Got a new Maxtor one touch III mini edition 60gb HD for Xmas. It will run dual boot w/ WinME and Ubuntu dapper on the same computer. Its minimum requirements are: Pentium III, WinXP,USB 2.0 -1.1. The computer is a Dell year 2001 w/ celeron processor. Will this run on ME...my guess is that it will work but not with the software. As for Ubuntu, it mounts and receives files dragged or copied but, of course, the Win software won't work. Is there any software available for this set-up for both WinME and Ubuntu dapper? Like going backwards to ME might be difficult.

It is not compleatly clear to me what you want.

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Are you looking to setup a dualboot with WinME and Ubuntu, right? In that case proceed as follows:

-Boot the PC from the WinME cd.
-Proceed with the Windows installation.
When asked about the harddisk, delete all partitions and make one a primary fat32 partition of about 10GB, install Windows there.
-When Windows is up and running boot the computer with the Ubuntu CD.
-Proceed with the Linux installation
-When asked about the harddisk, make another primary partition of about 20GB. Make that partition root.
-Make 2 seconday partitions, one of 1GB and make it the swap and another fat32 partition that fills the rest of your harddisk.
-Leave the first primary partition that Windows is on alone.
-The installation will tell you at a later stage it has detected Windows and will make a multiboot option for it.
-Finish your Ubuntu installation.
-Now when you boot from your harddisk, you will have a multiboot menu that lets you chose Windows or Ubuntu.
-That last fat32 partition you made functions as data storage and as a way to pass files between Windows and Linux.

Warnings
-If you do this, BACKUP EVERYTHING IMPORTANT FIRST as your harddisk will be totally wiped.
-If you do not understand thiese instuctions, try to figure out stuff on your own a bit and come back to ask speciffic questions.
-WinME sucks. I advice you to use Win2000 or Win98 instead.
-I allso advice you to use Xubuntu instead of Ubuntu as it is faster on old machines.

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An alternative is to install your windows inside your Linux as a virtual machine. That way you can use Windows in a window while running Linux and you will not need to reboot all the time.

Install VMware Workstation (costs money) in your Linux and make a virtual machine with Windows inside it.

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The last and best option is to find Linux alternatives for your Windows programs and forget Windows alltogether.
Reed up on Wine and Cedega if you want some Windows games/apps to run on Linux.
Reed up on Dosbox if you want old DOS stuff to run on your Linux.


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Good luck.

Maybe misuderstood. I was looking to plug a new external HD into USB of an older computer. The software with the new HD is for winXP and not for the older winME. My question(s) are: Can this new HD work hooked up to the old computer USB port and still function using drag and drop files? Is there an older software version that I can install on this drive so I can set up automatic backup. Remember, I will be using this toback-up files from both Ubuntu and WinME.


Interestingly, I will have reformat this computer and set it up for dual boot. So, your above help is also what I'm looking for. Good suggestions on partitioning. I always wondered about moving and accessing files from Windows to Linux. I had another machine that was set up apparently as a virtual machine and it worked great, especially when I needed to back up files that were associated with oneanother. However, if a file in windows becomes corrupt, won't they infect the linux files as well?

Xbuntu is one I'm not familiar with. I have noticed that the Ubuntu dapper was rather slow on this old Dell-celeron but very fast on my new PowerSpec. I'll have to investigate this more throughly.

Windows ME requires a driver for USB support but it should work. FAT is compatable between linux and ME so you can read/write without problems. If a file becomes corrupted in windows it will probably still be corrupted in linux.

http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/Ma...ll%20Downloads

Thanks, that's what I kinda suspected was wasn't sure.