Really lost trying to download Mint

clust3rfck

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Help!
I am so lost and really starting to get frustrated. I want to learn Linux. The end goal is to create a cluster.
I don't have a pen drive but I do have several hard drives. I want to install Mint on a hard drive I have and then put that hard drive into another computer so I can play along with tutorials and stuff. The instructions are unclear and scary. It looks like if I download Mint on another hard drive I have to create partitions, which I am unsure how to do. Then it looks like once I restart the computer is going to ask me which OS to boot to. Is it still going to do that if I put that hard drive into another machine? Will that screw up my windows? I have been reading stuff I can find and it seems like there are several different GUI's to choose from which is another confusing mess.
There is so much info out there that it is all confusing as hell.
Is ther a simple idiot proof guide to installing this on a seperate hard drive? I have been looking at youtube videos, but they end up going nowhere. I watched one where the guy got about half way through the install and got stuck... Not so helpful...
 


it wouldn't be that hard to go and buy a usb stick say 16gig ? It would be useful if you could
 
it wouldn't be that hard to go and buy a usb stick say 16gig ? It would be useful if you could
It would be useful, true there, I am without means. I have to use what I have.

Which leads me to my nest question.
I downloaded Mint. When I open it I am presented with a bunch of files none of which look like anything I know how to use. It did create a virtual drive, but I have no idea what to do with it... I want to install this on a separate 500 gb drive I have.
 
you have to put the iso onto the boot media in an appropriate manner. IN theory if you formatted a HD with Ventoy https://www.ventoy.net/en/faq.html

in that case after for formating you could just drag and drop an intact iso an
d boot from that drive. That would if chose "try" get Mint live up, which also on Desktop has "install" incon. IN which case in theory,( i'm only a humble slackware user bamboozled by the high tech that is Mint) you could boot live from one HD and install to another.

@Condobloke @70 Tango Charlie any ideas /
 
You can get a 32 GB thumbdrive for $4 USD w/free shipping at NewEgg.


Sadly, a good online buddy has a nifty way of doing this, but I can't find his explanation anywhere.
 
You can get a 32 GB thumbdrive for $4 USD w/free shipping at NewEgg.


Sadly, a good online buddy has a nifty way of doing this, but I can't find his explanation anywhere.
well, after a long and frustrating day watching tutorials I don't understand and reading articles that don't seem to apply I have decided I have to wait to get another thumb drive that I can only use for this one purpose so I can install a program just to see if I like it. I will add it to the other 5 I have bought over the last two months and now can't seem to use for anything else.
I don't understand why I can't download this straight to another hard drive and install it with the installer from there, but it doesn't seem to be something I can figure out.
If Linux is so great why is it so hard to do a simple install? If it is so hard to install for the uninitiated, how much utility can there really be?

Edit: There HAS to be a way to do this without the use of a pen drive as an intermediate device. There are 25 versions of Linux, Am I going to have to buy another pen drive everytime I want to try a different version???
 
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You can reformat and reuse thumbdrives. They're not single-use items.
 
You can reformat and reuse thumbdrives. They're not single-use items.
Maybe that needs to be another tutorial, or maybe it is just windows that won't let you reuse your pen drive after downloading an ISO. I have 5 of them, I have used them for ISO's of windows. 3 of them have the same copy of win 10 on them that worked once and don't work anymore. I used them one time to download win 10 ISO and not only can I not reuse them to install win 10 on another machine, I can't remove the write protection.
Is there a way?
One drive I put win 7 on and then couldn't do anything with because the computer I was trying to install on has BIOS not UEFI. I put the hard drive I was trying to program into another machine with UEFI, and it wouldn't work there either.
If there is a way to reuse these pen drives I would dearly love to know what it is. Every single thing I have found that is supposed to work either doesn't or has so many complicated steps that I don't understand it is easier to just buy a new pen drive, which I suspect is the point.
At the end of the day, I am retired. That means flat broke all month. The $5.00 it takes to buy yet another pen drive is really another $5.00 I just don't have.
 
