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pharmer4
Metallica Fanatic
Joined: 16 Aug 2005
Posts: 2136
Location: Deniliquin, Australia
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 Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2009 2:03 am Post subject: Vitural Machine/Partition my best option? |
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G'Day
I just bought the HP touchsmart 518a, which is a nice little computer.
One problem I have is that it runs on Vista 64bit, and the external hard drive device I have, the Netgear SC101t does not work with 64bit.
One option I have is to buy a different external hard drive.
Another is, apparently, to create a partition or virtual machine that is not 64bit, have it connect OK with that partition, and then network it so it can be seen by the 64bit partition. I have been told this works on the HP support forum by other members.
Thing is, I have a big habit of messing up computers when I do things like this, and have no experience creating partitions etc.
So, can anyone confirm that this should work (btw, if a non-64bit OS computer is networked, the SC101t can operate with it, and the drives in it can be shared over the network to the 64-bit machine, so that is definately a fact).
Also, if it would work, can anyone give me a good link on how to partition/virtual machine my computer?
thanks
P4
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LP-Trel
Zen
Joined: 02 Dec 2002
Posts: 5959
Location: Nirvana by Boredom
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| Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2009 3:39 am Post subject: |
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First of all, Vista is a pain in 32 or 64bit mode. You're just hitting the tip of the iceberg unless you're lucky. 
You might want to look at VirtualBox for virtualization. I've found that many people switching from Windows to Linux occasionally have some programs that Wine just can't support. VirtualBox booting a virtualized copy of Windows when needed makes for a pretty tidy solution.
If you're dead set on keeping the headache that is Vista then VirtualBox might be what you need for a virtual machine.
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pharmer4
Metallica Fanatic
Joined: 16 Aug 2005
Posts: 2136
Location: Deniliquin, Australia
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| Posted: Wed Jan 28, 2009 4:12 am Post subject: |
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I'm not game to change OS - I have a knack for messing up computers, so not going to go ahead with virtualisation either.
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ClickFanatic
Est. 2005
Joined: 18 Jan 2005
Posts: 4569
Location: 37°45'18.24"N 14°59'42.9"E
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| Posted: Wed Jan 28, 2009 9:45 am Post subject: |
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You need to use a 32-bit OS (preferably Windows) to access your external drive, so you have two options:
Dual boot (booting a different OS from an extra partition) or virtualisation (using software to create a 'virtual computer' that can be messed around with).
I assume your current internal hard drive is already fully partitioned. This can be a problem when you want to add an extra OS, because you have to remove an empty partition or resize the existing partition to make room for a new one.
This can be risky if you are keen on keeping your current data. If you do want to go on with this, I recommend getting a LiveCD with gparted (they have one on their site), this will allow you to manage your partitions when they're not being used by your OS.
Virtualisation is, in my opinion, a lot easier. Instead of a partition, VirtualBox (which should be your weapon of choice unless you are familiar with VMware) creates a file that it will use like a partition. All you need now is to install a 32-bit OS on it. You can 'mount' a CD image on a virtual CD drive in VirtualBox and do the installation as usual, if I am correct.
The nice thing about virtualisation is that it is very unlikely to harm your current setup. If something goes wrong inside the virtual machine, you can shut it down like any piece of software. Removing the virtual machine is as easy as uninstalling a piece of software. There are very few risks I can think of.
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LP-SolidRaven
Evil Belgian Waffle
Joined: 06 Jun 2004
Posts: 7982
Location: Belgium
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| Posted: Wed Jan 28, 2009 10:09 am Post subject: |
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Virtual machines are pretty much without risk. There are so many options at this though.
Microsoft Virtual PC
VMWare
QEmu
etc...
Also keep in mind you could run a light weight linux distro in the virtual machine and a samba server to reduce the memory footprint of your virtual machine
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Jacky
3.14159265358979323846264
Joined: 01 Jan 2005
Posts: 4175
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| Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2009 8:03 pm Post subject: |
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| ClickFanatic wrote: | You need to use a 32-bit OS (preferably Windows) to access your external drive, so you have two options:
Dual boot (booting a different OS from an extra partition) or virtualisation (using software to create a 'virtual computer' that can be messed around with).
