I am working so many things at the same time right now I am just hoping that someone has actually done... what I am about to ask. My old PIII IBM r30 thinkpad is a --good ---solid 'little' machine. comes with cd drive (swap w/floppy) 256 meg of ram, and 10gig hard drive. It can run xp. I do use it with 98/95/d0s, even Novell... or Linux. It has two built in usb slots, one in back and one on front left. Lately I use it as a workstation / web access, or for writing articles/submitting info or website update, etc. I do tend to use a usb optical mouse (much preferred over the built in 'nub mouse', between the g-h-and-b keys).
I, myself, have never made a bootable memstick yet, for any machine.
has anyone MADE something like an XP / bootable USB memstick for this machine, and it works well??? I haven't spent ANY time working with 'this' project yet, and simply wish to give myself max flexibility with this machine as quick as possible. suggestitions I would welcome would be along lines of...
memsticks: How SMALL a usable boot version of xp? ie 4gig stick?
-------------- Linux? Ubuntu 'stick booting? Ubunto --ON-- this r30?
-------------- Linux? RedHat? RH memstick?
-------------- Linux? Suse? etc
booting using differing hardware combo's of memstick: 256meg, 1gig, 4gig- Or larger, memsticks, WITH floppy, or cd available. ..or not... (or NO memstick and just cd?) (or, w/USB installed auxilliary hard drive, dvd?) etc..............
No this is not a clearcut question. This is a hardware/hacker forum style question, I seek good leads and suggestions to take me down 1 or 3, usable paths w/this machine. I am mostly interested in making (at least) a memstick (xp?) for this machine, w/a small partition it can use... (like IF the machine is mostly Linux) OR w/xp purely ON the memstick...(say 10gig or larger)... OR, a combo of system on a cd, and the memstick... etc. What works(ed) best for YOU? etc.
I'm sure the possibilities are endless. But I have spent no time on this at all and simply am looking / hoping someone has direct experience with the R30 thinkpad, and KNOWS intimately, the related issues of this machine, (it's behaviors/requirements) and its hardware. ...And what (software) works best, simplest, and may have suggestions for me to avoid dead-ends. Thank You in advance. For your suggestions. Speak freely of your experience (if you have it) just describe how YOU have hardware hacked and setup/configured your r30 for ease and flexibility of reconfig, and or multi-use. Mucho Gracias