Install on a computer w/o a dvd drive

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#1 Post by **bmike1** » Wed Jul 25, 2012 6:31 pm

I think I want to put Mepis on my desktop puter. It does not have a DVD drive in it though. Can I connect the laptop to the desktop and use the laptop as an external drive?

#2 Post by **joany** » Wed Jul 25, 2012 7:02 pm

Does the BIOS of your desktop support booting from a USB thumb drive? If it does, you could create a bootable MEPIS thumb drive on your laptop and boot your desktop and install MEPIS from the thumb drive.

If that isn't possible, I doubt if MEPIS can be installed successfully using the method you describe because your laptop and desktop have completely different hardware. If you run the Live DVD on the laptop, it will detect the laptop's hardware and will install itself accordingly. Some people have replaced a HDD on one machine with the HDD from another machine with MEPIS installed on it; but for that to work, the two machines should be fairly similar, which yours are not.

I've heard of booting one Apple computer from another, but never one PC from another. But I could be mistaken.

#3 Post by **uncle mark** » Wed Jul 25, 2012 7:05 pm

bmike1 wrote:I think I want to put Mepis on my desktop puter. It does not have a DVD drive in it though. Can I connect the laptop to the desktop and use the laptop as an external drive?

No.

#4 Post by **lucky9** » Wed Jul 25, 2012 8:29 pm

If the memory key is not bootable on your Desktop does it have a CD? There are some boot CD-ROMs available that would be able to boot a LiveDVD that's copied to a memory key.

#5 Post by **uncle mark** » Wed Jul 25, 2012 8:34 pm

lucky9 wrote:If the memory key is not bootable on your Desktop does it have a CD? There are some boot CD-ROMs available that would be able to boot a LiveDVD that's copied to a memory key.

http://www.plop.at/en/bootmanagers.html

#6 Post by **JBoman** » Wed Jul 25, 2012 10:24 pm

bmike1 wrote:I think I want to put Mepis on my desktop puter. It does not have a DVD drive in it though. Can I connect the laptop to the desktop and use the laptop as an external drive?

If you are comfortable with the command line see here> http://www.mikerubel.org/computers/rsync_snapshots/

***you can also do it with Clonezilla by connecting NIC to NIC (Network Interface Card). Videos are available on youtube for doing it with Clonezilla.

#7 Post by **joany** » Thu Jul 26, 2012 8:34 am

@uncle mark

That's really cool!

JBoman wrote:
bmike1 wrote:I think I want to put Mepis on my desktop puter. It does not have a DVD drive in it though. Can I connect the laptop to the desktop and use the laptop as an external drive?
If you are comfortable with the command line see here> http://www.mikerubel.org/computers/rsync_snapshots/
***you can also do it with Clonezilla by connecting NIC to NIC (Network Interface Card). Videos are available on youtube for doing it with Clonezilla.

Cloning an installation from one computer to another is fraught with problems (unless the computers themselves are nearly clones).

#8 Post by **JBoman** » Thu Jul 26, 2012 9:52 am

joany wrote:@uncle mark

That's really cool!

JBoman wrote:
bmike1 wrote:I think I want to put Mepis on my desktop puter. It does not have a DVD drive in it though. Can I connect the laptop to the desktop and use the laptop as an external drive?
If you are comfortable with the command line see here> http://www.mikerubel.org/computers/rsync_snapshots/
***you can also do it with Clonezilla by connecting NIC to NIC (Network Interface Card). Videos are available on youtube for doing it with Clonezilla.
Cloning an installation from one computer to another is fraught with problems (unless the computers themselves are nearly clones).

Agree wholeheartedly but it is doable

#9 Post by **uncle mark** » Thu Jul 26, 2012 10:12 am

joany wrote:@uncle mark

That's really cool!

I've not explored all its options, but it works splendidly for booting to USB if that's not natively supported by your machine.

#10 Post by **fbt** » Thu Jul 26, 2012 10:50 am

Of course for a round $20 you can by a DVD writer. They are pretty handy to have around.

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