Someone help me - installing OS

Don't know if anyone can help me or not, but I have a Tranquil case with a VIA EPIA M10000 motherboard.

Looking to get a laptop hard drive, but wasn't sure on how I was going to install an OS. One option I thought of was unplugging my DVD drive out of my main rig and temporarily attach it to the EPIA motherboard and install Win XP that way. Is that going to be my best option?

I also thought about using something like an SD card? I have a spare SD card at home (2 gig) that I have no use for. Was wondering what hardware I'd need to get the motherboard to read the SD card as it's main 'disk drive' - also obviously an SD card reader to fit in this SFF.

SD card = no sound either!

Any input appreciated.

Thanks.

A few thoughts. 2 Gig doesn't sound like much space for XP, Mine takes up 4GB by the time I've got web services and frontpage extensions. Even so, I know IDE to CompactFlash converters exist so presumably IDE to SD versions must be out there (a quick google confirms they do exist)

If you're looking for 2.5hd suggestions, I just got a new drive for my VIA PC and it's incredibly quiet, It's a Samsung Spinpoint I found reviewed on one of the quietc/silentpc sites. It's only 40GB but it doesn't sound like you need too much space. Only £34 at Scan : http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=355446

Using your main DVD drive is certainly an option but be careful of its power consumption. You don't say what psu you're using but a HD and full size DVD is too much for my DC 'brick' and caused everything to stop when it started to spin. I used an EasyIDE (again from Scan, only a tenner http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=138544) which comes in useful all the time.

Thanks for the reply mate. I just recently bought and fitted the power supply yesterday - it's 60w. Had to get an ATX power extension which I've bought off eBay as the one that comes withit is about an inch too short! Bugger.

Anyway, a friend of mine works for a computer company and said a customer had upgraded a laptop and so he had a 40gig spare so he's sending me that.

Unfortunately it doesn't appear the Tranquil T3/VIA EPIA motherboard has a hard drive caddy, so I assume most people with that set up use compact flash. So what I'm going to do is attach it to the lid of the Tranquil with velcro which should keep it out of the way.

Does that USB IDE thing not use as much power as a CD-ROM drive directly hooked up to the motherboard's IDE slots?

Do you not think that the 60w PSU will run the 40gig HDD and the CD-ROM drive directly hooked up even if it's only temporary?

Cheers.

ATX Extension - pah - what's wrong with a pair of scissors, a few lengths of spare wire and some tape??

I think the CD-Rom is likely to draw too much current, I used a 60W supply too and it caused everything to shutdown as I described.

The easy-ide has its own power supply and Molex connector so it draws nothing from the PC's power supply.

Cheers mate. Might just get that if it causes computer to shut down going straight into motherboard. Will hang tight at the minute as I only need to install the OS and then I can be done with the CD-ROM drive (so will just use one from my main rig as a temp job). Once OS is on can just use networking/internet to get any necessary drivers etc. Just waiting for a cpl of bits to turn up and she is ready to go. Everything will probably stand me in at around £60 for the Tranquil T3 + motherboard/CPU + 256mb RAM, less than £10 for ATX extension, laptop HDD adapter for IDE and velcro, £30 delivered for 60w PSU, 40gig laptop HDD free and £10 for a KVM switch. So all in all it's standing me in at just over £100 for something that is going to be quite neat!

Sounds like you've been scouring the bargain bins, good for you..

Just a thought, you could use the PSU from your main rig if you can arrange them close enough together. If you power on your main PC with the CD-ROMs IDE cable in the EPIA board (so the CD ROM is still being powered by your main rig's PSU) and then power on your EIPA PC you wont have any problems with power. The trick is finding a nice long IDE cable so you don't end up shorting everything out because something falls over. I can personally confirm that if your mobo falls onto your CD-ROM's metal case there will be sparks, popping noises and a rather expensive burning smell.

ive tried installing xp on a cf2 card, albeit mine was 512. using nlite to create a slipstream OS to install to my epia 5000.

it didn't work :D
kept crashing just after the BIOS

Heh.

I do want it to be self contained. Also it's likely it'll be on 24/7 so low wattage power supply and silentness is a must! :)

Needs to be stable too.

Glad I'm going with the hard drive instead of the CF as I don't think it would have been big enough! I'll get pictures of it up when it's done.

Just hope the cheap KVM I bought from eBay works well enough! Not going to be using the V(ideo) though as main rig is DVI and Tranquil is just standard analogue.