- Mar 29, 2019
- 9
- 0
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I don't know if anyone can help; me or not. I'm sure it's been asked before, but I'm a newbie and feeling more than a little out of my depth here and not always understanding all the answers, but here goes:
I have a 2 TB hard drive (I think it's a Western Digital, and I'd like to add another hard drive, either traditional HDD or SSD, whichever takes the least energy to run and have Linux Mint installed on that. I'd like either to be at least a TB, 2 if I can afford it and the power supply can handle it. I have Windows 7 64 bit installed, but I do not want to wipe Windows at all. I just want to dual boot, but with separate disks. The problem is, I don't know if the 320w PSU will allow me to do that. I've heard that hard drives don't take all that much room but is that actually feasible or realistic? Will the power supply support another hard drive(I'd consider an SSD, and in fact, I'd like one) either hard drive or SSD so that I could install Linux on the new one, and keep Windows on the main hard drive, or would I be better off dual booting off the same disk. I've heard a lot of scare stories and a lot of stories where it went fine. I also know I can’t upgrade to a stronger power supply with this computer.
I don't have UEFI, at least it doesn't show EFI or UEFI in the Disk Management utility in Windows, so I assume that means it’s legacy bios. Is it even possible to dual boot with 2 drives with what I have, a DVD-R optical drive, 2 TB HDD, 8 GB RAM and Intel Core 2 Duo at 3 GHz.
If I’d be better off dual booting on the same disk I do have an 878 GB partition that doesn’t have anything on it. But is it safe? It seems to be split between it’s OK, and absolutely, do not do it. You can “brick yourself out” of both OS if something goes wrong, whatever that means and frankly, this has me running scared, so if I can, I’d prefer to have the Windows and Linux on separate disks.
My computer specs are as follows:
Computer: HP Compaq 6000 Pro Microtower
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 @ 3.00GHz
Memory: 8 GB DDR3
Video: Integrated Video
Audio: Integrated Audio
Storage:
1. WDC WD2002FYPS-01U1B1 ATA Device-2 TB-Western Digital (SATA 2 I think)
2. Seagate External (USB) Hard Drive (My Windows files are all redirected to our external drive)]]
Optical Drive: hp DVD-RAM GH60L ATA Device (it’s SATA as far as I know)
Operating System; Windows 7 Professional.
I haven’t gotten a Hard Drive yet. I was planning to get one during this coming holiday season, but wanted to wait to see if it would actually be feasible first, and also that’s when our Christmas bonus usually comes in, then have it installed. I’m just starting to learn about computer hardware and eventually building a computer, but I’m by no means there yet, so I’m planning to have someone install it for us and install Linux Mint on that drive. I think they call it an OEM install.
I’d appreciate any help I could get or advice, if if I can use another hard drive, should it be traditional or SSD?
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely yours,
Katherine Logan
I have a 2 TB hard drive (I think it's a Western Digital, and I'd like to add another hard drive, either traditional HDD or SSD, whichever takes the least energy to run and have Linux Mint installed on that. I'd like either to be at least a TB, 2 if I can afford it and the power supply can handle it. I have Windows 7 64 bit installed, but I do not want to wipe Windows at all. I just want to dual boot, but with separate disks. The problem is, I don't know if the 320w PSU will allow me to do that. I've heard that hard drives don't take all that much room but is that actually feasible or realistic? Will the power supply support another hard drive(I'd consider an SSD, and in fact, I'd like one) either hard drive or SSD so that I could install Linux on the new one, and keep Windows on the main hard drive, or would I be better off dual booting off the same disk. I've heard a lot of scare stories and a lot of stories where it went fine. I also know I can’t upgrade to a stronger power supply with this computer.
I don't have UEFI, at least it doesn't show EFI or UEFI in the Disk Management utility in Windows, so I assume that means it’s legacy bios. Is it even possible to dual boot with 2 drives with what I have, a DVD-R optical drive, 2 TB HDD, 8 GB RAM and Intel Core 2 Duo at 3 GHz.
If I’d be better off dual booting on the same disk I do have an 878 GB partition that doesn’t have anything on it. But is it safe? It seems to be split between it’s OK, and absolutely, do not do it. You can “brick yourself out” of both OS if something goes wrong, whatever that means and frankly, this has me running scared, so if I can, I’d prefer to have the Windows and Linux on separate disks.
My computer specs are as follows:
Computer: HP Compaq 6000 Pro Microtower
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 @ 3.00GHz
Memory: 8 GB DDR3
Video: Integrated Video
Audio: Integrated Audio
Storage:
1. WDC WD2002FYPS-01U1B1 ATA Device-2 TB-Western Digital (SATA 2 I think)
2. Seagate External (USB) Hard Drive (My Windows files are all redirected to our external drive)]]
Optical Drive: hp DVD-RAM GH60L ATA Device (it’s SATA as far as I know)
Operating System; Windows 7 Professional.
I haven’t gotten a Hard Drive yet. I was planning to get one during this coming holiday season, but wanted to wait to see if it would actually be feasible first, and also that’s when our Christmas bonus usually comes in, then have it installed. I’m just starting to learn about computer hardware and eventually building a computer, but I’m by no means there yet, so I’m planning to have someone install it for us and install Linux Mint on that drive. I think they call it an OEM install.
I’d appreciate any help I could get or advice, if if I can use another hard drive, should it be traditional or SSD?
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely yours,
Katherine Logan
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