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**Bartender** · 04-28-2007, 04:59 PM

busta -
Relax, we're all over it. You just wiped the drive? Your options are wide open.

First off, do you have more precise specs on that old PC? Such as RAM? CPU speed? A model #, motherboard #, etc.? How big's the HDD?

You could reinstall Windows. Get umpteen thousand updates and be on your way.

You could go for a dual-boot. Reinstall Windows, then toss in a Linux CD and ask it to make some room on the hard drive when you get to the partitioning part. Or you can ask Windows to make a partition when you reinstall it, then ask Linux to install to the free partition.

Or you can just install Linux.

The biggest question in my mind is still RAM. If you don't have enuf you'll just have to install Xubuntu or Arch or Vector or Zenwalk or some other lighter weight version and see how it works. I don't think any LiveCD's will work very well with less than 256 of RAM.

Give us some more details and we can try to point you in the right direction. Do you have access to a PC with broadband so you can download a few Linux distros?

EDIT: Do you have broadband? Linux and dial-up is so frustrating that I try to remember to ask that right up front.

04-28-2007, 04:59 PM	#11 (permalink)
Bartender Mentally divergent Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Chehalis, WA, USA Posts: 1,083 OS: W2K, Ubuntu 8.04	Re: Installing linux on a blank Hard drive busta - Relax, we're all over it. You just wiped the drive? Your options are wide open. First off, do you have more precise specs on that old PC? Such as RAM? CPU speed? A model #, motherboard #, etc.? How big's the HDD? You could reinstall Windows. Get umpteen thousand updates and be on your way. You could go for a dual-boot. Reinstall Windows, then toss in a Linux CD and ask it to make some room on the hard drive when you get to the partitioning part. Or you can ask Windows to make a partition when you reinstall it, then ask Linux to install to the free partition. Or you can just install Linux. The biggest question in my mind is still RAM. If you don't have enuf you'll just have to install Xubuntu or Arch or Vector or Zenwalk or some other lighter weight version and see how it works. I don't think any LiveCD's will work very well with less than 256 of RAM. Give us some more details and we can try to point you in the right direction. Do you have access to a PC with broadband so you can download a few Linux distros? EDIT: Do you have broadband? Linux and dial-up is so frustrating that I try to remember to ask that right up front. Last edited by Bartender : 04-28-2007 at 05:04 PM.