2nd Hard Drive

Going to be fitting one in my PC next week merely for practice for my A+.Im thinking of putting Linux on it, just so I can get to know Linux.
How would I set up for dual-boot?
Do I put it on the same cable and set it as Slave or should I put it on its own cable into the secondary IDE connector as Master?

 

You should set it as a slave on your primary IDE channel (IDE 1) with your original HD set as the master....best to leave your secondary IDE channel for your optical drive(s).
Once you boot and confirm that it is recognized in the BIOS setup, you can go ahead and install Linux on it, then (depending on your mobo, BIOS version, and boot config) your BIOS should auto detect the OS and give you the option (upon power up) of which OS you would like to boot to!


Regards...

 

Operating systems are a major core component of your A+ examination, the other core being hardware related (as you know).
It is great to see that you wish to investigate this area in both a theoretical and practicle (hands on) sense, as I always believe this is the best way to learn!

Good Luck with your experimental testing and final!

 

Thanks nitecrawler.
I was planning to build a basic PC but the funds wont allow so hopefully Ill learn all I can from the books.

 

You could pick up a used pc for the price of a decent harddisk. It'd be best to have linux on a separate pc. so it wouldn't screw up your main rig.

Most modern linux distros can install dual-boot for you, but i'm afraid they'd default to linux if nothing is clicked. Yep, you could install the hdd in the same rig & linux on the 2nd hdd. Just make sure the jumper caps are set as master for the old hdd & slave for the new one.

 

Thanks achilles.
I have been "helped" by friends donating old PCs but none of them work and are only good for practising the stripdown and rebuild.None of them came with installation disks and I cant get in to create my own.
One of the cases,PSU and CD drive might come in useful later though.

 

You're welcome.

http://distrowatch.com/

For an old pc, slackware would be best since it can be installed as command lines only. Debian is more difficult to install (tons of menus to go through before actual install).

Oh ah, just came to me. Ok, you can get any of the live cd i.e. Knoppix - most popular (download the iso & burn it on cd & boot it up). It won't install anything. Heck, there are linux that runs in Windows. DamnSmallLinux is one of them. About 50mb. Just extract it, modify the bat file & run it.

 

This vid takes you through the steps,starts out from the very basics though,I'd recommend installing the google player and downloading the higher quality 93meg file as it makes reading the text much easier

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6104490811311898236&q=installing+linux

 

Thanks for the info chaps.Ill do my research before I dive in and Ive bookmarked that video for later Ricky.