Spare 20 Gig Hard-drive

DY357LX

<div class="IPBDescription">This Goes In Here Right? But Why?</div> So I have a spare 20 gig hard-drive lying around and was thinking of
ways to use it, other than it's current use - which is sitting by my bin and
occasionally acting as a door-stop.
Now, I don't think I need more storage so I was thinking of putting Linux
of some-sort on it.

But first I need to know: Can I just power down the pc, slot this drive
in as a Slave and then format it from within Windows or does it have to be
done with a boot disk?

Once it's in, what Linux do I install and where can I get it?

Most importantly, how difficult is this stuff?

Zaggy

It can be done as you said.

cookman

OMG! That reminds me that I have a 4 megabyte HDD lying around somewhere. It's like, really huge and antique... or more like, a relique.

I thought about putting it glass and frame.

Hibame

I thnk some one said you could buy a switch for your hdd's

Rellix

I found like an 8kbs modem last week <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->

Its huge, no idea if it still works tho...

Zel

you should format it under windows if you want to use it as a data drive with windows, but you wont have to do that if youre going to install linux, the install CD for linux should handle formatting on its own. just be careful that it gets the right drive, and now your master.


edit: also many of those old twenties are getting too old and going corrupt. ive got a 13 and a 15 that are both unreliable nowadays, they can lose data on a whim. especially if youve treated it like a doorstop!

AlienCow

Or send it to me. I could pretty much double the space I currently have with that!

Carnaxus

lol

I got an 80GB HD standard and a 160GB HD for Christmas.

Sorry to gloat, but...

And on ur question, yeah, u just put it in, then tell ur comp to format it, then go get a Linux boot disk, place the HD in as a master, and load Linux onto it. Or, if you just want extra storage space, just use it as a slave. Empty it out and use it for storage. You don't need an operating system to store stuff on it.