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can you use ubuntu without a hard drive?

R

regan1985

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its a easy question really, i have a p4 laptop with 512 of pc166 ram and i dont have a hard drive for it,only a dvd rom! so i was thinking of running ubuntu as i cant run xp on it!!
 
Yes, look for the live CD, however it is not recommended for every day use. XP can be run from CD as well though.
I'd recommend buying a harddrive however.
 
You can use the live cd but it will be very slow. When installing ubuntu it will let you resize your XP partion and after installation you will get the option to choose to boot either XP or Ubuntu.
 
xfire said:
You can use the live cd but it will be very slow. When installing ubuntu it will let you resize your XP partion and after installation you will get the option to choose to boot either XP or Ubuntu.
Click to expand...

He has no XP partition since he has no harddrive.
 
oops!
Get a harddrive. If you use the live cd you wont be able to modify anything(even if you modify it will go back to default every time you restart.
 
If you have a USB port you might prefer to look at a linux on usb alternative. You can run ubuntu straight from the install cd but it's slow and you cannot save anything.
 
EnglishLion said:
If you have a USB port you might prefer to look at a linux on usb alternative. You can run ubuntu straight from the install cd but it's slow and you cannot save anything.
Click to expand...

I didn't know u could install it on a usb, could u boot from it too?
 
you can also run ubuntu off of a USB thumb drive, however i'd suggest picking up a small hard drive that is about 20gb... anyways more information that you'd want to read about this is on the ubuntu wiki page here. ( includes information on how to create your own custom liveCD disks.
 
think i might invest in a small 40g usb hard drive as i have lost my connector on my mobo so i cant install a hard drive!!how much slower will it be on a usb hard drive i wonder compared to a 4800rpm drive
 
running a hard drive off of usb will eat cpu cycles like mad while accessing the hard drive.

It will work, just don't count on it being very fast.
 
I don't recommend running off of usb, however i do suggest getting a small hard drive for that laptop as cheap as you can get ( about 8b should do the trick nicely), and run ubuntu on that.
 
Yin said:
lol so i am the experimental rat?
Click to expand...

OH, we all are! :slap:

...I'm planning on doing it too, having Ubuntu in my pocket sounds like a fine proposition. :toast:
 
interesting link, i've got a 2 gig rally 2 :) maybe i need a second one for raid :D
 
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