understand. I run Ubuntu, but my first distro was Red Hat. Mint, if I understand right, is pretty similar to Ubuntu.

Quote:

4) Which is better, KDE or Gnome?

Personal preference. I've run KDE almost as long as I've been running Linux.

Quote:

5) How large of a partition do I need to install Linux and the applications? I will be installing development tools and databases, in Windows, those are fairly large applications, but since the files themselves are going to be stored on another drive, I just need to be sure I have a large enough partition to install these applications. (The SSD is 256GB and will need to have Windows OS and my development applications, which are large)

I use LVM, which means I can enlarge any partition that's in LVM (but one of my disks is full of partitions because I'm partway through converting Reiser partitions to btrfs). Here are my partition sizes and how full they are:

Code:

2.8G 974M 1.9G 35% /
227M 13K 215M 1% /boot2
30G 11G 20G 36% /usr
94G 28G 66G 30% /olv
332G 608K 330G 1% /btrroot
488M 110M 343M 25% /boot
394G 1.7G 372G 1% /qemu
197G 66G 122G 35% /home
30G 2.3G 26G 9% /var

/boot and /boot2 (/boot2 is supposed to be a copy of /boot; on DragonFly I use cpdup for this, but Linux doesn't have the kernel+world vs. everything else dichotomy) are outside the LVM. /olv is for stuff that does not need to be backed up, like downloaded ISOs. /btrroot is the btrfs, currently empty, that I'm going to move /, /usr, and /olv to. /qemu is for emulated operating systems. The other partitions are usual in Linux installations.

If you use btrfs, you don't need to use separate partitions. Like HAMMER in DragonFly, you use pseudo-filesystems (btrfs calls them something else).

Quote:

6) Can the files stored on a HDD be comingled with the files that were created for Windows? Or, should I get a second external HDD to store the Linux files?

Linux and Windows use different filesystems. You'll want to make a FAT filesystem so that you can transfer files from one to the other. I don't know how well Linux handles NTFS, but I don't think Windows can read ext4.

As to files, it depends on the application. Plain text and HTML work equally well on both, though I've sent a Linux text file, with LF endings, to a Windows user and it looked corrupt. Linux editors, like kate, can handle CRLF endings with no problem.

Quote:

I have found tutorials that help with the shell, so I will be using those. My understanding with Linux, you never want to run as a "super user", unless needed, so do I set up a second profile and use that? Will that profile allow me to install applications or just have the ability to "use" them? (I don't care if I install using a super user account and then anther account for using them, no big deal)

The super user is called "root". You can have as many ordinary user accounts as you want. Only root can install programs so that everyone can use them. In Ubuntu, root has no password; you set your user account as one that can su to root, and run "sudo su" or the GUI equivalent whenever you want to install something.

Quote:

My main reason for installing and learning Linux is I am a developer and I think you should use the tools/OS that best meets the needs of the application. For example, I am a database developer by trade, so I really want to learn Oracle (beyond the SQL statements), and while you "can" install it on Windows, it's best run on a Unix like system. I don't want to be pigeon holed into one type development, I want to expand my horizons.

Sorry about this being so long (I just had a lot of questions and you guys are so awesome at helping out members here), and if you read the whole thing and can help me out, thank you and I appreciate it immensely!

I have both PostgreSQL and MySQL. Be aware that, when the PostgreSQL major version number goes up, you have to dump all your databases and reload them, or run both at once on different ports and copy everything from the old to the new.

Baiting Guru Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 12237

^ If the MBR is toast could one use something from the dd world and create a sector copy of the drive, burn it as an .iso and carve data out of that? I might be talking out of my ass but would that angle of attack work, assuming the physical HD is not DOA. This is above my pay grade but I would sure have fun trying with your drive. Smile

Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2015 4:38 pm

I soon get lost when you all start talking in letters, so I won't.

My PC is like the brush with 3 new heads and 2 new handles, but still the same brush. Ive had it since the early 90's, though there are no original parts other than the operator.

A few times over the years Ive been greeted by the black boot up screen of death (usually when I have been very busy), causing much wailing and gnashing of teeth. banghead

a couple of times it needed a new board, once a new case because the PSU had failed, and a couple of times because Windows had become corrupted. The last 2, I bought a new hard drive, installed a fresh copy of Windows (upgrading as I went), then booting up from the new drive, used the old corrupted one as a slave, external drive. Despite the fact it would no longer boot from the old drives , all the work related data was still there and salvageable, to much sighing of relief. Smile

Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2015 6:27 pm

^^You would use dd, but from one hard drive to another, not to a CD or DVD. The biggest DVD is 17 GB; the hard drive is probably bigger than that.

Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2015 8:18 pm

Thank you everyone! Great advice. I will check out Ubuntu and compare it with Mint.

I can't burn anything to the DVD as that is shot and why I am going to get an optical drive bay caddy. (It replaces your DVD drive and will allow you to attach another HDD to your laptop). I am going to put the old HDD into it for an extra HDD and to see if I can retrieve the files that are on it. I have backed up a lot of the files to an external drive and the cloud, but haven't done so recently.

If Linux can't read/handle NTFS, I will just get another external drive and format it to FAT32. No big deal, storage is cheap.

Quote:

I have no experience with SSD, but I sure would like one.

If you go on Amazon, they're fairly cheap right now. Mine was only $89 for 256GB (and it's NOT hybrid, it's full SSD) I don't know if it's because the drive was made for computers built before 2011 that made it so cheap, but I was sure glad I found it. The same drive that had 128GB was $30-40 more!

Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2015 10:33 pm

If you want Ubuntu with KDE instead of Unity, it's called Kubuntu. You can install multiple desktop environments on one computer; just find the meta-package in the package manager. You will have to choose one (kdm, gdm, xdm) for the display manager, which will let you choose which desktop environment you want to log into.

I think the case that Pastor Frank refers to is a container you put the drive into and connect to the computer with a USB cable. I have two of those for different-sized drives. Note that, if you partition a drive in the case, it may not work inside the computer, but if you partition it in the computer, it will work in the case. I'm not sure why.

Baiting Guru Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 12237

vonpaso xlura wrote:

I think the case that Pastor Frank refers to is a container you put the drive into and connect to the computer with a USB cable.

That is exactly what I'm talking about. Or you could just use an IDE>USB or SATA>USB adapter, they are relatively cheap and don't have a fancy case.

Also, a newer but quite refined DE for Mint is Cinnamon, check it out.

http://cinnamon.linuxmint.com/

Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2015 3:32 am

^^^^I downloaded the user manual for both Mint Cinnamon & MATE. It sounds like those are run over Ubuntu? (A little confused on the structure of Linux, but I am sure I can figure it out, eventually) They also have one "Linux Mint Debian". I have been leaning toward cinnamon version. (They also have Mint KDE? - boy do I have a lot of research to do!)

I think I am at the same website you are : http://www.linuxmint.com/

I also found this tutorial: http://linuxcommand.org/index.php

I want to learn Linux, not just Linux with a GUI on top. I want to understand the file structure, it's kernel etc. That's why I want the most user friendly and well documented distro. I tried learning 10 years ago, but some of the forums were not very "newbie" friendly. Just told me to google what I was looking for or read the man pages. Well, the problem with that is I didn't know what I was to look for! It's great to see the community is a bit more "new user" friendly.

In my line of work, I program a lot automation in MS Office applications using VBA, so I want to learn the programming languages in the comparable Office Suites on Linux. I think it would open a lot more doors for me.

I do appreciate everyone's input.

I also found that I can use my old HDD (if it's functional) partition it, and create a FAT/FAT32 partition and a NTFS partition.

I believe my old HDD's MBR is what is corrupted. When booting my laptop with it, the little light that shows the HDD is running showed, it just wouldn't recognize that MBR. I think the data that's on there is viewable, so I will take out the DVD and replace it with the old HDD. If not, I will just try and reformat it and count the data gone. Most of it (like 98% of it) is already backed up on an external drive or in cloud storage, so I am not worried about lost data, pain to recreate, but I could turn this into a "teachable moment" of always backing up whenever a new file is created.

I read it was best to install windows first and Linux second. Something about "grub" getting wacky results if you do it Linux first and then Windows. I could be wrong though!

Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2015 3:58 am

Some Buddy At Home wrote:

I downloaded the user manual for both Mint Cinnamon & MATE. It sounds like those are run over Ubuntu? (A little confused on the structure of Linux, but I am sure I can figure it out, eventually)

Think early versions of Windows - it's a command line based system with a GUI on top, rather that the current dumbed down versions of Windows where the command line is hidden and they do their best to keep you away from it. They boot to the GUI, but it is easy to get to the CL.

Some Buddy At Home wrote:

I want to learn Linux, not just Linux with a GUI on top. I want to understand the file structure, it's kernel etc. That's why I want the most user friendly and well documented distro.

If you're going to be looking at programming then you'll want to learn shell scripts, awk and sed - you can pretty much pick a distro that feels right to you and then learn these independently. I learnt awk on Unix mainframes and have had no problem with it on Ubuntu.

Because Linux is a more developer oriented OS and is open-source, you'll find a lot more technical info available, so as long as you go for one of the main distros, you shouldn't have much of a problem finding support .

