I mean, like really old....for free.



Its got 320mb of ram.

and a 497MHz pentium III



It has a hard drive that is partitioned into 3 drives.  The D: drive is where windows is located (8.2GB used out of 9.54) .  The C: drive is where a few programs are located who's default download location is on C:  (It used to have other files on it, but I deleted them, 1.55GB used out of 8.15)  The D: drive says "music" but there isn't anything on it (essentially totally empty 5.74GB.)





It runs slow...very slow.  



I was wondering if installing linux would make it run faster.  Figured I'd give it a try.



I've never used linux before, but so I tried to install it with a "duel boot" with windows incase I don't like it/it doesn't work.



I've made the install disk, and it goes through the installation up to 89% and then stops.  



I was wondering if the partitioning is the problem?



Anyway around it?



I was also wondering if it is a lost cause.

Linux need 2 partitions to itself. so you could be running out of space in a hurry.

My recommendation is to burn Ubuntu to a CD and have it boot to that.  As a live CD you'll be able to use it pretty much like a full installed version to see if you like it before making actual changes to the computer.  If you don't like it restart the machine and take the CD out and you're good to go.

Puppy linux is a distro that runs really well on older equipment.  On something old like that, I'd choose it over Ubuntu.  You can try it from a live cd like the previous poster mentioned, or if the pc supports booting from USB, it has a utility on the CD that allows you to install it to a thumb drive.

Edited to add:  I've run Puppy on a PII 450 with 192mb ram, and it ran fine.  If it's runs well from the cd or thumb drive, abandon Windows altogether and install it on the drive.

Hell, just blow the whole drive away, and use it for Linux only. Ubuntu is good, but may be too much for an old system. Debian (netInstall Method) is another good choice, and is not as graphic intensive by default as Ubuntu. I agree that you should try booting it with the Live CD and trying it out to make sure things work correctly.

Ubuntu/Debian Desktop installs take up about 2 gigs of space on a new install before updating. If it were mine I would delete all partitions, and start over with a Linux only system...but that's just me. I know some folks aren't comfortable doing things they do not know much about to a "working" computer.

I have an old Dell laptop with similar specs; 10gig drive, 384Meg Ram, Pentium II 366mhz. It ran Win2000 decently, but I stick to a bare bones Debian install with a lightweight window manager like openbox for desktop use. I used it as a backup server when rebuilding my main one.

Slackware might run pretty good, but takes more familiarization with Linux to handle any problems you might have. Some of the other LiveCD distros out there are: (DSL) Damn Small Linux, SLAX, KNOPPIX, Puppy Linux to name a few. All can be run from a CD without making any changes to your hard-drive...heck you don't even need a hard-drive in it.

I may have a few older copies of red hat/slackware/debian going back to about 8 or 10 years ago if you want to go that way. I think one maybe RH 7 or 8 which should run fine. You should also be able to download them if you look. I think I ran it on pII 400 mhz.

ETA: I second blowing the whole drive away and starting fresh.

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I'd try the latest Puppy before I would revert to an older version of something else.