Debian Installation Hell

[Bill Horne]

On Tuesday, May 16, 2000 8:52 AM, C_Principe at telesalesinc.com 
[SMTP:C_Principe at telesalesinc.com] wrote:
> I have been having some fun lately trying to get Debian
> installed on my computer.  First the background:
>[snip]

> I am nervous about trying to hunt down an external CD-ROM
> because the computer is so old.  I don't even believe it
> has a SCSI port on it.  I am wondering if it is possible
> to take the hard drive that I have, and put it
> temporarily into a computer that has a CD-ROM drive,
> and do the basic installation on that computer.

Yes, this is pretty easy to do.  Remember these points:

1.  Install software may try to trash the disk's partitions by 
default.  Be sure you allow ONLY the changes you want.
2.  If you're setting up a dual-boot machine, you may have to 
have a Logical partition to hold the source info, since only 
four physical partitions are allowed.
3.  Put the CD source on a separate partition, so that the 
installation routines can format the target partitions without 
special intervention.  Also, you can use Partition Magic or a 
similar program to reclaim the space after the install.
4.  Make sure that the installation floppies are able to boot on 
the target machine, and to recognize the disk drive, before you 
start.  I know, catch 22:  at least be sure they can boot.

HTH.

Bill Horne
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