Well, my normal go to guy for this stuff is unreachable right now... so i'm posing the question to here.

Not half an hour ago i got an update from windows (knew i shoulda disabled auto updates). anyways, the update was a crap file i'm guessing. either way, my windows OS is now fragged to the point i can't even last 1 second in the windows start up. so i'm going to make the massive upgrade to a linux based OS and spare myself Microsoft's bs.
The problem is that i've only ever installed an OS on my PS3 which was fully functional at the time, and netbooks normally not having internal cd trays, i don't know if the external tray i have will work.
Simply put, i'm trying to figure out how to do an OS install for the most part. Is it as simple as connect the external cd-drive and put in the disk? Or am i going to have to jump through a few more hoops?

I've already got the version of Linux i want, i just need to know how to install it before i end up trying to install it one way and waste money only to find out it won't work.

hi

installation of linux is now going easy like windows, but it depends what type of installation required.

if you are installing desktop/PC then installation procedure alos guide you but you also need background information required like file systems etc.

2nd important thing is the backup of your old data, that may cause loss if you did not plane it.

Welcome to Linuxquestions,
Connecting the external cd-drive and put the disk should work if your bios permit. But there is more to it than just that, there is a learning curve, Linux is totally different than windozzz.
You might experience problem configuring your internet, your onboard sound or video card driver.
My point is that with a bit of reading and googling, you will eventually learn to config your box to your taste and will probably dont want to go back to windozz.
But i can't promise everything will work right away. And for the money wasting, linux is free.
You will always be welcome to ask questions here.

It just depends on whether the BIOS checks the external CD before it's own hard drive.

Here it a good link:

http://linux.oneandoneis2.org/LNW.htm

so in other words, be prepared for at least a couple hours of trying to get all the data i need to get it up and running. got it.
and yeah, i know there's a learning curve, and i'm fully prepared to try to get through it. and right now the only thing i want windows for is WoW, but i've got another machine for that.

and unfortunately as far as backed up data, that's all gone. all i have is some music and videos that i have on an external drive, everything else is toast. probably lost about 10gigs of data at least. i've only had the thing a little over a month

Maybe we can restore that data.

What Linux distro did you choose, is it a Live CD?

If it's a Live CD, you can boot Linux from the CD-ROM without touching the HDD, and then read from your hard drive in the Live CD.

If your chosen Linux flavor comes on a Live CD (absolutely the best and easiest way to install Linux!), pop it in and reboot. A USB stick with a LiveCD image works exactly the same way (pop it in, reboot). During the boot-up, watch carefully for the li'l "F12 to enter Setup" notice. It's different from one computer to another - it will appear on the screen for a few seconds during normal boot. On mine it's F12 but on other 'puters it could be F-something else.

Let's just say it's F12 (your mileage may vary). Hit that F12 key quickly a few times during boot-up, and it'll take you to the BIOS. Select your USB-stick as your "first boot device" and then exit the bios. It will boot to your USB stick and bingo! You're running Linux, yay!

Most distributions have an Install icon on the desktop. Enter a user name, password, keyboard configuration, time zone, etc, and the installer does the rest.

You'll want to run it in LiveCD mode first, though, before you install it. Drive it around, kick the tires, be sure everything works on your machine before you click on that Install button! But if it's picking up wifi and doing everything it should, then, if you like what you see and are ready for the big plunge, go for it!

Enjoy the ride! It's thrilling, liberating, awesome!

-Robin

thanks for that link. kinda what i've been hearing. still sticking to the thought i'll like linux more. already had brief encounters with using it, and from what i've seen i rather like the open options i'll get.

So what distribution did you get?

Is it a Live distribution?

lol... all this Live CD stuff is screwing with me head lol. sorry for being stupid with comps, i'm not quite advanced end user but not a standard user by far. so far my plan was dl the iso, burn to disc, then go through the external cd drive.

as far as version i'm snaggin, going with Ubuntu's Netbook Remix, i believe is the name.

sorry for the slow response time... still in the process of the download, so the internet is kinda slowing down.

Anyway, if you see the Ubuntu installer start, choose the option that says something like "try Ubuntu without changing your hard drive" or something of that type.

When you select it, Ubuntu should boot into you computer from the CD-ROM, without modifying your hard drive. Here you can play around with it, and maybe even recover your lost data.

sweet. i'll definitely have to try that out then.

I though I might give a little explanation on how Linux's FS works:

First, there are no drive letters, and directories are separated by /, not \.

And in Linux all your devices are represented as files. They are all stored in the directory "/dev". For example there is a file representing your serial port, and if you write to it, instead of saving the data to the file, it gets sent out the serial port!

The disk drives are similarly represented. They can be used to access the raw bits on the hard drive. Here is how they're named:

<h for IDE, s for SCSI, SATA, or USB>d<letter representing disk><partition number>

For example, the first partition of your first SATA, SCSI, or USB disk will be called "/dev/sda1".

To access the file structure in the drive, instead of just the raw data, you have to mount the drive. Basically this means assigning a directory to mirror the contents of the drive.

Let's say you want to access /dev/sdb1. You first have to create a directory as a "mount point". So we create the directory "/media/disk" (name it anything you want). then, as root user, run the command "mount /dev/sdb1 /media/disk". Now the folder /media/disk will contain the contents of the disk! And modifying these will modify the disk, too. Before you remove a drive, you must unmount it. Run "umount /media/disk" as root to do that in our example.

To list disks, use the command "fdisk -l" as root. This could give you a clue as to how the disk you want to mount is named.

Here is the output of fdisk -l on my computer. I have a 300GB hard drive wit 2 partitions, and a 4GB flash drive plugged in at the moment of running this command. I've highlighted the important bits: