[Lee43]

I'm trying to put together a 2nd computer to do nothing more with than burn Dvd's with. I only plan to install some kind of lightweight OS and the DVD burning software (Ulead DVD Movie Factory).

This will be "bare bones" system with no extras whatsoever...in fact, it'll never be connected to the internet on it. I have these two old computers (one an HP, the other a Gateway P3) that I want to try and turn one of them into what I want. Neither has a hard drive in them. I recently acquired a pile of old 20Gb (& 10Gb) drives but they're all blank with no OS on them.

All I plan to do is transfer a movie that I recorded on my current system onto my flash drive (I have a Tv Tuner Card), then onto the computer that I'm trying to build, burn the Dvd, delete the movie, and start over with a new one. That's why only a 20Gb drive will be more than sufficient for my cause.

I want to create a bootable CD disk or maybe something bootable off of my 8Gb flash drive. I know nothing about Linux but is that an option I could consider?

Could I please get some help to create something bootable I could use on these old systems? I need this before I can install an OS on the hard drive. Please ask me questions if I've not been clear on anything.

Thank you!

[Advertisements]

First thing is will your hardware support booting from a USB drive?
If it will check out Pendrivelinux.
You could built a custom LiveCD from NimbleX with the tools you need. (This is not Window so don't expect Windows programs to work)There are plenty of good Linux apps for burning disks. I like K3B which is include in NimbleX.

Running any OS from a disk or flashdrive you need RAM the more the better.

[silverbeard]

First thing is will your hardware support booting from a USB drive?
If it will check out Pendrivelinux.
You could built a custom LiveCD from NimbleX with the tools you need. (This is not Window so don't expect Windows programs to work)There are plenty of good Linux apps for burning disks. I like K3B which is include in NimbleX.

Running any OS from a disk or flashdrive you need RAM the more the better.

[Lee43]

You could built a custom LiveCD from NimbleX with the tools you need. (This is not
Window so don't expect Windows programs to work)There are plenty of good Linux apps for burning disks. I like K3B which is include
in NimbleX.

Thank you silverbeard for taking the time to help me out...I certainly do appreciate it..

I went to NimbleX the other day and was so confused I didn't go any further. But last night, I went back to the site, fumbled my way
through the process of creating the LiveCD (not knowing what I was doing and what it was for) and ended up creating one just
to see what would happen. I thought it was going to create a bootable CD that I could pop in the drive of the Gateway P3 so I could
then install Linux onto the blank (recently NTFS formatted) 20Gb hard drive to have an Linux operating system.

At the end, it just created this one .ISO file that I put on a CD. Here is a screenshot of the LiveCD file that's on the CD:
http://img515.images...isofileoncd.jpg

What should I do with this .ISO file? All I want to do is install Linux on this old Gateway with that "K3B" program you mentioned so
I can burn DVD's with it. I at least need to get it up and running so I can have me a backup computer to fall back on in
case this current Windows OS one ever fails on me.

The P3 system only has 32Mb's of RAM but I plan to upgrade that to 256Mb or more as soon as I can find some used memory to put in it. By looking at the pic of this memory chip, can you tell me what kind it is so I'll know exactly what to ask for when I make my calls to locate bigger chips. http://img716.images...nof32mbchip.png

Thank you again...

[TheBug]

At the end, it just created this one .ISO file that I put on a CD. Here is a screen-shot of the LiveCD file that's on the CD:

This is very common mistake made when burning ISO files. ISO file is an image of the CD. You do not just copy the file over to the CD. You use an ISO burner software. The best and easiest software for Windows to burn ISO files is ImgBurn. How to use it to burn ISO : http://forum.imgburn...hp?showtopic=61

The memory module shown in picture is SDRAM PC-100. If you want to buy upgrade, then go for SDRAM PC-133. Also have a look at your motherboard manual. Most older computers do not support RAM more than 256 MB or 512 MB etc.

[silverbeard]

Unetbootin is a nifty little program if your looking to build a bootable USB drive.

[Lee43]

This is very common mistake made when burning ISO files. ISO file is an image of the CD. You do not just copy the file over to the CD. You use an ISO burner software. The best and easiest software for Windows to burn ISO files is ImgBurn. How to use it to burn ISO : http://forum.imgburn...hp?showtopic=61

Thanx for your reply TheBug. When I went to the site http://custom.nimblex.net/ to create the LiveCD, the site itself put the .ISO file on the CD. Sorry if I didn't word that correctly before. I did it again today and hoped I could save the .iso file to my hard drive then use the ImgBurn program to burn it to a CD but it wouldn't let me which didn't make sense.

I copied the .iso file from the cd to a folder on my hard drive, then put in a new/blank CD, then burned it using ImgBurn. When done, I took that cd and put it in the old Gateway P3 and it apparently worked but it froze up and I'm not sure why...might be the lack of adequate memory. I went back to the site but to the nimblex.net main page and saw a link to download NimbleX-sub100 and did that but saved it to my hard drive...and then burned it to a CD.
It seemed to work but everything was taking way too long to load up anything.

