From XP to Linux...

Hello,

I will get Linux Mint 17.1 XFCE then,as it is a bit smaller in size...Thanks brainout!!!Your post will definitely make my work easier as I won't need to mess up with my HDD...I however do not have a cd or dvd of a size as huge as that...The one with me has a maximum capacity of 700mb...So, can I instead burn the iso to a usb stick using universal usb installer(I have used it before so I know how)??

I hope that the method brainout suggested won't overwrite anything important...

Thanks

RJ

So, can I instead burn the iso to a usb stick using universal usb installer(I have used it before so I know how)??

Yes, I've had some Linux versions being somehow incompatible with some USB installers, but generally speaking they work fine. If it doesn't work, just try a different USB installer. UNETBootin is what I've mostly used.
 

I hope that the method brainout suggested won't overwrite anything important...

As Cat mentioned, the safest thing to do is to remove the internal HDD from the computer, before installing Mint on the external HDD. Then when you're finished, put it back in again.

Or, just remove the plugs from it, which obviously has the same effect. That's what I used to do with my second internal HDD that contains data I don't want to accidentally wipe, the first few times I installed Linux on my 'main' internal HDD.

Hello,

I will get Linux Mint 17.1 XFCE then,as it is a bit smaller in size...Thanks brainout!!!Your post will definitely make my work easier as I won't need to mess up with my HDD...I however do not have a cd or dvd of a size as huge as that...The one with me has a maximum capacity of 700mb...So, can I instead burn the iso to a usb stick using universal usb installer(I have used it before so I know how)??

I hope that the method brainout suggested won't overwrite anything important...

Thanks

RJ

RJNB, imo don't use any stupid Installers, get your self a DVD-R and Burn the iso Image to the disc CD's are too small.  Do this with 17.1 Mate and Xfce.  Sometimes Mate will  work as good or better than the smaller xfce, the beauty of all this is that you can try them out without ANY hassle by just booting the DVD and Test-drive them.  If you have a decent internet connection it won't take but Fifteen minutes at most to download, and less to burn.  Then you will Boot from DVD with the usb in the drive and do a full install to USB from the disc.

 

Take your time and make it good, cat, Al and Nick have all done this many times so they will give you the best advise, among others.  I forget the exact directions so I won't go into it now.  brainouts instructions are good but not exact, and you need exact if you do a Full External Install to USB.  This is why cat is saying to disconnect your drive.  It's not real difficult but needs to be done right or you will wipe you XP drive clean, with no recovery, yeah, ask me how I know LOL.  I've done it many times without disconnecting the HDD but one needs to be careful if doing so.

 

If you use the UUI then you don't need to worry about overwriting anything if I remember right, that software does it all for you, but it is not as good as a Full Install, which is what you will need to do later to your external drive anyway.  That's why I suggested this, so you can get the experience with the USB Full Install and the "Mint Installer".

 

I tried Mate and Xfce last night on a 2010 HP with measly specs, and Mate actually ran a little better in some ways.  Mate is preferable over xfce imo if possible.  This likely won't matter for the practice usb install.  One thing about xfce, it has an Expandable Menu-really nice feature that Mate should have also?

 

The most important thing when doing a Full Install is Choosing the "Bootloader Device" at the bottom of the installer.  It needs to be your USB Drive chosen in the dropdown.

@pcpunk:  you wrote, "brainouts instructions are good but not exact, and you need exact if you do a Full External Install to USB."  What did I miss?  I recounted the steps I actually took to get the installation on an external drive.  The only thing  I left out was the kind of hassle Mint might make over the external installation drive chosen, because it doesn't react the same way, all the time, to all media.  The steps are taken from a post I made in linuxmint forum linked in vimeo, and others did get the install to work that way.

 

And to be frank, I didn't need to remove the internal hard drive, for the Mint 17 install.  That link is more generic, including Ubuntu and Fedora problems, which YES need to see NO internal drive, to install properly.  I've installed Ubuntu, Fedora 17 and 22, Mint 13 without internal hard drive present.  Mint 17.1 MATE did not need me to have the hard drive removed, prior.  So someone fixed that problem, in that version.

 

Please correct me where needed?  Thank you for your time!

Edited by brainout, 26 July 2015 - 04:01 PM.