I assume your current internal hard drive is already fully partitioned. This can be a problem when you want to add an extra OS, because you have to remove an empty partition or resize the existing partition to make room for a new one.
This can be risky if you are keen on keeping your current data. If you do want to go on with this, I recommend getting a LiveCD with gparted (they have one on their site), this will allow you to manage your partitions when they're not being used by your OS.
Virtualisation is, in my opinion, a lot easier. Instead of a partition, VirtualBox (which should be your weapon of choice unless you are familiar with VMware) creates a file that it will use like a partition. All you need now is to install a 32-bit OS on it. You can 'mount' a CD image on a virtual CD drive in VirtualBox and do the installation as usual, if I am correct.
The nice thing about virtualisation is that it is very unlikely to harm your current setup. If something goes wrong inside the virtual machine, you can shut it down like any piece of software. Removing the virtual machine is as easy as uninstalling a piece of software. There are very few risks I can think of. |
I would say even if you want to virtualise use another partition instead. Keep things in order.
Yes GParted is a excellent tool for your partition needs. No need for those shareware. And don't use Windows for it (even though Vista offers it), GParted does the job in seconds, Windows do it in minutes and hours.
But if have an empty drive and you plan to create your active partition with Windows on it, try to get Windows to partition the drive and format it instead of using GParted.
I had used GParted to create a partition for Windows XP (on an empty drive) and upon a few reboots Windows XP couldn't boot up with the error "NTLDR is missing". NTLDR is stored on your active partition and all Windows NT-based OS requires it to boot up.
It's probably how GParted formatted the partition, but no matter what fixes I try it just won't work.
In the end I imaged the existing Windows XP installation using Acronis and store the image on another drive first. I then use Windows XP to format the partition, and restore the image back and surprisingly it could boot up again.
I don't know the problem in detail, but if you plan to install Windows XP on your active partition, try to get Windows to format the active partition.
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*close* |
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ClickFanatic
Est. 2005
Joined: 18 Jan 2005
Posts: 4569
Location: 37°45'18.24"N 14°59'42.9"E
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| Posted: Sat Jan 31, 2009 10:09 am Post subject: |
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| Jacky wrote: | | I would say even if you want to virtualise use another partition instead. Keep things in order. |
Running an existing bootable partition in a virtual machine is actually trickier than simply using the 'file-embedded partition method'. Generally because you avoid hardware problems (an existing installation could be configured for your PC's hardware and not for the virtual hardware).
Creating a file-embedded partition in VirtualBox is extremely easy, so I don't see a reason why one would make it harder.
| Jacky wrote: | | Yes GParted is a excellent tool for your partition needs. No need for those shareware. And don't use Windows for it (even though Vista offers it), GParted does the job in seconds, Windows do it in minutes and hours. |
Downsizing a partition usually takes a lot of time because the files inside have to be compacted to fit in. But most of the other operations are much faster, especially if you keep the task queue (a log of operations you want to be done in order) to an efficient minimum.
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Xtreme $niper
Lifeless Person
Joined: 29 Mar 2005
Posts: 1763
Location: Canada
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| Posted: Sun Feb 01, 2009 10:47 am Post subject: |
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Yeah there really isn't anything that can go wrong with a virtualized machine. It's just a file on your computer once you've set it up. If you screw the system up in virtualized world, you can simply start over without affecting your real host OS. It's up to you though.
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LP-SolidRaven
Evil Belgian Waffle
Joined: 06 Jun 2004
Posts: 7982
Location: Belgium
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| Posted: Sun Feb 01, 2009 1:31 pm Post subject: |
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Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the latest versions of Virtual PC are free.
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Dilly dally, shilly shally. |
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jthomsonmain
Ardent Poster
Joined: 11 Jan 2008
Posts: 87
Location: Albion, NY (USA)
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| Posted: Wed Feb 25, 2009 9:12 pm Post subject: |
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VirtualBox for the win... Free and works great. I use it on my server:
http://www.virtualbox.org/
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