Linux Live cd?

[NewFaith]

Hi my harddrive in my windows machine recently got killed by my brother who 'accidently' used a Pci-e conector on it instead of its proper conector, anyway i would like to try out a linux OS in particular to see if everything in machine is in working order still.
i was wondering seen asthough the HDD is well and truley dead would a live cd still work?
if it does which one should i opt for?
If all the above are correct do i judt set my bios too boot from disk and then im set?

System specs
Athlon 3800 X2
2 gigs of ddr2 ram
XFX 7900 GT
Asus M2N-E mobo
Sony dvd re-writer
and a broken hdd

[kakariko81280]

A liveCD will boot your computer no matter how badly mangled your hard disk is, or even if it is missing completely. The only occasion where I've seen this not be the case is where my hard disk had bad blocks in the swap space. Knoppix detected the swap space and used it then crashed when it needed data from the bad blocks. Booting with swap disabled fixed that though. It may not be able to get any life out of your HDD but in that case you've not lost anything.

I personally reccommend that everyone and their cat get a copy of knoppix and learn to use it. I've seen it save too many essays and photo albums to question it, however there are a selection available including specialised ones for different tasks.

If you are not sure, I'd say grab knoppix. If it doesn't have what you need then you can google for another one that has what you need.

Let us know how you get on,

Chris...

[NewFaith]

Cheers for the help im currently downloading the latest version i of knoppix, ive actualy used a live diskbefore on my xbox 'Damn small linux', i just wasnt sure if it would actualy work with out a hdd, anyway thanks i will tell you how i get on tommorow.

[NewFaith]

Well i'm posting off Knoppix now its a pretty cool OS, its got plenty of features thats for sure the only thing that sucks is i cant use my monitor at its native resolution and the boot doesent seem to know what my graphics card is but i suppose this all due down to drivers so im running my monitor at 1024 x 768 , when i get my HDD on tuesday and reinstall windows i will defintly look at dual booting linux, any suggestions of which one i should go for?

[devils casper]

i will defintly look at dual booting linux, any suggestions of which one i should go for?

Install Windows first and create 'free/unpartitioned' space for Linux. during installation, in partition section, select 'Unpartitioned/free space for install'. Dual Boot is default. dont change anything in Boot Loader section.






Casper