3 replies to this topic

[Satyr]

Ok, couldn't fit everything in the title, so I'll try and state it better.

I have an Asus eeepc 901 with 4 GB main SSD, and a 16 GB secondary SSD.

Additional to that I have a 32 GB class 4 SD flash card, and numerous 8 & 16 GB usb mem sticks.

Am currently running bodhi linux 1.3 on the 4 GB ssd, using the 16 GB as a storage. Happy, except now I want to run a series of excel spreadsheets. Stuff I have developed over the decades, which I can't entirely trust to wine. Sometimes it's my scripts. There's too much buggering about trying to debug them. So for that and other reasons I'm considering dd'ing the bodhi install, then installing XP Pro (yeah I know what you're thinking, on the 4 GB!), then Office (not all of it) over on the 16 GB.

However I thought I'd touch base with you guys and see how far along multi-boot iso's have come along. I recall reading a newsletter a few years back where you had several VHD's (?) which unpacked into the main partition and just booted straight up. Or something like that?

So am wondering if it's possible for the 32 GB flash disk to have several images, which I can choose from some boot manager to run on the faster 4 GB SSD. dd backup and restore is a bit slow tbh.

The 16 GB SSD is slower than the 4 GB, and the 32 GB is even slower (I think, haven't really checked). But probably not as slow as the USB memory sticks.

The OS's I'd probably run are Bodhi Linux, Backtrack, Ubuntu, WinXP Pro, Win7 Ult (It's doable if vlited, and I've done it before just for a challenge with about 500 MB space left on the 4 GB, but Win7 is a hungry OS which soon eats that space up. So should be ok if re-installed each time).

What say you gentle folk?

Meanwhile I'll image bodhi and come back after installing XP.

Ta!

[RoyM]

How much ram do you have ?.

If you have 2-4 G, running iso's or vhd's should be very doable.
map 'em to -mem for speed, then chainload.

[steve6375]

I would go for a bootable USB HDD with Win 7 on it (or poss Win 8 Beta). Tutorials are on my site. Saves mucking about with imaging and trying to reduce XP/Win7 footprint but still keeping all the extra stuff that Office needs.

[Satyr]

How much ram do you have ?.

If you have 2-4 G, running iso's or vhd's should be very doable.
map 'em to -mem for speed, then chainload.

RoyM I have 2 GB on this baby (netbook). So where be the links to the tutes
re mapping to mem and chainloading VHD's? Thanks muchly!

I would go for a bootable USB HDD with Win 7 on it (or poss Win 8 Beta). Tutorials are on my site. Saves mucking about with imaging and trying to reduce XP/Win7 footprint but still keeping all the extra stuff that Office needs.

Thanks for your suggestion, and a good one too. Unfortunately I didn't bring an external USB drive with me. I do have several 8 & 16 GB USB sticks, an external DVD Writer/Reader, but both would slow down the OS. I might try to make the most of what I have rather than fork out on another piece of H/W to lug about. Forgot to mention am overseas, for a while. Excess data gets archived in the cloud (for free).

P.s. XP running ok so far. Took up less than 2 GB, but am using the bigger 16 GB slower SSD for the Program Files where I can. Firefox chews up a lot of resources.