On Thu, 3 May 2012, kelly wrote: > I usually start off with a boot from System Rescue CD (includes gparted > as well as gdisk). > > http://www.sysresccd.org/SystemRescueCd_Homepage > > Set up partitioning much like Mike has done, and follow up with install > with distro of choice. Plus, the SysRescue CD comes in handy if things > go off the rails later. That sounds like a very cool idea. I should try it. If this is really the list of what it includes, then it has mdadm, too: http://www.sysresccd.org/Detailed-packages-list I guess that would be all I need. I'll bet it gives me root permissions so that I don't have to type "sudo" before every command. Mike