--- In LINUX_Newbies@yahoogroups.com, "Gabrielle" <dawnyisrael13@...> wrote:
> Greetings,
>
> I first want to say I have been enjoying reading and learning from all the posts here.
> I have a question and please do not roll your eyes at me for asking this.
Though a few might roll their eyes at any question, I really don't think that is
a problem with this group!
> I still
> have not been able to obtain a decent used computer for myself and am at the mercy
> of using my room mates. He told me I absolutely could NOT partition his hard drive
> and put some version of Linux on it.
Which is somewhat sensible. Though I have repartitioned Windows computers often to
add Linux, things can go wrong.
> So, I have seen that the price of an iOmega
> external 1TB HD is on sale right now for around $80. Would I be able to plug in
> one of those to his computer and download say Mint since I am a newbie, and then
> only use it off of that external HD?
Assuming your roommate's computer is pretty new (read: last 3-4 years) I see no
problem with this way of doing things. I have done something similar myself. I run
Mint on an 8 GB fast USB flash drive on a netbook. It works wonderfully. Do this
when booting his computer: Watch the Power On Self Test (POST) during boot. That
screen will usually list something that indicates a functiton key (usually F11 or
F12) that will allow you to boot from a different device or with devices in a
different order. Press the key the POST says to and look at the list displayed
of boot devices. You should see something about "USB" in the list. If you do
you can do exactly what you describe.
> Plus use it then on whatever computer I
> finally do obtain? This is so he will not know or complain.
Yes, you would be able to use it on whatever computer you finally get. However,
when you have the choice, I would use the internal hard drive for my Linux setup
because it will be inherently faster that way.
Also, it sounds as if you are thinking of doing this on the sly. I would not
recommend doing that as it may well infuriate your roommate. Never assume they
won't find out. Even though you would not be touching his computer in any way
it still may make your roommate angry. Tell him/her your plan and let them
know that it will absolutely NOT touch anything on his computer but run totally
from the external drive.
All of that said, you will need to do one other thing to make this work. During
Installation, absolutely do NOT install the GRUB boot manager on his hard drive.
I may need some help from the other folks on the list here. I remember installing
Linux some years ago on a second internal drive. I went into the computer's BIOS
before performing an install and told the computer through the BIOS that the
first hard drive did not exist by choosing "None" for that hard drive. I then did
my install and waited until boot time to choose which drive to boot from. Why?
Because when he/she turns on his/her computer and the pretty GRUB screen displays,
I bet there is a serious fit on the way.
> I am alone with his
> computer during the day, so I would have time to plug and play. I am not sure if
> these external HD's require downloading anything to the main computer you are
> plugged into or not. I do not want anything to show on his computer.
> Anyway, I hope this was not an eye roller of a question.
>
> Thank you
>
>
No, external drives do not require anything in the way of downloads or drivers in
order to work. You truly can "plug and play." Also, you mentioned choosing
Mint because you are a Newbie. Let me assure you that plenty of non-Newbies
use Mint also. I am not a Newbie and use it on my laptop for serious design
and programming of computer software.
Regards,
Loyal
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