External Harddrive

I bought an internal hard drive and stuck it into a special case that i made which converted it itno an external one. It currently can be used either through USB or Firewire which is much faster then USB2. Its size is 120 gigs even theough the bad clusters make it 117 gig. If you want to learn linux and have a fast enough computer. Download Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 which is FREE and install any Distro that u'd like. If you plan to use Ubuntu or Kubuntu make sure to change the Windows size, otherwise u won't be able to boot he live CD. If you need help on that, contact me.

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That's cool that you have your own custom built enclosure drive. Are we talking about Firewire II here? Otherwise, USB 2.0 should be a bit more faster than the original Firewire connection (assuming that you don't have other USB devices sharing the resources).

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I know about Virtual PC 2004 and desktop virtualisation
But the problem I am facing is practical my brother uses Windows and he is not interested in Linux (saying it is not going to overtake Microsoft Operating systems in the Home desktop)he may be true.But I want to learn Linux so I am thinking an option in which I can install it in the same machine via a external Drive or something like that.I don't need a lot of space 20 GB will be more than sufficient.

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I'm not very knowledgeable when it comes to linux, but I know this is possible. I think the best way is to just make multiple partitions on the drive. Then you would just have a boot menu to choose which OS to boot into.
You could run it from an external drive too if you wanted but it is possible to have both on the same drive.

 

 

 

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It might be more convenient to install Linux under Virtual PC 2004 instead since you can run it directly from Windows. Otherwise, you will have to work in a full Linux environment if you install it on it's own drive/partition.

Install them on the same hard drive. You will need to get a non-destructive data partitioning program like Partition Magic (I recommend using this as I haven't tried others...like the free ones even). You will need to create a partition for Linux and the swap partition. Then install Linux on it and use a boot manager like the GAG Boot Manager to create a boot menu.

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Well virtual PC wouln't hog any resources as long as its nto running and it doesnt' work unless you start it. Its the best way to go. As some easiers said, you can split up your partitions, or if you want to do it your way. You can do it, but bootup will be a *****, you will have to reconfig GRUB bootloader to have it load windows unless specified. If you plan to take that route and need help configing GRUB, be sure to ask. I'll help you with it.

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I have 3 external drives. One is a WD mybook, 320Gb, which runs very quiet and usually is fast as well. Only when i'm backing up huge files onto it, mostly over 2 GB in size, does it stop/start writing. Another is a 200GB Seagate in a junky generic casing, which doesn't even stand on end. It can't be plugged in for longer than a couple days at a time before I need to unplug it because it gets too hot. (there's no fan inside). Plus points are small form factor and no noise. Then I have a 120GB Seagate which doesn't actually have a casing, but i have a usb to IDE cable for 2.5/3.5/5.25 drives, which is useful when you've got little drives laying around everywhere and you don't want to buy the full case for each of them.
I also have a 400GB rack-mounted drive, but that's not quite external....

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I used to run Ubuntu 6.06 this way.It will be a pain managing both the partitions (i.e windows and linux)


OK I need to know how I can make my Windows XP come first into the list of Operating Systems ?What is the minimum requirement for running a Linux distro.I have only 512 MB RAM

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@knight17: Do you have a dual-boot or some multi-booting environment setup already? If so, you will need to go into that boot loaders setting and change the boot order from there. If Windows is managing the boot menu sequence, then you can try changing the boot.ini file. Go to Start->Run and type in msconfig and hit OK. Then go to the BOOT.INI tab and you should see all your different Operating Systems listed there. Set the Windows XP one to be the default and then hit Apply and OK. Restart the computer and see if that did the trick for you.

Linux is not a power hungry operating system as far as I know. The newer versions may require a bit more resources, but with 512MB of RAM, you should be able to run Linux without any problems. I would also add that a Pentium II (preferably higher for newer Linux distros) or higher will be ok.

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I have an AMD 3000+ 64 bit edition 939 pin processor.I am now in a dual boot setup.My distribution is Ubuntu 6.06 but I am not actively using it because, I can't connect to INTERNET using my CDMA Modem (fixed wireless phone).GRUB is my boot loader.

I wish to know about the resources necessary in a virtualized enviornment

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