Maybe that needs to be another tutorial, or maybe it is just windows that won't let you reuse your pen drive after downloading an ISO. I have 5 of them, I have used them for ISO's of windows. 3 of them have the same copy of win 10 on them that worked once and don't work anymore. I used them one time to download win 10 ISO and not only can I not reuse them to install win 10 on another machine, I can't remove the write protection.
Is there a way?
One drive I put win 7 on and then couldn't do anything with because the computer I was trying to install on has BIOS not UEFI. I put the hard drive I was trying to program into another machine with UEFI, and it wouldn't work there either.
If there is a way to reuse these pen drives I would dearly love to know what it is. Every single thing I have found that is supposed to work either doesn't or has so many complicated steps that I don't understand it is easier to just buy a new pen drive, which I suspect is the point.
At the end of the day, I am retired. That means flat broke all month. The $5.00 it takes to buy yet another pen drive is really another $5.00 I just don't have.
Hey man, which operating system are you working on? I hope you are not taking a jibe at people here..
For windows 10 you can watch this link
[
]
You just need to right click on the USB drive and click format. Choose default settings and it should be as good as new.
 
Help!
I am so lost and really starting to get frustrated. I want to learn Linux. The end goal is to create a cluster.
I don't have a pen drive but I do have several hard drives. I want to install Mint on a hard drive I have and then put that hard drive into another computer so I can play along with tutorials and stuff. The instructions are unclear and scary. It looks like if I download Mint on another hard drive I have to create partitions, which I am unsure how to do. Then it looks like once I restart the computer is going to ask me which OS to boot to. Is it still going to do that if I put that hard drive into another machine? Will that screw up my windows? I have been reading stuff I can find and it seems like there are several different GUI's to choose from which is another confusing mess.
There is so much info out there that it is all confusing as hell.
Is ther a simple idiot proof guide to installing this on a seperate hard drive? I have been looking at youtube videos, but they end up going nowhere. I watched one where the guy got about half way through the install and got stuck... Not so helpful...
Creating a partition in an external harddisk is not difficult. But do you have any data in that hard-disk already?
If not, then no need to even create a partition. Just use a free application like Rufus (https://rufus.ie/). You would need to select the iso file which you downloaded and use default settings to make a bootable drive. When it is done, just restart the system and boot with the external harddisk.
 
Hey man, which operating system are you working on? I hope you are not taking a jibe at people here..
For windows 10 you can watch this link
[
]
You just need to right click on the USB drive and click format. Choose default settings and it should be as good as new.
I wasn't taking a jibe at anyone, my apologies if it came across that way. Not even sure what I said that gives you that impression...
I know I can use a pen drive, everyone has told me. I get it. I know they are only $5.00. I know I have 5 of them I can't figure out how to reuse. Maybe the Linux ISO doesn't change the pen drive the way microsoft does so you can't reuse it
I still feel there should be a much simpler way to download directly to a hard drive Like you can with nearly every other program, but alas, that is not to be.
I will check out your link, thanks for sharing.
Creating a partition in an external harddisk is not difficult. But do you have any data in that hard-disk already?
If not, then no need to even create a partition. Just use a free application like Rufus (https://rufus.ie/). You would need to select the iso file which you downloaded and use default settings to make a bootable drive. When it is done, just restart the system and boot with the external harddisk.
I have Rufus and thought about trying to use that. When I tried to reopen the Virtual Disk, Windows couldn't find the file and it wasn't in my download file. So now what does one do?

G'day @honey_m305 and welcome to linux.org :)

The OP has another Thread here

https://linux.org/threads/which-version.32659/

You might want to read that first before going further.

Cheers

Chris Turner
wizardfromoz
Whats wrong with my other post? I don't think I double posted... One posts asks which version I should use, this post asks how to install it... I was hoping to get more detailed instructions on how to do this w/out a pendrive from this post.
My apologies if I did something...unsavory.
 
I wasn't taking a jibe at anyone, my apologies if it came across that way. Not even sure what I said that gives you that impression...
I know I can use a pen drive, everyone has told me. I get it. I know they are only $5.00. I know I have 5 of them I can't figure out how to reuse. Maybe the Linux ISO doesn't change the pen drive the way microsoft does so you can't reuse it
I still feel there should be a much simpler way to download directly to a hard drive Like you can with nearly every other program, but alas, that is not to be.
I will check out your link, thanks for sharing.

