[ SOLVED ] New HDD how to then change computer OS to LL 3.4

[Coastie]

Why still 3.4 and not 3.6? Plus 3.8 will be out in February. 

[JanetBiggar]

Thanks for all the thoughts and ideas.

I will likely order the SATA HDD that I saw on Amazon (250 GB) as I tried booting from the LL USB that has worked for me and no go - I still get the message that the HDD cannot be found when I press the F12 key and when I went into BIOS and put the USB as #1 the computer simply brought up the Dell screen and seemed to stick there being unproductive till I pressed F12 then the same message came up.

I will mark this as solved although I guess technically I will need to wait until I get the replacement HDD I will "really" know if all is okay.

Thanks again.
Janet

[justme2]

Just my thoughts and findings............

It seems to me that for the use your PCs are being put to, a HDD may not be needed at all. A class 10 32GB or 64GB SDHC card in a usb single card reader (which cost £1 in UK money for the reader) can have LinuxLite fully installed (not a live system). It gives a fast system with no spinning disc to suffer shock damage and the SD card can easily be cloned to provide a backup system. Whats more, the usb reader with its sdhc card can just be unplugged and stored for security needs. Even a 32GB card has many GBs of free space after LL has been installed and lots of other applications added. And the read/write life cycle of good quality SDHC cards is now so good. I have been running linux systems on class 10 SDHC cards for many years now without failures.
But ..... don't use cheap memory sticks, they are far too slow.

[TheDead]

There is a 2TB limit on MBR (MS-DOS) type partitionning.
I have seen computer BIOSes having problems with 2TB and more.
So following previous poste, anything SATA (2.5in physical drive) below 2TB.
*BUT*, check HDD height, some are a few millimeters taller and will now fit within certain laptops.
So check physical dimension of defective drive before trashing it.
Also, dont forget to transfert the little metal caddy thing if the laptop has one.

Cheers!

[LL-user]

Hi JanetBiggar,


I have been working with a Dell Latitude 630 and confirm the following:


* it needs a SATA disk
* at least till 1 TB is no problem (that's the size of disk I used)
* you don't need to change the boot order in BIOS; just press F12 after starting the laptop. Then you'll get a menu to choose the boot device, i.e. change the boot order temporarily.


Hope that helps

[Scott]

 

Hi JanetBiggar


I'd be a little cautious of the hdd size/capacity/gigs. An older computer/bios doesn't always get along well with a newer mordern large capacity hdd. Sometimes the bios will id the drive name incorrectly, and/or id the dirve at a smaller capacity - example, it's a 1TB drive but the computer/bios only sees it as 512G.


In these situations the drive may or may not still be usable. It may work but you lose some of the capacity - in the example above you may only see 512G available after formating the 1TB hdd. In other examples, I've seen the drive/computer become a little unstable in certain situations.

[firenice03]

Yes you can use the LIVE USB for the time being.
You won't have the ability to save changes or files to the disk and performance may be slower running solely from the USB.


 

[JanetBiggar]

Great, sounds like this is straight forward once I get the HDD.  Thank you all. I will investigate re SATA vs IDE, however when I posted a question on the dell community forum a SATA drive was indicated for my model of Dell.

So, maybe this is a stupid question, if a live session of LL doesn’t need the HDD then is it possible that while I’m waiting for the HDD to arrive I could still trial the LL USB on that computer with the dead disk drive OR must there be an active HDD in the computer even though it isn’t being used?  Just wondering.

J

[firenice03]

Greetings @JanetBiggar
Only thing I can think of, would be to confirm the HDD connector, it should be a SATA (vs IDE) but when it comes to older stuff and you're out and way, doesn't hurt to make sure... IDE has pin hole connections on a rectangular plug where SATA is a smaller slotted type..


Once connection is verified any size (GB) should work. The system should see it without any modification to BIOS. Then boot to your USB as you normally do to install LL (may need to set order to USB).
If you get an error similar to "no OS found" the system is trying to boot the new HD without an OS. Check USB is 1st boot and install.
Once LL is installed it will be the only OS on the disk.

[justme2]

If I remember correctly, after replacing the HDD with a blank one, there is no need to change the bios boot order to boot from your USB key.  On startup, the first boot sector it finds will be on the USB key. Apologies if that is not correct.

[Moltke]

I am wondering once the new HDD is inserted (I’m comfortable with replacing it) do I need to do anything or as long as the boot order is right will my LL 3.4 USB be mounted ok allowing me to simply load and trial LL then install?

Hi @JanetBiggar
 If I get this right, you're about to replace a damaged HDD for a new one on this computer, right? If so, then you should have no problems trying LL from the USB key with the new HDD, since there won't be nothing in it due to the fact that it is brand new, and even if it wasn't, trying Linux from a USB key and booting into a live session has nothing to do with the HDD and there should be no interferences whatsoever, as a matter of fact, I'm writing this from a live session of a Linux distro called TuxTrans, which is aimed for translators in the same computer  LL is installed on .

do I need to do anything or as long as the boot order is right will my LL 3.4 USB be mounted ok allowing me to simply load and trial LL then install?

 The boot order you're referring to is the one in the bios? If the answer is yes, your best bet is to press F2 which is the key you have to press on that pc in order to access the bios setup and check that it points to the USB, in case it isn't,  simply change it by selecting the USB drive LL is in and that should be it, I'm assuming you know how to do this since you have installed LL before from a USB drive. And of course, after finished trying LL and confirm everything's working as it's supposed to, you'll be able to install it in the new HDD just the same way you've done it before. 
Hope this helps!

[JanetBiggar]

Different computer, new question! I just got back an old Dell Latitude 630 about 7-9 years old from one of the youth whom I help academically. Luckily just AFTER his last exam the hard disk drive failed so looks like I will need to replace it.

Before I go to the trouble of purchasing one on amazon.com and having a friend bring it to me here in South Africa I wanted to find out what exactly I’d need to do (and if I was capable of doing it) once the HDD is replaced to simply switch it to LL 3.4?

This computer was running Win XP and I am wondering once the new HDD is inserted (I’m comfortable with replacing it) do I need to do anything or as long as the boot order is right will my LL 3.4 USB be mounted ok allowing me to simply load and trial LL then install?

Thanks,
Janet