Installing A New Distro On An Old Desktop PC

Hi guys,

I'm new to this forum and linux too.
I thought of installing a lightweight distro of linux and did some research on the net where I found people recommending Puppy Linux. Plus it is (theoretically speaking) possible to run it from a USB (flash) drive which I decided to try out but it seems like it's not that simple a task as a lot of people (all over the internet) say it is.

What I tried so far is this: installing it into a thumb drive using unetbootin follwing a youtube tutorial (which basically showed how to download an iso of puppy, use unetbootin to make the thumbdrive bootable and install puppy on it). It didn't work. The USB wasn't recognized as a bootable device. I know for sure it can be booted from it since I tried ubuntu from the same USB and the same Laptop (which is able to boot from USB).

I thought that something with the Flash Drive not OK so I tried to use a windows installer to install puppy like other windows programms but this didn't work either. This time Puppy was recognized because there was an option to boot either Puppy or Windows 7 but when I chose to boot from Puppy nothing happens just a screen flash, some letters in the top left corner saying something like NTSC or NTSF (I can't read it properly because it goes away too fast) then after the screen flash the whole thing again (boot from win 7 or Puppy I choose Puppy again the flash... basically a loop).

Any ideas what I'm doing wron or what the problem is?

Thank You for any replies.

I've made a couple attempts at installing these OS's on my machine and am still not getting it. I've actually been using AVLinux for about the past nine months, and it's working fairly well. And, yes, I know XP is down for the count, but for the moment it's the only MS option available to me - and I *need* to get it running for some work related web stuff...

This is all on a 32 bit AMD system btw.

What I've tried: Everything on one SATA drive. Partition one formatted to NTFS (about 20GB) for XP. Partitions 2 and 3 are Root and Home for AVLinux, Partition 4 at the end of the drive as the /swap for AVL.

All the how-to's and guides I've been able to come across point to (usually) Mint or Ubuntu's install dialog, and to select "something else" - which, by the way, is not a function of AVLinux's installation procedure. During install you can install GRUB to the MBR *or* root partition..

So, just to clarify to procedure (as I might have it now, but am very unsure) XP gets installed first (which is done at this point...) then my Linux distro *to the MBR* (?) then I need to add a stanza to GRUB telling it where XP lives? XP is not showing up on GRUB as I'm doing it, but I'm not too sure if installing Linux to the MBR (on the same physical drive as XP) actually wipes out the Windows bootloader....and if so, how chainloading would actually work...

So, any help appreciated, thanks.

I've just started tinkering with Linux and have a question about installing it to my current machine.

I'm running Win 7 Pro and have installed Oracle VM Virtual Box on the C:\ drive which is a 256 GB SSD. I want to create a 15 GB virtual hard drive on a second internal hard drive that has more space on it, and install Zorin 9.1 to it. Currently my C: drive is about 60% full and I'd rather not fill it up past that.

So my question is: Can I run Zorin off of a hard drive other than the C: drive?

Thanks for your consideration.

Dave

Sorry, but I just have a terrible time getting started in Linux. What I want for the moment (having set up a partition on WinXP and ran a distro before) is a live MINT USB distro on a 64GB stick plugged into a Win7 machine. Since stick is 64GB, I am dealing with exfat. Found Gparted and seems to be okay, but gives an ominous warning about launching the win 32 formatter off of the stick drive and NOT windows (C:\). That part is understood. However I see the prompt "hit any key to format L" and when I look up at the colored title bar of the window, I read cmd: C:\ etc. that makes me wonder am in C: or L: (the USB drive letter). The Gparted iso in resident in L: but the drive needs C: for computing power etc. I know, I'm such a newbie it must be painful for many to read. I just don't want to screw up the MBR of C: In short. Unetbootin, MINT 17 and Gparted are all on L: and unzipped on a exfat USB thumbdrive. I want to fix the exfat to be readable by Unetbootin so I can make a live USB. I might be doing it correctly, but the top bar of the widow reading cmd: c:\etc etc scares me.

I have tried to instal Debian 8 from USB stick on my SONY Vayo (VGN-NR430DT) but it wouldn't work even though I set up bios to boot first from usb stick. Instead it would go to the hard drive directly into old debian 7. The bootable usb stick is fine as it worked to install on my other computer with an ASUS Z87-A motherboard. Any ideas how to fix this?

Want to format a 1 TB Western Digital drive in an old dell 32 bit machine. Machine has Lubuntu installed and a Virtual machine on which which is loaded Windows 7 (32 bit).