I have Rufus and thought about trying to use that. When I tried to reopen the Virtual Disk, Windows couldn't find the file and it wasn't in my download file. So now what does one do?


Whats wrong with my other post? I don't think I double posted... One posts asks which version I should use, this post asks how to install it... I was hoping to get more detailed instructions on how to do this w/out a pendrive from this post.
My apologies if I did something...unsavory.
Windows doesn't do anything to the usb stick. Please just follow the instructions in the video and any of your older usb sticks are gonna be as new. Or if it's not possible, show us a picture of why it's impossible to format the usb stick. Maybe, we can help you out then. I only have 1usb stick since 4 years and I've used it multiple times for installing windows and then I use it otherwise. In fact, recently I also installed Linux mint using the same.
 
Windows doesn't do anything to the usb stick. Please just follow the instructions in the video and any of your older usb sticks are gonna be as new. Or if it's not possible, show us a picture of why it's impossible to format the usb stick. Maybe, we can help you out then. I only have 1usb stick since 4 years and I've used it multiple times for installing windows and then I use it otherwise. In fact, recently I also installed Linux mint using the same.
ok, check this out. I had the exact same thing happen on another stick. I haven't tried the third stick yet.
First notice I can't delete the files on the thumb drive. That option isn't there.
Then notice that the thing is write protected.
Last notice the clean command throws an error.
I saw this video a few weeks ago when I bought the next stick.
If it isn't something happening to the stick when the ISO goes on, Did I get two sticks with the same exact issue?
image_16840449.JPG
image_67156737.JPG
image_16840449.JPG
image_16794881.JPG


Edit: Interestingly enough it did work on a third USB that I had win 7 on. Now that I have a usable thumb drive again I can relax and try to get this downloaded.
Thanks for everyone's help and patience.
 
Also, thumbdrives do eventually die - and they'll sometimes say they're write-protected.

And, some thumbdrives have a switch on them that puts them into a read-only state.

So, there's some things for future reference.
 
Also, thumbdrives do eventually die - and they'll sometimes say they're write-protected.

And, some thumbdrives have a switch on them that puts them into a read-only state.

So, there's some things for future reference.
Brand new thumbdrive x 2. Wouldn't expect two new thumbdrives to die after one use in the same way. I have looked for a switch, can't find one anywhere. Not convinced win 10 ISO didn't do something terrible to my thumbdrives... it's a conspiracy I tell ya ;)
 
When you are using Diskpart in Windows and the clean command fails... give the command convert gpt and then run clean command again. It may help, or may not, but it's something I found in some old notes.

My complete "Old notes" are in the spoiler below. If convert gpt allows you to continue, my notes do the same thing as the video above, but they do it all from the Diskpart command line instead of going back into Windows Disk Management.

((Comments in double parentheses.))


Open Start Menu and run: CMD ((does not have to run as Administrator))


Enter these commands:


>diskpart ((one word... this opens DISKPART in a new CMD window))


DISKPART> list disk ((two words))


DISKPART> select disk # ((# is the flash drive number... could be 0 thru 5, or more. Check the disk sizes.))


DISKPART> clean
(If clean fails, try 'convert gpt' and then clean again.)


DISKPART> create partition primary ((don't reverse the words here... that's an easy mistake))


DISKPART> select partition 1


DISKPART> format fs=fat32 quick ((can also use fs=ntfs -- it shows 0% for the whole process, then 100% when complete, so be patient))


DISKPART> assign ((assigns a Windows drive letter))


DISKPART> exit ((this closes the DISKPART window))


>exit ((this closes the original CMD window))
 
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Brand new thumbdrive x 2. Wouldn't expect two new thumbdrives to die after one use in the same way. I have looked for a switch, can't find one anywhere. Not convinced win 10 ISO didn't do something terrible to my thumbdrives... it's a conspiracy I tell ya ;)

When you do write the .iso to your thumbdrive, I have had good results with Balena Etcher.
 
When you do write the .iso to your thumbdrive, I have had good results with Balena Etcher.
And then keep using Balena Etcher when you want to burn a new .iso on the same USB to replace it. Part of your trouble may be mixing your Windows and Linux USB's which were burned using different methods.
 

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