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Does anyone have experience if installing Linux on a
(physically) second hard disk on a laptop, so leaving
the Windows disk unaltered? Alternatively, two hard
disks that alternate via a cradle? I'd prefer this as it
is far safer than re-partitioning.
bobm2005 <bobmarlow@postmaster.co.uk> writes:[color=blue]
> Does anyone have experience if installing Linux on a
> (physically) second hard disk on a laptop, so leaving
> the Windows disk unaltered? Alternatively, two hard
> disks that alternate via a cradle? I'd prefer this as it
> is far safer than re-partitioning.[/color]
Those cradles make disk upgrades and occasional swaps convenient, but
they are not designed for frequent plugging and unplugging and would
likely impair reliability. I tried using a 2nd drive in a Thinkpad
ultrabay and had trouble getting it to work (I think because of PATA
master/slave issues), but that was some years ago and maybe with
current SATA stuff this situation has improved. I do know people who
dual boot and have gotten it to work reliably. The couple of times
I've wanted Windows for something, I've found it sanest to just use
a separate laptop for it.
On Tue, 2008-03-18 at 07:33 -0700, bobm2005 wrote:[color=blue]
> Does anyone have experience if installing Linux on a
> (physically) second hard disk on a laptop, so leaving
> the Windows disk unaltered? Alternatively, two hard
> disks that alternate via a cradle? I'd prefer this as it
> is far safer than re-partitioning.
>[/color]
I've done it many times. Both with an older Toshiba and
with Dell (including new ones).
However, I do like to image the whole drive and then usually
setup a dual boot... that's the most convenient IMHO.
But I have kept the original drive around in cases where
I'm going totally Linux... that's just so I can slap it
in for Dell support. So they'll feel comfortable supporting
me. But in that case, the original laptop drive goes into
storage and only comes out when support is giving me
grief about Linux.
bobm2005 <bobmarlow@postmaster.co.uk> wrote:[color=blue]
> Does anyone have experience if installing Linux on a
> (physically) second hard disk on a laptop, so leaving
> the Windows disk unaltered? Alternatively, two hard
> disks that alternate via a cradle? I'd prefer this as it
> is far safer than re-partitioning.
>[/color]
I've done it with a Dell with an easily swappable hard drive, mostly
because the original drive was very small (it was an old laptop).
Since I mostly used Linux, it wasn't too big a problem to swap in the
original drive with Windows when necessary.
Jerry
Paul Rubin staggered into the Black Sun and said:[color=blue]
> bobm2005 <bobmarlow@postmaster.co.uk> writes:[color=green]
>> Alternatively, two hard disks that alternate via a cradle? I'd prefer
>> this as it is far safer than re-partitioning.[/color][/color]
What, precisely, is "unsafe" about modern implementations of ntfsresize?
I've used that and its frontends to successfully resize NTFS partitions
on multiple occasions and never had any trouble at all.
[color=blue]
> I tried using a 2nd drive in a Thinkpad ultrabay and had trouble
> getting it to work (I think because of PATA master/slave issues), but
> that was some years ago and maybe with current SATA stuff this
> situation has improved.[/color]
If you put an IDE disk in the ultrabay, it probably showed up as
/dev/hdc and might not have been a valid boot device in the BIOS (though
it really should've been). IIRC, modern Thinkpads didn't really *have*
slave slots on their IDE channels; you got 2 channels and there was one
master connector on each. Older versions like the 380D had one channel
with master and slave slots.
[color=blue]
> I do know people who dual boot and have gotten it to work reliably.[/color]
Install 'Doze first, resize 'Doze partition and create Linux partitions,
install Linux second, put GRUB in the MBR, and you're dual-booting.
There's nothing to it IME. (Then again, I've only tried this with XP,
2K, and 9x.)
[color=blue]
> The couple of times I've wanted Windows for something, I've found it
> sanest to just use a separate laptop for it.[/color]
Since so many machines have fast CPUs and tons of RAM nowadays, it can
be more convenient to start an instance of virtualbox or VMware server
or Qemu and run your 'Doze apps in that.
--
That which does not kill us makes us stranger.
--Trevor Goodchild, Aeon Flux
My blog and resume: [url]http://crow202.dyndns.org:8080/wordpress/[/url]
Matt G|There is no Darkness in Eternity/But only Light too dim for us to see
On Tue, 18 Mar 2008 20:31:12 GMT, Jerry Peters <jerry@example.invalid> wrote:[color=blue]
>bobm2005 <bobmarlow@postmaster.co.uk> wrote:[color=green]
>> Does anyone have experience if installing Linux on a
>> (physically) second hard disk on a laptop, so leaving
>> the Windows disk unaltered? Alternatively, two hard
>> disks that alternate via a cradle? I'd prefer this as it
>> is far safer than re-partitioning.
>>[/color]
>I've done it with a Dell with an easily swappable hard drive, mostly
>because the original drive was very small (it was an old laptop).
>Since I mostly used Linux, it wasn't too big a problem to swap in the
>original drive with Windows when necessary.[/color]
[color=blue]
> Jerry[/color]
It must suck not having the skills needed to manipulate partitions
and configure a boot manager.