Machine does not "see" the new 1 TB (SATA) drive after I physically install it in the machine.

I have other windows and Linux machines. I have some drive cradles in which I can connect to (windows) USB ports.

Is it possible to use the old Dell machine to format the new drive?

(It appears that this question has been answered before. So I will check those materials as well.)

Thanks for any assistance.

Geoffrey Wolfe

I have multiple computers to install Linux onto.

Some of my computers do not have DVD drives.

I want to boot Linux from C:, not the USB drive.

Do I download the ISO onto a C: drive.
Copy the image to the USB with the image mover.

My confusion is that this all seems to make a boot-able USB drive.

How do I install OpenSuse without having a DVD and end up booting from the C: drive?

Do I first have to boot from the USB?

Hello All. This is my first post here. I am worse than a newbie; I'm a PC dinosaur! Not joking either.
Recently got a Dell Inspiron 3048 with Windows 8.1 pre installed. As I am a die hard XP user (my other PC is a Dell Dimension 2400), and seeing that PC's days may be numbered, I want to start using Linux, and decided Mint 17.1 would be first on the list.
Ordered a Linux Mint 17.1 boot disk and went to install it. At the option for a dual boot with Windows, I got lost, and did not understand the "other" choice versus making Linux the only OS on the PC. I wound up wiping my HDD and lost contact with Windows 8.1. Fortunately, the Dell Tech I got at Dell Support was able to walk me through getting Windows back up, but the only way I can now access Mint 17.1 is with the boot disk, but there is no set up options as it is already set up, even though incorrectly for a dual boot.
How do I wipe out Linux without losing Windows 8.1 as well so I can re install Linux and this time make the correct selection for a dual boot?
Anyone willing to respond please do so small and slow so I can follow.
TIA.
BTW, I have tried installing Zorin OS 9 Ultimate on my XP machine via DVD and USB, but I can't get past the f1/f2 loop, even though I have reconfigured my boot sequence according to the drive I'm installing from. Zorin support has been MIA on this. Anyone having a similar problem?
Cheers

I'm trying to install Debian 7.8 on my eMac G4 (700mhz, 640 Mb RAM). I've tried multiple methods but I keep running into problems one way or another. Since my eMac only has a Sony CD-RW drive and a busted Ethernet port I can't install from a DVD nor a netinstall CD which would be the easiest options unfortunately. First I tried using the multiple CD option, which seemed promising at first; until I had to swap to the next disk during "configure the package manager". it won't eject the CD when I use the eject key on my keyboard (imac g3 pro keyboard so I go back to the main menu and select the "eject a CD from the drive" option at the near bottom then things seem to get clustered. When I tried inserting the next disk, nothing else will install. It keeps telling me I need disk 1 again through every step. Then at the end, it tells me the installation is complete before I even install a desktop environment from the final CD. Then I just end up booting into garbled text and errors.

After all of that nonsense, I tried making a bootable USB from the DVD ISO with the OS X terminal. This method usually works with just about anything I've done before. However for some reason Debian apparently simply refuses to boot. As I tried selecting it on the boot menu on the start up, it gives me a black screen then goes straight back to the boot screen with disordered graphics. When I tried booting it from open firmware, it goes to the first screen, then when I hit enter to actually boot to the installer, nothing but errors. Finally I tried booting it straight from the ISO file on the hard drive, that method didn't even work at all.

Could someone point out what I'm doing wrong if possible or perhaps recommend me a different option?

Hello,

I'm a new Linux user (Mint 17.1 Rebecca Mate) going through the learning curve. It's a challenege. Dual boot with Windows 8.1, which provides the motivation!

I have an older Dell Dimension PC with XP. It's old and cranky, but I do love my XP. I want to wipe the hard drive and install a user friendly simple version of Linux that I can reinstall XP into as VM.
I am clueless where to even begin to figure out which version of Linux is best for this aside from the two mentioned below. The PC operatest 2.17 GHz, has 1.25 GB RAM, and a 156 GB Hard Drive.

I tried installing Zorin, both by DVD and USB, but could not get it to install or even work live. Just kept getting the F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup ingfinte loop. Spent a week trying every which way, short of a format, to install Zorin but I just refused to work, despite their excellent suopport.

Also tried every which way to install Robolinux ( all three versions), and again could not get it to install, although I was able to do the Xfce and KLDE versions live. Just went to them for support and it requires a $5 donation per case. Knowing how much supoport I could need, that could really add up.

Any advise is greatly appreciated.
TIA.
Cheers!