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Post by lazysod on Apr 11, 2009 20:39:52 GMT
Hi Mikkh I was wondering if you could advise me I have a new wee notebook which came with XP installed, I have read the thread about booting from a pen drive but can you also install linux from a pendrive as well. This wee notebook has 160 gig hardrive so I have lots of space as I have xp on and all the programs I cannot live without and have only used 12 gig I would love to dual boot with linux like i did on my PC but I am not too sure which Linux I should try and if I can install it OK from a pen drive as I don't have an external cd/dvd but I do have an external hard drive case which I thought hooking up my cd/dvd drive to might work but I have not tried this yet. Also this notebook just has 1 gig ram but I have used acronis on it so if it all goes wrong I can get XP back ok without the cd drive as its all acronised over to external USB drive. I would be grateful for any advice or should I just leave this as it is and just use XP on it.
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Post by mikkh on Apr 11, 2009 22:15:55 GMT
Nah, never just leave it - no fun in that :-p
You could install Mint or Ubuntu 'wubi' style quite easily, you just need to get the ISO on the hard drive by either downloading it directly or using a pen/thumb drive. Then all you need to do is use a 'virtual CD' to load the ISO into
Daemon tools do a free one, or did do, because I've just looked and seen the dreaded 'buy now' label. It looks like like you can get a trial version though which would do as you'll only need it once.
Nero comes with 'virtual CD' facilities if you have that installed, or you could just use a trial version of Winrar to extract the contents of the ISO and run the installer that way
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Post by lazysod on Apr 11, 2009 22:23:14 GMT
Oh thanks Mikkh I had not thought of using wubi thanks so much for all your suggestions I will let you know how I get on oh I am so happy to think I could have mint on this notebook as well as I prefer Linux now to windows.  |
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Post by lazysod on Apr 11, 2009 22:41:17 GMT
Going to try wubi now first as it is the easiest option I may get braver later and try mint again as I preferred it to ubuntu but this will do me for now 30 minutes remaining for the download oh I am so happy if I can use linux again. Thank you for the reminder I had totally forgotten about Wubi I was just used to installing linux not through windows but this way saves me any hassles thanks. |
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Post by mikkh on Apr 12, 2009 0:55:37 GMT
Mint has it's own 'wubi' type installer called 'mint4win' It's exactly the same as 'wubi' - only you get a better system (Mint)
If you get very brave later, you can also do a net install for Suse and Debian, but I wouldn't recommend either as an exercise or a finished install. I did it because it was there, and regretted it almost immediately!
have fun sweetheart ;o)
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Post by elvisuk on Apr 12, 2009 1:19:06 GMT
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Post by mikkh on Apr 12, 2009 10:51:29 GMT
It's a good link for other people, but in this case doesn't apply - she doesn't have an internal CD/DVD drive
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Post by lazysod on Apr 12, 2009 14:31:14 GMT
I used Wubi as it was the easiest option to begin with and it worked great I have dual boot now oh  so so much I quite liked Ubuntu although I did prefer Mint it had more to offer and was easier so I may try to install it the way you suggested Mikkh as this way worked so easily I now have the confidence to try to get mint working. Luckily I have acronis so if I mess it up totally I will just restore it to the way it is now. I am grateful for your advice as I had no idea how to start it on this netbook without having to buy an external drive. Thanks for the link Elvis if I did have an external drive it would have helped a lot it is a very good link and as Mikkh said it may help others to boot from a pendrive. ;D |
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Post by lazysod on Apr 12, 2009 19:19:59 GMT
Just to let you know I downloaded linuxmint ISO to the desktop and using winrar as you suggested Mikkh I clicked mint4win and hey presto it installed mint through windows I liked this idea as if I had any problems I could just remove it through windows add and remove programs, well I have no problems, it is running perfectly so I can dual boot XP and Mint again. When you get used to having another OS you miss it so I am happy today I now have this wee notebook just how I want it. Thankyou for your help :-) I had not heard of mint4win before so I was going to use Ubuntu but Mint is much better.
Well now it is all set up I can just use it for the fun stuff like popping into CIT. :-)
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Post by mikkh on Apr 12, 2009 19:30:39 GMT
Good, glad you got it sorted
I'm hoping other distros adopt this option too, because it's definitely the easiest way to try Linux
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Post by lazysod on Apr 12, 2009 19:43:06 GMT
Yes it is the easiest way especially if you're using a netbook with the PC I did not mind taking chances as it was easy to reinstall windows with the CD but as I cannot do that now this was definitely the best option and much safer I am surprised more people do not try it as it is just like installing a program and so easily removed if you decide not to have it as I removed Ubuntu through add and remove before I installed this it even removed the small partition it made to install it on so nothing to worry about. Your a star Mikkh for telling me how to do this.
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