AZ Nomad <aznomad.3@premoveobthisox.com> wrote:[color=blue]
> On Tue, 18 Mar 2008 20:31:12 GMT, Jerry Peters <jerry@example.invalid> wrote:[color=green]
>>bobm2005 <bobmarlow@postmaster.co.uk> wrote:[color=darkred]
>>> Does anyone have experience if installing Linux on a
>>> (physically) second hard disk on a laptop, so leaving
>>> the Windows disk unaltered? Alternatively, two hard
>>> disks that alternate via a cradle? I'd prefer this as it
>>> is far safer than re-partitioning.
>>>[/color]
>>I've done it with a Dell with an easily swappable hard drive, mostly
>>because the original drive was very small (it was an old laptop).
>>Since I mostly used Linux, it wasn't too big a problem to swap in the
>>original drive with Windows when necessary.[/color]
>[color=green]
>> Jerry[/color]
>
> It must suck not having the skills needed to manipulate partitions
> and configure a boot manager.[/color]
Are you an idiot? Or are your reading comprehesion skills utterly
lacking? Read the post dimwit, especially the part about the _size_
of the disk. IIRC it was 3GB. Try fitting both windows and a decent
Linux in that amount of space.
Jerry
On Fri, 21 Mar 2008 20:14:54 GMT, Jerry Peters <jerry@example.invalid> wrote:[color=blue]
>AZ Nomad <aznomad.3@premoveobthisox.com> wrote:[color=green]
>> On Tue, 18 Mar 2008 20:31:12 GMT, Jerry Peters <jerry@example.invalid> wrote:[color=darkred]
>>>bobm2005 <bobmarlow@postmaster.co.uk> wrote:
>>>> Does anyone have experience if installing Linux on a
>>>> (physically) second hard disk on a laptop, so leaving
>>>> the Windows disk unaltered? Alternatively, two hard
>>>> disks that alternate via a cradle? I'd prefer this as it
>>>> is far safer than re-partitioning.
>>>>
>>>I've done it with a Dell with an easily swappable hard drive, mostly
>>>because the original drive was very small (it was an old laptop).
>>>Since I mostly used Linux, it wasn't too big a problem to swap in the
>>>original drive with Windows when necessary.[/color]
>>[color=darkred]
>>> Jerry[/color]
>>
>> It must suck not having the skills needed to manipulate partitions
>> and configure a boot manager.[/color][/color]
[color=blue]
>Are you an idiot? Or are your reading comprehesion skills utterly
>lacking? Read the post dimwit, especially the part about the _size_
>of the disk. IIRC it was 3GB. Try fitting both windows and a decent
>Linux in that amount of space.[/color]
Go **** yourself. If you can spend all that time swapping hard drives,
you can leave a larger one installed with partitions.
AZ Nomad <aznomad.3@premoveobthisox.com> wrote:[color=blue]
> On Fri, 21 Mar 2008 20:14:54 GMT, Jerry Peters <jerry@example.invalid> wrote:[color=green]
>>AZ Nomad <aznomad.3@premoveobthisox.com> wrote:[color=darkred]
>>> On Tue, 18 Mar 2008 20:31:12 GMT, Jerry Peters <jerry@example.invalid> wrote:
>>>>bobm2005 <bobmarlow@postmaster.co.uk> wrote:
>>>>> Does anyone have experience if installing Linux on a
>>>>> (physically) second hard disk on a laptop, so leaving
>>>>> the Windows disk unaltered? Alternatively, two hard
>>>>> disks that alternate via a cradle? I'd prefer this as it
>>>>> is far safer than re-partitioning.
>>>>>
>>>>I've done it with a Dell with an easily swappable hard drive, mostly
>>>>because the original drive was very small (it was an old laptop).
>>>>Since I mostly used Linux, it wasn't too big a problem to swap in the
>>>>original drive with Windows when necessary.
>>>
>>>> Jerry
>>>
>>> It must suck not having the skills needed to manipulate partitions
>>> and configure a boot manager.[/color][/color]
>[color=green]
>>Are you an idiot? Or are your reading comprehesion skills utterly
>>lacking? Read the post dimwit, especially the part about the _size_
>>of the disk. IIRC it was 3GB. Try fitting both windows and a decent
>>Linux in that amount of space.[/color]
>
> Go **** yourself. If you can spend all that time swapping hard drives,
> you can leave a larger one installed with partitions.[/color]
You really are ignorant, aren't you? Dell Latitudes have hard drive
carriers that are cheap and can be swapped in a few seconds.
BTW, what is your problem, dip****? How I, or anyone else chooses to
implement Linux on _my_ laptop is really not your concern.
Jerry
On Wed, 2008-03-19 at 16:05 +0000, Dances With Crows wrote:[color=blue]
> Paul Rubin staggered into the Black Sun and said:[color=green]
> > bobm2005 <bobmarlow@postmaster.co.uk> writes:[color=darkred]
> >> Alternatively, two hard disks that alternate via a cradle? I'd prefer
> >> this as it is far safer than re-partitioning.[/color][/color]
>
> What, precisely, is "unsafe" about modern implementations of ntfsresize?
> I've used that and its frontends to successfully resize NTFS partitions
> on multiple occasions and never had any trouble at all.[/color]
AFAIK, even with newer version of ntfsresize, you'll want to
defragment first.