Some Buddy At Home wrote:

In my line of work, I program a lot automation in MS Office applications using VBA, so I want to learn the programming languages in the comparable Office Suites on Linux. I think it would open a lot more doors for me.

OpenOffice and LibreOffice are the 2 main Office Suites and both have the ability to be programmed in a VBA like language (there's enough differences to make moving an app from Excel to Calc for example a challenge). But, both are also available on Windows if you want to get a feel of them.

Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2015 3:59 am

Grub is the Grand Unified Bootloader. What may happen if you install Windows second is that it'll overwrite Grub with the Windows bootloader. It's been years since I tried that.

LVM is the Logical Volume Manager (which is available also on DragonFly BSD). With it, you make a partition filling most of the disk (you should have a separate /boot, in case the BIOS doesn't read past a certain sector or Grub can't read your root filesystem, but I've seen Linux boot from LVM), and allocate volumes (which behave like partitions, but you can resize any of them) to hold filesystems.

I run lots of GUI programs, but I also have twelve Konsoles open for command lines. One has three tabs open to various subdirectories of ~/scambait, one has a tab in scamin (where I put scam emails I get) and scamout (where they go after running a script to remove my email address), two more for developing programs, etc. You can run GUI programs from the command line by putting "&" at the end.

Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2015 4:54 am

You guys are so awesome! Thank you, things are becoming a bit clearer now. If I wanted to use a computer with a GUI, I would just stick with Windows, it is my main source of income. BUT, I want to expand my horizons by learning lower level programming and learn C/C++ (I know the basics of those two languages, but using C++ kinda sucks in visual studios, and prefer to use Code::Blocks instead, which I see is available in Linux. Also, if you know one programming language, it pretty easy to pick up another. I want to learn more programming drivers or working with the hardware.

I absolutely cannot afford Dreamweaver/Illustrator or Photoshop, so I am wondering what the equivalent is in Linux. Also, is there a better development IDE in Linux than Code::Blocks?

I loved DOS way back in the 80's (hated DOS 5 (DOSSHELL) when it came out) and it took me until Windows 95 to actually install the darned thing. I feel more in control using the command line than clicking a button. Visual Studios has all kinds of templates for programming and I really despise those. Everything anymore is "write less code". I am a programmer, not a drag and drop no coding template driven programmer. If I didn't like to write code, then I wouldn't have become a programmer in the first place, I would have finished my accounting degree and become a CPA! <vent over>

Thanks everyone. I am going to finish up the .pdf's I downloaded and then download a Mint.

Oh, one more question. One of the reasons I upgraded my processor is so my laptop would support virtualization. It does support virtualization so I can run the emulators in Visual Studios (I also create phone apps for windows phones) but my system doesn't support/have SLAT (which Hyper-V requires to create a VM).

On Linux, can I install VMware or other such virtualization software and create a VM? Or am I still hindered by the SLAT requirement? If SLAT isn't an issue, which virtualization software works best? I am not going to be running a ton of VM's at a time, but it would be nice to create a VM to test new OS's or different OS for the programs I develop. Not everyone runs the same version of windows and I like testing how my applications work on different OS's to get the bugs out before release.

Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2015 4:59 am

For a Photoshop alternative, GIMP is available as a package in Ubuntu, so it may well be included in other distros or if not can be downloaded.

Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2015 5:23 am

^^^ thanks B8er! You're a peach! Wink

Baiting Guru Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 12237

Also, if you have any Windows programs you need to use you can run them in Linux over Wine (Windows emulator). It does not work 100% of the time but it is damn nifty.

https://www.winehq.org/

Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2015 12:07 pm

I write programs in C++ (there's a short one on this site; I wrote it during SS). I used to use Kdevelop, an IDE, but they changed it, and I figured it would be easier to cooperate with other programmers if we weren't both using different IDEs. So I switched to a setup using Kate as the editor and CMake (which is easier to set up than the autotools) as the build system and set up a private Git server to keep track of my projects until I publish them.

For virtualization, Qemu is available as packages. I got it to do something, but it didn't appear to work quite right, and I haven't put the time into it. You can also get VMware, but not in the package manager, and I haven't tried it.

Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2015 1:46 pm

vonpaso xlura wrote:

I wrote it during SS

Aha! So that's what you were doing! Cool

Not quite a Newb Joined: 18 May 2014 Posts: 26

You seem to have got some great advice here but I'll provide my 2 cents worth on linux. I use Mint myself and I think it's a great distro for newbies to start with. You'll have all the multimedia codecs installed by default which will make it easier on you.

As far as desktop environments go, everyone you speak with will have a different opinion on which is the best, however, gnome and KDE seem to suit newer hardware so if you use them it may (depending on your hardware) be a little slow. If you find this is happening, I recommend using XFCE. Mint has an XFCE version.

Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2015 10:16 pm

Malin, I think I am going to go with Mint. I am reading all the user documentation pdfs that they have on the site. I am almost done with Cinnamon, then I will read the others (although I didn't see one for KDE or XFCE, but I may have missed it)

I take it that I can do virtualization (with software) on Linux even though in Hyper-V I am unable to because my system doesn't support SLAT? Is SLAT just a Hyper-V thing? (I really suck at hardware)

In my BIOS, it says that virtualization is enabled, I couldn't enable it before I upgraded my processor. In Windows, I am able to install all the Hyper-V features except "Hyper-V platform" as my system (don't know if it's processor or motherboard) doesn't support SLAT.

Since my BIOS says it supports virtualization, if, on Linux, I install VMware (I think it's "Player 7"), will I be able to create a VM? I don't want to run a bunch of VMs all at one time, but it would be nice to be able to install different versions of OS's so I can test my software. The only reason I had Windows 7 installed on a separate partition is so I could test software.

I had read somewhere that if your system doesn't support SLAT, you can install Windows Server 2012 (which I have) and you can run Hyper-V. Perhaps the whole SLAT thing is just a Windows 8 thing?

Posted: Sun Jan 11, 2015 7:26 am

I am going to go with Mint distro. I downloaded both the Cinnamon & KDE editions. (I am going with Cinnamon, as Pastor Frank recommended/pointed it out, and since I have such a crush on Pastor Frank, yes the word is out, I just love his wit, not to mention his intelligence and the fact that he genuinely cares about victims and not wanting them to be scammed!)

I poked around the Mate & Xfce, but between the 4 editions is was a toss up of Cinnamon & KDE. After I install Cinnamon, I will create a VM and check out KDE (it is my second choice because I really respect vonpaso xlura opinions and her code from the tri-lingual WU generator made it easy to create a function in Excel for those who wanted an Excel version (which I will be creating for LibreOffice and Open Office users as well). I went to the KDE website and it looks like a lot more tools/packages(?) come with it. Still trying to figure out whether the packages are put in a directory and then you install via Package Manager or via the terminal (sudo apt ...)

Anyway, I do have a few questions.

1) I have the ISO, tried using the Windows 7 USB Download tool to create a bootable USB to install Mint. It failed as it didn't recognize the ISO image, is it because my USB stick is NTFS? Should I reformat the stick for FAT32 and try for that? Solved!

2) I have downloaded "The Universal USB installer 1.9.5.8" as stated in the tutorial from this tutorial, but didn't see a mention of converting the USB stick to FAT32? I will dry and run it without formatting and see what happens. Solved! The tool formatted the USB stick for me

3) I shrank my Windows partition and allocated 55GB to install Mint. Should I reformat that partition to FAT32, or will, when I am installing Linux, the install process reformat that partition automatically?

4) Can someone explain, in a nutshell, what vonpaso xlura wrote about these file structures.

Code:

2.8G 974M 1.9G 35% /
227M 13K 215M 1% /boot2
30G 11G 20G 36% /usr
94G 28G 66G 30% /olv
332G 608K 330G 1% /btrroot
488M 110M 343M 25% /boot
394G 1.7G 372G 1% /qemu
197G 66G 122G 35% /home
30G 2.3G 26G 9% /var

Or, point me to a website that explains the important files and their structure on Linux? I imagine the first one "/" is the root, but what does "/boot2" mean? I also saw a phrase "swap" in my reading as a drive (it's supposed to be 1.5 times the available RAM in your system, so would that drive need to be 6GB (I have only 4GB of RAM on my computer))

I am sorry for asking so many questions, but everyone in this thread has helped me understand so much vs what I have been reading on other sites.

*** BANNED *** Joined: 26 Jul 2012 Posts: 1123

On the bootable USB: https://launchpad.net/win32-image-writer

From windows do as follows: Plug your USB stick into your Windows USB port and launch the Win32 Disk Imager software, choose the ISO file to be imaged/verify that the USB drive to be overwritten is the correct one, and once the imaging is complet safely eject the USB drive from the Windows machine. You can now use the USB device to boot from (might have to hit F12 or something when booting to choose the drive).

Posted: Sun Jan 11, 2015 7:53 am

Some Buddy At Home wrote:

4) Can someone explain, in a nutshell, what vonpaso xlura wrote about these file structures.
Or, point me to a website that explains the important files and their structure on Linux?

Each line in VX's list is a partition on a drive - this article tells you all you want to know about partitioning (it's not for Mint, but the principles are the same).

Some Buddy At Home wrote:

I also saw a phrase "swap" in my reading as a drive

It's for virtual memory - from the same site.

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