Hi,

I know that there are plenty of guides on the web covering the subject and I am going to use the same but those are very generic. My intention here is to have some helping hand and guidance as i proceed along the installation.

Why I want server?:
1) File sharing
2) SSH or VPN connectivity so that i can access it from anywhere since i am out most of the time.
3) downloading torrents
4) media server and interface with my PS3.
5) and some day other stuff too.

I have an old Dell D630 laptop which would be good for now. I want to use USB for installation for two reasons - my hdd is bad and i want portability as in future i would certainly change the server machine.

I tried it once but then the machine would fail often. Well, i want to understand if it is a good idea or should i get a new HDD.

So.... did you actually have a question to ask??

Hi,

Usb memories generally have lower performance, especially for write operations.
It can be slow for torrents .

You can install OS on the flash drive and mount the HDD as a home partition.
At least you'll save your system configurations.

1 members found this post helpful.

Thank you for the suggestion. So when i am installing I should create partitions as shown below.
/ - on USB or SD
/home - on HDD

1) In this case, if i break the system due to some weird reason and want to restore every application(pkg) and configuraiton, should i keep /etc and /usr in other partition or just make copies and restore from the backup files?

3) I have 3 usb ports and use one for OS, say sdb1. Now, if i connect any other external drive and reboot, then the OS becomes sdb2 and the other USB drive is sdb1. Would this cause problem? If yes, any suggestions to avoid it?