Sorry brainout, I did not see anything about choosing the "Device for Bootloader Installation".  Perhaps I missed it, but isn't this is a critical part of the install if leaving the HDD mounted?  Perhaps I should not have commented as it's been a long time since I've done this.

 

5.  Then click on 'Install Mint', and it will present you with both your 37 GB internal drive, and the external.  Select the external.

I did not remember this part, except that the installer shows all drives and the right one needs to be chosen, which might look foreign to a noob, like /dev/sdb1.  Then choose the Bootloader Device, is that wrong?

 

I will have to do this again soon and take good notes! sorry for the confusion.

 

I did not remember this part

 

I will have to do this again soon and take good notes! sorry for the confusion.

If you are not sure don't give advice.

 

Brainouts instructions are fine.

@brainout

 

4.  When it boots, you'll see 'Install Mint' icon almost in the middle of the screen.  Hook up that #3 drive/stick to your usb port.
5.  Then click on 'Install Mint', and it will present you with both your 37 GB internal drive, and the external.  Select the external.
6.  At this point, Mint might fight you over the drive being too small.  Ignore that, and look for any option to 'free up space' on it, and let it decide the partitioning.  You may have to go back and forth to get it to accept the drive (bug in the installer).

-REF: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/583407/from-xp-to-linux/#entry3770311

 

Now, you're ready to boot in Linux with NO space taken up on your internal hard drive, which is precious. NO changes are made to boot.ini or your mbr, so NO problems with XP.

-REF: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/583407/from-xp-to-linux/#entry3770311

In regards to step 5, I would note that user will not be given a list of drives unless the user chooses the manual partitioning mode. The user will then also need to do more than simplily choose the desired drive, they must setup any needed partitions, partition table, and choose a bootloader (technically the boot-strap code, and boot-manager) installation location.

@pcpunk

 

brainouts instructions are good but not exact, and you need exact if you do a Full External Install to USB.  This is why cat is saying to disconnect your drive.

-REF: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/583407/from-xp-to-linux/page-2#entry3771765

 

I did not see anything about choosing the "Device for Bootloader Installation".  Perhaps I missed it, but isn't this is a critical part of the install if leaving the HDD mounted?  Perhaps I should not have commented as it's been a long time since I've done this.

-REF: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/583407/from-xp-to-linux/page-2#entry3771821

Brainout's instructions presume not disconnecting the internal drive, and as such, you are correct, choosing where to install the bootloader (technically it's the bootstrap-code & boot-manager) is very important to do, especially since the OP intends to install on an external drive. This means choosing "something else" for partitioning rather than the default option "Install Linux Mint alongside Microsoft Windows XP", or worse "Erase disk and install Linux Mint" (the default option when no OS is detected!).
 

These screenshots are from Linux Mint Mate 17.1:

 

Edited by hollowface, 26 July 2015 - 06:16 PM.

Thank you, hollowface.  I was talking from memory, having no ability to record the installation onscreen.  So now what pcpunk was looking for, you furnished.  Thank  you again!

 

The point is, by having Linux on an external drive/stick. you can use it with any machine of 1 GB ram or more.  That becomes important in so many ways, were I Tyrant of the PC World, I'd mandate each PC having a Linux drive/stick like that, to rescue/do houskeeping in, Windows.

 

Well, I'd be tempted to mandate it, but would prolly just advertise why it's a good idea.

Edited by brainout, 26 July 2015 - 07:16 PM.

 

 

I did not remember this part

 

I will have to do this again soon and take good notes! sorry for the confusion.

If you are not sure don't give advice.

 

Brainouts instructions are fine.

 

I disagree, the point to this exercise was for RJNB to learn how to use the installer and nothing else.  He is a regular here and wants to learn.  I believe I was the one who suggested it, as he wants to create an external drive of a bigger size later.  http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/583407/from-xp-to-linux/#entry3771064

 

So I was confused as to the instructions brainout provided.  Sorry to brainout that was my mistake.

 

Choose "Something Else" like hollowface showed, this is the way to go to learn how to use the installer.

Then from the top down:

Select "Free Space" on the usb drive and click the + Sign.

Then create the Size of partition

Then set as Primary

Choose "End of Space"

Choose ext4

Mount Point, click the tool bar and set first partition as "root /"    

Select OK

 

Then do the same again but next will be set as  /home

Do the same again but set the next as swap.

Refer to cat's quote below for partition sizes

 

Before Clicking Install make sure that the Bootloader Destination is your USB Device, and click Install.

 

Here is a Quote from cat1092: "If it's a 16GB Flash drive, 8GB root or (/), 5.5GiB /home, and 512MiB Swap, That leaves close to 10% free. Or you can just perform the automatic install, after removing/disconnecting the drive from inside of your computer. With a 16GiB Flash drive, it's kind of tight making all of these partitions. There is an automatic install procedure that creates the partitions for you, and after the install is complete, reboot, be sure to open the Terminal from the Start Menu and enable your Firewall by typing 'sudo ufw enable' w/out the quotes, press Enter & your password after prompted, then update the OS.

Edited by pcpunk, 26 July 2015 - 08:36 PM.

Hello,

Thanks hollowface, brainout and pcpunk...I will rather get MATE then as pcpunk said it might be a little faster...I have already started downloading it and will burn it to usb...

 

RJNB, imo don't use any stupid Installers, get your self a DVD-R and Burn the iso Image to the disc CD's are too small.  Do this with 17.1 Mate and Xfce.

I really do not have any dvds that big-I have one with about 1 gb but that won't be enough, therefore I am going for usb...I have plenty of them-one is of 8gb, one of 16gb, one 4gb,one of 2gb and many 1 gb ones...I will burn it to the 2 gb one and then install it on the external hard disk....If that might be a problem, please let me know...I will wait till someone gives me a green signal.

I just wanted to confirm something-will my data on the external hdd(about 30 to 40 gbs) be lost??If yes, I will transfer it to my other laptop which runs windows 7 home premium and has lots of free space...

Thanks

RJ

RJNB, the 2GB one is plenty, I have that size of an SD card that I connect to a USB card reader (in essence the same as a Flash drive), so you're OK. 

 

I also use the Universal USB Installer for these tasks, great little piece of software! Creates all types of media, not just those to install Linux with. 

 

Good Luck!

 

Cat

Hello,

I will start the burning process now...Will the external hdd be wiped clean by the way?? Do I need to back it up first?

Thanks

RJ

 

 

 You might want to test this stuff out on a cheap/inexpensive 16gb usb, then move to the External Drive install, will be the same thing anyway.

 

It may be OK to test this on a 16GiB Flash drive, but the External Drive install is a totally different experience, it's much faster than most any Flash drive under $40. Actually, depending on the buffer (the cache of the external, measured in MB's), it can be much faster than the internal drive. I once had, probably am repeating this for the 50th time, both Linux MInt & Ubuntu installs on a USB drive in a powered enclosure that held a WD Caviar Black, running at 7200 rpm & 32MB cache (this was before SATA-3 HDD's with 64MB cache was released, if so would have been faster) & connected by USB 2.0. If there was that type of drive in the enclosure, 7200 rpm, 64MB cache, the sky would be the limit, one wouldn't want to return to their internal drive. 

 

At any rate, both OS's ran at least 5x faster than either XP or Linux Mint of the same version on the stock IDE HDD, running at 7200 rpm, crippled by a 2MB cache & boot was in just a few seconds. That extra cache meant a lot! USB 2.0 shamed the native drive's speed, even an external drive with an 8 or 16MB cache would have been an improvement. Plus it's powered externally & unlike the internal drive, where the speed will vary some, the speed is constant in an external. 

 

So a drive's specs can say 7,200 rpm all it wants, it's the cache, often termed buffer, that matters the most on spinner drives. 

 

Cat

Hello,

I will start the burning process now...Will the external hdd be wiped clean by the way?? Do I need to back it up first?

Thanks

RJ

 

If it were me, I'd do so, just to be on the cautious side. Sometimes partitioning will render the files inaccessible afterwards, especially on drives that's not defragmented often. Backup or external drives usually aren't. 

 

Only you can place a value on your data, so I'll leave that call up to you. If you have a lot of stored files on there that you value or need, you should think carefully about the risks of partitioning. Because the files are scattered all over the drive, there's no promise that the partitioning will make this right. 

 

Cat

Hello,

Okay....I have backed up all the files on the hdd...Will start the process now...Will let you know if anything horrible happens...

Thanks

RJ