Could you please tell me how I can actually permanentaly install Linux onto the hard drive and not just be booting up from the CD?

Thanx!

[Lee43]

Unetbootin is a nifty little program if your looking to build a bootable USB drive.

I checked it out. I might consider trying that method. Thanx silverbeard!

[TheBug]

Reading over your posts, I gather that you want a Linux OS with capability to burn DVDs. I suggest you use Ubuntu Linux which has a pre-installed DVD writer software called K3b. You can install more DVD writer software later as well easily. I have never used Nimblex and it appears to be an older 2007 release. So I cannot say much about it. Ubuntu has a much larger fans and contributors community, so you would get better support.

Download Ubuntu ISO (700MB) from : http://www.ubuntu.com/

Burn it to a CD using ImgBurn as explained in my last post. Boot from the CD and follow instructions.

You can install Ubuntu through WUBI too, if you do not want to create separate Linux partition. WUBI install of UBuntu is done from inside WIndows and can be uninstalled later easily. To do WUBI install, disconnect from internet and run wubi.exe from Ubuntu CD. After Ubuntu is installed you can reconnect internet.

You can also create a Pen drive Ubuntu install using instructions here : http://www.pendrivel...usb-in-windows/

Edited by TheBug, 20 February 2010 - 02:55 AM.

[Lee43]

Download Ubuntu ISO (700MB) from : http://www.ubuntu.com/

Burn it to a CD using ImgBurn as explained in my last post. Boot from the CD and follow instructions.

I downloaded it to my hard drive then burned it with ImgBurn onto a cd. I tried to install it on the system I'm trying to build, but it kept hanging up and wouldn't complete the install. I burned the cd at 2.4 speed because I researched videos on YouTube about ImgBurn and saw one where this guy burned his cd's at that speed and said burning faster could cause errors...something about the write speed. If I didn't burn Ubuntu right, and it caused the failed install, I could try burning it again at a different speed...if you think it'd help.

I don't plan on installing Linux on my WinXP MCE computer that I'm using now. It's for a 2nd system and the 20Gb hard drive is blank has no OS installed at all. At first, I put it in my XP, formatted it NTFS, removed it, and put it in the computer I'm trying to build. Should I have formatted it to FAT32 instead? Will Linux install on a NTFS drive? If not, I can put it back in my XP and reformat it to FAT32 instead...and then try installing Ubuntu again?

Thanx for all your help. I do appreciate it.

[TheBug]

If your hard disk has no OS on it, then installing Ubuntu would be easier. Ubuntu takes care of formatting had disk, you do not have to format it first.

From your mention of 20 GB hard disk, it appears that your system is quite old. The official minimum requirement for Ubuntu is at least 700 MHz of CPU and 384 MB of RAM, but it works nice with 1GHz of CPU and 512MB RAM. Slower system would hang up during install and installation wont complete.

If you have a low end computer then better get Puppy Linux which is around 100 MB download. It comes with CD/DVD writer software and is very fast. Read this on how to install Puppy Linux to hard disk.

[Lee43]

If your hard disk has no OS on it, then installing Ubuntu would be easier. Ubuntu takes care of formatting had disk, you do not have to format it first.

From your mention of 20 GB hard disk, it appears that your system is quite old. The official minimum requirement for Ubuntu is at least 700 MHz of CPU and 384 MB of RAM, but it works nice with 1GHz of CPU and 512MB RAM. Slower system would hang up during install and installation wont complete.

If you have a low end computer then better get Puppy Linux which is around 100 MB download. It comes with CD/DVD writer software and is very fast. Read this on how to install Puppy Linux to hard disk.

Hi TheBug, So sorry for the delayed response. Thank you for that info about Puppy Linux...it sounds like what I need. The system I'm on now has XP Media Center on it which is running fine and I'm not going to install Linux on it. But not long ago, I acquired these old computers (Dell, Gateway, Compaq, HP) and most are missing parts and some boxes full of misc. stuff like 4, 10, & 20Gb drives, video & ethernet cards, 128 & 256Mb SDRam, etc. Most drives had no OS on them and a few had Windows 98. My main goal is to piece one together with Linux installed on the hard drive (preferably the Dell Dimension 4100 that has a 1Ghz processor & 512Mb memory) as a 2nd computer for me to burn Dvd's on (and have as a backup system should this one ever fail) plus I'm trying to put something together for my sister (as a surprise gift) who has no computer, and wants to get online from home so she wont have to keep going to the library.

As I've never used Linux before and find it very confusing, especially at the command prompt, I'm still trying to figure out what to do with it. I wish it were like MS-DOS (I first started computing with it way back when) whereas I'd know what commands to type to make it work for me. Anyhow, thanx again for that info about Puppy Linux, I'm gonna give that a whirl and see what happens...maybe I'll get lucky this time and I'll get me a system or two going...