New Laptop
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New Laptop
20-08-2011 1:19 PM
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I hope that this is an approriate forum to advise me, if not please redirect.
My poor old laptop circa 1998, P111 866Megs 512 Meg RAM with Ubuntu 10.04 has had a sulk. I had a new HP Pavillion dv6-3122 delivered, having taken advantage their cheap offer. Put it on the desk only to find that the old one no longer booted up!! Who said that PCs are not capable of feeling agrieved? The BIOS page shows that its software is corrupted with a raft of error messages starting with a checksum error. It does not "see" any of the drives or drivers. Probably fatal I guess.
The new machinee has Win7 Home Premiun already installed on its 500GB HD and I really do not like the OS one bit. I had intended to get a machine which had Linux on it but they were rare and too expensive. So where do I go with what I have got? I know many of you use Win7 and a Linux distro in some form of double booting , what route did you employ to do this efficiently?
1. I could go rash and remove Win7 entirely and do a clean instal of Ubununtu (or whatever) which is a bit irrevicable which is a bit extreme. But it goes against the grain haveing paid for it!
2, I could use Wubi and run the linux OS within Winddows (even with my present dislike of Win7).
3. I could split the HD into two parts (say 250 Gigs each) leaving Win7 as it is with plenty of elbow room, construct the Linux part into normal partitions also with enough elbow room.
or whatever you recommend.
.
Re: New Laptop
20-08-2011 1:36 PM
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Re: New Laptop
20-08-2011 1:46 PM
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There's a useful guide here http://members.iinet.net.au/~herman546/p23.html
Post back with any questions
Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.
Re: New Laptop
20-08-2011 5:14 PM
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@MisterW
Thanks also.
That sounds reasonable to me, it seems that Win7 itself is quite small but, perhaps its attendant AV As etc., 250Gigs ought to be plenty, similarly the same applies to 10.04.2. I have the LiveCd for that. I will look at your ref anyway to see if there is anything else I ought to take in account.
Re: New Laptop
20-08-2011 5:47 PM
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Quote similarly the same applies to 10.04.2.
My 10.04 desktop currently uses ~19Gb and its got quite a few packages installed.
Consider using a separate partition for 'home' when you repartition the disc as it gives more option when upgrading to later versions of Ubuntu.
Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.
Re: New Laptop
20-08-2011 6:29 PM
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Re: New Laptop
20-08-2011 9:16 PM
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"In The Beginning Was The Word, And The Word Was Aardvark."
Re: New Laptop
20-08-2011 9:33 PM
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Re: New Laptop
20-08-2011 9:38 PM
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There was a case when someone bought a laptop (again a Dell) but encountered the Windows EULA, disagreed with it and proceeded no further, contacted Dell and said they dod not agree with the EULA and would not agree with it so would not, in fact, be able to use their purchase with Windows, Dell eventually refunded a sum of money on the understanding that Windows would be wiped from the machine and not activated of the particular key.
Nowadays, you might need to go to a smaller, speciallist builder to get one easily without an OS - on the other hand, if you can fine one with Linux then at least you're not paying a lump to Microsoft.
[Edit - sorry about the typos, keyboard is full of debris as it's sat next to the chinchilla cage!)
At any given moment in the universe many things happen. Coincidence is a matter of how close these events are in space, time and relationship.
Opinions expressed in forum posts are those of the poster, others may have different views.
Re: New Laptop
20-08-2011 10:35 PM
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"In The Beginning Was The Word, And The Word Was Aardvark."
Re: New Laptop
21-08-2011 11:42 AM
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That way if you want to you can re-install the original and "sell" it on if needed or return it.
Re: New Laptop
21-08-2011 12:44 PM
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Re: New Laptop
21-08-2011 1:13 PM
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I did not know that HP were ceasing making PCs. That explains their "generosity" in offering the discounts. Mine was made in China if that makes any difference. I did see that, on booting up, the laptop ground its way through no less than 74 updates which must indicate that the OS version was installed a long time ago! Win7 seems to major in Eye-Candy" with the result finding out what you want to know is not always intuitive. No doubt I might get used to it. The supplied, minmal documentation certainly does not agree with the actual operation in places which is not helpful. I have failed to find my way to the BIOS Boot Order page to get it to use the DVD drive as the first despite finding the apparent place which then seems to do nothing. Clever these Chinese.
I am getting a bit nervous about installing Ubuntu hearing the noises about the Unity desktop at the next LTS. Does Mint11 allow much of the old style 'buntu but without that change? How does it compare well with adequate support for external hardware such as my Canon 905D printer and its associated 9005F Scanner? The former is OK using Turbprint2 Pro but Sane does not cope with the latter.
Any views?
Re: New Laptop
21-08-2011 1:46 PM
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I did think of getting a new HD but at first examination I am not sure how to get inside the laptop. I know that HP can make difficulties with such actions, I have a nice little HP PhotoSmart 475 lying idle with a paper jam (A notorios problem), when I got 95% of it out using the approved method via the back door leaving a corner betwee the rollers! This could probably be sorted once the cover was removed but there is no obvious way of finding the catches. HP Service would charge about £150 to do it, so it can be done, but a new printer was very much cheaper!! Presumably HP build their laptops with the same philosophy. Such is progress!!
Re: New Laptop
21-08-2011 2:39 PM
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Quote from: colintivy @Ellis.
I did think of getting a new HD but at first examination I am not sure how to get inside the laptop. I know that HP can make difficulties with such actions, I have a nice little HP PhotoSmart 475 lying idle with a paper jam (A notorios problem), when I got 95% of it out using the approved method via the back door leaving a corner betwee the rollers! This could probably be sorted once the cover was removed but there is no obvious way of finding the catches. HP Service would charge about £150 to do it, so it can be done, but a new printer was very much cheaper!! Presumably HP build their laptops with the same philosophy. Such is progress!!
There should be several removable panels underneath. Battery, RAM and HDD. The SATA HDD's can be easily unplugged and removed, it's usually a case of moving it away from where it's plugged in and lifting it out. Replacement is the opposite procedure.
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