From XP to Linux...

RJNB, So was that video helpful?

When in doubt, start over lol.

How is the speed?

Those finicky Partitions lol. 

Edited by pcpunk, 24 October 2015 - 05:16 PM.

Hello,

No, the video did not quite help but your statement did, pcpunk! Remember, you said 'there must be a simple answer to get this going' or something like that, that is what made me think for something simpler and not go into all technical details....That is what gave me the idea of again organising partitions, since I recalled that someone had said that grub is installed at the beginning of the hdd(or something similar to that)...Anyways, thanks for your help and encouragement...

Yes, I will soon create a new topic here to discuss that networking issue since I doubt I can set it up(setting it up in Windows gives me nightmares, so setting it up on my own in an unknown and new OS is out  of question...

Speed is slow...Any way to increase it?

Thanks

RJ

 

 

The laptop boots into Linux MINT!!!

I knew that if you hang in there, it would work, what I didn't know was the placement of the partitions, though at one time that Linux Mint root was in front, but anyway, am glad that you finally made it!

 

 

Speed is slow...Any way to increase it?

Maybe, maybe not. First, speed is dependent on the drive you're using, as well as the cabling, which you may or may not be able to change. More importantly, the latest chipset driver may be helpful, as it updates a lot of things, including the USB ports. Go to HP & search your model & see what drivers are available. 

Something else that may help, yet I can't guarantee it, so if you can borrow one, this would be a good way to try. A powered USB port that plugs into an AC socket, plug this into the AC socket, then your computer & the external into one of the ports. Your OEM PSU may be a bit overtaxed by the running of 2 HDD's (feel & see how hot it is, if too much to comfortably hold, it's underpowered for the job). While you may not notice this during backups, you surely will when running an OS from the external. Back when I had two HDD's installed in my notebook similar to yours, using an optical bay adapter, I noticed it ran slower & the PSU was much hotter, so removed the 2nd HDD & replaced the optical drive & that sped things back to normal. 

The times when I ran Linux Mint & Ubuntu via USB, was using a powered enclosure, and not relying on the power of the computer, as it couldn't run a 3.5" HDD. 

You are going to love this OS & all that it can do, once you get this right. As far as the networking goes, it should use what you have, natively, unless you're running low on power (see above). In that case, some things may shut down to prevent overload of the PSU. You don't want that to happen often, as there's the risk of the PSU frying itself, maybe what I was doing when having two HDD's installed. It's probably 45W to 65W max & that's not a lot to spare. Have had to upgrade two of my own PSU's because of this, the last one was just 3-4 months back, Samsung included a 90W PSU with a notebook that should have shipped with a 120-150W one. The only OEM one I could find was 120W & went with that, and all of the screen flickering & other issues went away. That was an odd decision on Samsung's part, the CPU has a peak output of 45W, the GPU, 55W, and that doesn't count the rest of the system. No wonder those who games said it was 'stuttering', that's because the system was starved for power, then it would draw off of the battery to compensate. I feel there's a chance of this going on in your case & where a powered USB adapter may help. 

Yet I still recommend to, if you can, borrow one from someone else, to ensure this solves the issue. And be sure to check for updates to your chipset drivers. 

No wonder Samsung is no longer a Windows notebook/AIO PC OEM, they've signed a contract with Google to be a Chromebook supplier. Maybe they can do better there, as the OS doesn't need as much power, neither does the computer(s) as a whole. Google Chrome OS is a Linux variant, though the Linux community doesn't recognise this. 

Anyway, that's what I recommend first, a powered USB port. Try that & see what happens. You may want to also switch computer ports to see if one may be faster than the other, though I doubt there'll be much difference. 

You've reached a major milestone in getting Linux Mint installed, for for that alone, a huge congrats is in order!

Cat

I was thinking, the idea of the video - was to show that others have had issues with this kind of install and had to wipe the partitions and start new.  In your case it seemed to work by moving to the End of Drive, and creating Linux Partitions to the Beginning of Drive, as I was thinking.  It's nice to be right once and a while, or at the least lucky LOL.

I mentioned this way back in post #42, but it seems Al had never had this issue - so said that it wouldn't matter.  Probably a combination of things that were not, very glad you got it!  Now you got to put Linux on some other computer Internally so that it will take advantage of the speed that linux provides.

 

 

Now you got to put Linux on some other computer Internally so that it will take advantage of the speed that linux provides.

It could be all that's needed is a powered USB hub to plug the drive into. Doesn't have to be expensive or fancy (see link below). 

As stated above, used a 3.5" 1TiB WD Caviar Black to dual boot Linux Mint 13/Ubuntu 12.04, and both ran twice as fast as the internal HDD. This was because of three factors, first, the HDD was a high performance SATA versus a 7200 rpm IDE HDD, secondly, the cache was 32MB, compared to 2MB for the internal, third, the Caviar Back has dual platters, and fourth, was & still is in a Vantec USB 2.0 enclosure. 

I verified the speeds with both HD Tune & Crystal Disk Benchmark on Windows 7 Pro (internal HDD), the native HDD speeds were horrid, average read of 30MB/sec, write of 25MB/sec & the graph was swinging wildly, dropping to below 1MB/sec a couple of times during the test. The Caviar Black outperformed it by far, with reads of close to 100MB/sec & writes of 75/MB/sec, no wonder backups were so fast! Speeds were a little faster internally on a native SATA-2 connection at an average of close to 85MB/sec (as reported by HD Tune), as it was originally purchased for my first new PC, the now dead HP that the MB went bad on (GPU chip died). Being at the time I needed the backup space more than a 1TiB HDD for Windows 7, I purchased the Vantec enclosure & has been there since. It's the oldest of all four of my 1TiB sized backup drives, but doesn't run like it was built in 2009. 

