(Vanity) My laptop died, need cheap OS

geronl

[GeronL]

My Toshiba Satellite L305 has crapped out. It did not come with the reinstallation disk. I can get a new hard drive but I need an O/S. It is too old to run Windows 7, which I can't really afford.

Does anyone know where I can buy a Windows Vista Home Premium (or sumtin') disk or product key for a good price?

[GeronL]

USB flash drive

[GeronL]

USB flash drive

[oh8eleven]

I have Ubuntu on a USB but I guess I don’t know how to make it bootable.
Plug it into your PC, then turn power on.
Within two or three seconds, as the system boots, you'll see "Press F12 for boot options." (If not, press the ESC key during boot up.)
Press F12 and you'll see an option like the one in the image. Press Enter.

[RebelTex]

1. If you do NOT still have the ISO on the computer you are using, then copy the ISO to it because creating the boot files will erase the files on the flash drive and you will need to copy the ISO back after making the flash drive bootable. (It will be easier if the ISO and the next file are the only files in a folder.)

2. Go to this link and download “Universal USB Installer”
BE CAREFUL - the big download link at the top is an ad for a PDF creator, so don’t click that - scroll about half-way down and you will see the link for the USB Installer.

Be sure to study the screenshots above the download button and also the IMPORTANT NOTES below the button.

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal-usb-installer-easy-as-1-2-3/

3. Then go to the following link for step by step instructions on making a bootable flash drive and scroll down to the instructions:

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal-usb-installer-easy-as-1-2-3/

Hope this helps,
RT

[GeronL]

The ISO has to be the ONLY file on the USB??

[GeronL]

does the ISO have to be the only file on the USB?

[RebelTex]

The USB flash drive should be reformatted so that it has NO FILES INITIALLY in order to make sure the boot sector is available for the installer.

The USB stick drive has to have boot files that you can see (io.sys, msdos.sys, & command.com) and some files in the boot sector that you can’t see. That’s what the Universal USB Installer does, it puts the needed files where they should be, THEN it copys the ISO BACK TO THE USB.

Having both the installer and the ISO in the same folder on your HD when you run the installer lets the installer auto-select the right ISO instead of you selecting from the drop-down box the installer presents. The installer will then copy the ISO back to the USB drive.

For a better explanation, read the instructions on the installer page and the USB page.

[GeronL]

thanks, I think. I’m not really comfy with the idea of erasing everything on the USB stick but I guess I can load them on this borrowed putter temporarily.

[RebelTex]

If you don’t want to copy those files from the flash drive to the HD, get a new flash drive from Staples.

They have 8gb flash drives on sale for just under $5.00

I think I’m gonna get several, heheh.

[GeronL]

That is a good price. I have a 4gb that I bought for $10 3 years ago.

[GeronL]

I’ll do it, probably only temporary anyway. It’ll have to wait until I get the laptop with the 250gb/5400rpm drive back from the shop, with a $43 store credit.

[oh8eleven]

You're getting a lot of advice, so let's try to keep this simple.
The easiest way to do this is to download the ISO file to a hard drive, then burn it to a (700mb) CD. Remember, there's a difference between burn and copy
Insert the CD into your newly repaired system, reboot and whatever version of Linux you put on the CD should come up and ask if you want to install it. You say yes.

[GeronL]

OK. I have a Puppy Linux on a CD. I’d rather have Ubuntu, isn’t it supposed to do more? I dunno.

[GeronL]

Does ‘Ubuntu Desktop’ work for laptops?

What would be the best “distro” for a laptop?

[GeronL]

Okay, I have created the USB boot drive with the newest Ubuntu 12.4.1 or whatever it said, lol.

[MtBaldy]

So can you boot from it?

As I’m sure you’ve found out by now, you can’t boot from just the ISO. The ISO is just an image of the CD boot disk. It has to be burned to a disk. Boot from the CD and you will have the option to install Ubuntu to a USB drive. Once that’s done you can try booting from it. You will probably have to go into the BIOS and change the boot device order so it boots from USB first. Typically hitting F2 or F12 or sometimes ESC when you first power up will launch the BIOS. I haven’t used Puppy Linux but have used Ubuntu and like it. Unfortunately it doesn’t work on my current Toshiba laptop. No matter really because I am happy with 64 bit Win7

[RebelTex]

Sorry, not a Linux guy.

I’ve fooled around a little with a couple of versions, but not enough to give advice on which distribution is better than another.

[GeronL]

Ubuntu better work with my Toshiba or I am stuck with Puppy Linux. I have used the USB boot drive installer thing I was advised to. The site said it needs to have 2gb of space and mine is 3.76gb so it should be fine.

[oh8eleven]

Keep us posted on your progress ...

[MtBaldy]

Good luck to you. Ubuntu runs on mine but won’t go on the Internet. It says it is but no web pages will load. Since I just had it loaded out of curiosity I said, “screw it”, and uninstalled it. My Toshiba is a 6 month old Satellite lots of RAM and a fast processor so I don’t know what the problem is.