Hello Everyone..
I have quit the windows world completely (also made my high school sister do it too!! ), and entered into the linux world. I love working in linux. Especially all the utilities and the structure are very lucrative and are amazing to use.

I have worked on ubuntu linux and have tried to install fedora distribution too. But I want to keep my current hard drive intact, and dont want my data to lose. I want to use all distributions and feel the differences in each distribution and experiment with them, hence i need a new hard disk drive.
But, unfortunately, cannot afford it. I am really sorry to be straight forward.

Anyone, who may help me by either telling me a way of getting a free hard drive, or by any other means is welcomed.

I would really be grateful to whoever may help in any form.


My email id is : shantanudesai2009@gmail.com

Sincerely,
Thank You.

Why don't you use a virtual machine to run your linux distro's?


Kind regards

I'd suggest virtual box as well..............or hitting a liquor store

Not free, but cheap, is making contact with retail PC upgraders who routinely have used hard dives sitting on a shelf by the workbench. Example: after getting to know the owner and some of the staff at a local PC retail business, I am able to purchase, say, 80GB IDE drives for $20 and 200GB IDE drives for $30; and the more I buy at a time, the better deal I get. SATA drives, depending on the demand, may be comparable.

I wipe them clean using a dd command, then load them with whatever distro pleases me. Once I have the configuration the way I want it, Clonezilla can be used to make images to load onto another hard drive that has been wiped. Expanding the /home and swap partitions to fit the new drive and machine is no big deal.

Here in Belgium people can bring their old computers to the recycle store, where you can go and get hem for no money.
Or you can go to the recycling parc, where you can find some good stuff for free.


Kind regards

I agree with repo about the recycling place - here they call them "Enviro Depot", and on a good day you can go and there'll be a big pile of home electronics & computers returned for recycling. Usually they look the other way if a person wants to "re-use" an item that's been dropped off.

Also, look for PC's at the roadside, that people are disposing of. This has gotten me some good parts in the past. Often they have perfectly good parts inside. Try to get these sort of deals as soon as they appear, rather than after they've sat outside in the rain for weeks.

3rd - ask people you know and people you work with, if they have any old computers in their garage or basement. Often people do - they save them because they "might need it one day" but never will; or because they got a new one and just tossed the old one in the corner; or because they weren't sure what to do with the old one. This method has also worked for me in the past.

Good luck!

Hi,

Once you do get a hard disk that you wish to work with then a VM is the way to experiment with different GNU/Linux on the same machine.

VirtualBox runs on Windows, Linux and Macintosh hosts and supports a large number of guest operating systems including but not limited to Windows (NT 4.0, 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista), DOS/Windows 3.x, Linux (2.4 and 2.6), and OpenBSD'. The 'User Manual(pdf)' will be of aid. You can download here: 'VirtualBox Downloads Page'. You could look at the 'VirtualBox User HOWTOs' to get some useful information.

If you live nearby I can give you a:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.co...&hl=en&ct=clnk

for free, from an XBox 360 (may have game saves on it). It's only 20GB tho.

You'll probably have better luck at an old computer depot.

Hey.. Thank You for the valuable time and solutions. Amongst these, i like going to the recycle store and searching for computer electronics the best. I will surely try them, though i am not sure of it because i live in Indore, India, and have hardly heard of such a place.

Any other suggestions are still welcomed.