Most of the times, I insist on WD HDD's, the reason why I bought the 1TiB Seagate the last time, was because it was bundled with a 120GiB Samsung 850 EVO SSD, it was like getting the SSD for less than $40 & the newest, but not the fastest of those. Come Black Friday weekend, there'll be a promo for what I want & will pull those two small SSD's out of my main PC. One's going on my Samsung notebook (Speccy snapshot below, the last of my sig), to add a dual boot of Windows 7 Ultimate, Samsung has all of the needed drivers for the install, just install a small file (Samsung Update) & the OS will be fully updated, driver wise. Unfortunately, due to firmware issues, cannot install Linux on that PC. 

I prefer the WD RE4 when I can find these at reasonable prices, of which I have one 500GiB one, these are an upscale version of the Caviar Black, designed to run 24/7 in servers or for non-stop video use. The WD RE4 is not considered a desktop HDD, though many has it installed, and Linux Mint runs great on it. In fact, until I got the Seagate mentioned above, that's what my /home partition was on. Due to the lack of space for VM's, had to upgrade to a 1TiB HDD. Was going to get another RE4, but not at $152. Found a 1TiB WD RE4 for $80 later, but it was too late then, though still may purchase if there cash left after the holiday season. 

My point of all of this being, a fast HDD installed externally will produce superior results over the internal IDE HDD. On some newer models with USB 3.0 & especially 3.1, could still be faster than an internal HDD. Yet the users of most anything with USB 3.1 has one or more SSD's, if it's the PCIe type, it'll leave anything I have in a dust cloud. 

That's why I'm building my next PC & won't be bound be the bottlenecks of OEM's.who are money hungry & could care less about what's right for their customers.

I still wish to extend congrats to RJ for being persistent, kept on shoveling & finally got Linux Mint running on his notebook with a USB attached backup drive. Though I feel it'll be faster if plugged into USB port of a powered USB hub. This takes strain off of the PSU & gives the external the power it needs to run. Here's one USB 2.0 one, beginning at $7.50, though if I needed one would futureproof myself by getting a USB 3.1 model (if available yet, if not then 3.0). I've made too many of these purchases, only to find the need to later upgrade, but have finally learned that spending more now saves later. A 3.1 model would be backwards compatible to USB 1.1 specs if needed. 

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Onn-4-Port-USB-Power-Hub-for-Home/36854850

Cat

Edited by cat1092, 26 October 2015 - 04:26 AM.

That's terrific cat, thanks for sharing!

pcpunk, you're quite welcome!

Hopefully RJ also noticed the post & is looking to at least borrow a powered USB hub to see what I'm speaking of. 

 

 

Now you got to put Linux on some other computer Internally so that it will take advantage of the speed that linux provides.

You are 100% correct there, and I agree with you. It's just that RJ wants to run it externally on this notebook, and we have to assist as much as possible with that task. I imagine the purpose for now is just to learn the ins & outs of the OS w/out risking his install (remember you were once there & did in fact torch your XP install with a single slip up). Many of us in our early days did, & us includes myself, torched my XP Media Center install with the WUBI installer & at the time, wasn't performing weekly backups as I now do. 

I feel that once RJ reaches a certain comfort level, then will perform an internal install at the time of his choosing, yet I'm not going to push him on that. RJ wants to run externally for now, and that's what we're helping to accomplish. In fact, if your internal HDD is SATA-1, and have a SATA-2 or 3 HDD in a powered enclosure or docking station, would see for yourself on your computer, that the speed will be faster than your native HDD. If the internal drive is SATA-2, you likely won't see a speed increase. 

Cat

Sorry bad post.

Edited by pcpunk, 30 October 2015 - 03:21 PM.

Hello,

First of all thanks to all for helping me with this...Secondly, my network now works perfectly with Linux-MINT configured it on its own, I hardly did anything!

Linux is really fast,but that is just one feather in its cap,the biggest and the best thing is that it is safer than Windows...So, in case I am unable to start Windows, I will still be able to surf the internet to look for information, check mail and so on without any worries!

Glad that we could get this done.

I guess this topic could now be closed.

Thanks yet again for all the help everyone!

RJ

RJ, you're quite welcome & glad to hear it, while it was indeed a shaky start, it's how one finishes that counts.

 

 

Linux is really fast,but that is just one feather in its cap,the biggest and the best thing is that it is safer than Windows...So, in case I am unable to start Windows, I will still be able to surf the internet to look for information, check mail and so on without any worries!

+1!

Everything that you can do in the native OS (including that of any other Windows computers you may have) will be more safer on Linux. Period. Part of the proof is right here at home, take a peek in the Security>Am I Infected forum, and see how many Linux users are standing in line. Once in a while we'll get what's often a false scare, yet I've not known of anyone that's has their Linux OS brought to it's knees by infections. The only thing is that while chances are slim to none that the actual user will be affected, a Linux user can still catch Malware objects in the browser & spread these. 

For this, we have security apps like ClamAV, ClamTK (a GUI for ClamAV), AppArmor & others. Note that while I likely don't need it, I do have ESET for Linux desktops installed, normally used in a professional environment, and while it has caught a couple of bad objects, these posed more risk to a Windows system than Linux. Actually I was downloading Windows software from my Linux desktop & ESET intercepted the threats. There are other scanners that works with Linux, one of our contributors (hollowface) introduced us to Sophos for Linux systems & how to install. 

Feel free to check out our Tutorials in the Linux section, one or more may be of interest to you.

Good Luck in your new Linux Mint install, hopefully the new release next year (around May/June) will run on your computer.

Cat