external hard drive/ partitioning

Hi-

I am developing software to put on the web for download. When i test
it i want to do so on a machine without the development environment
installed. Since i only have one computer, i thought a solution may
be to install an external drive and partition it so as far as the
computer is concerned it will be like i have 2 computers. Hey..its
either that or bother someone to use their pc everytime i make a
change in my software and want to test it.

I have a notebook PC with 60GB hard drive. I'd like to pick up an
additional 80 to 120 gb external hard drive.

Question 1) can i set this up so the computer is tricked into thinking
i have the development environment installed separate from the test
installation.
For i.e. i would have only the bare minimum distribution files to run
the pc like the user will have on one set up. On the other set up i
will have the integrated development environment (vTcl), TCL/TK ASED
(all my development tools)

Question 2) why not throw in the same scenario for a linux operating
system both test and development.

Does it matter if i have one hard drive going at 7200rpm and the other
at 4200rpm ?

Question 3) It seems cheaper to go with a external drive ...right? If
i get the internal i will have to pay someone to put it in plus the
mark up on the parts. According to my research of the parts it seems
the external drive is just as fast or faster than the internal drive.
I included the specs below.
The only thing i didnt get was the access time for both.

Any help you can give me on this is great. I am on a tight budget. I
will be buying an easy to use partitioning software to help me do all
of this. Anything i left out that is worth mentioning...let me know
please.

thank you very much,
marvin

Here is the specs

Internal drive Toshiba 60GB
Rotation speed 4200 + .1 %
Track to seek 2
Average seek 12
Max seek 22
Internal transfer rate mbits/sec 154.3 298.0
Access Time msec *1

External (one i saw at walmart)
Median transfer rate
480 Mbps using 2.0 USB
Average seek time 8.5 9.5 ms

If you desire to change quickly your computing environment, I
understand that many testers of beta software utilize drive-imaging
software to make the changes.

For example, use Symantec Norton "Ghost" or PowerQuest "Drive Image"
(acquired during December 2003 by Symantec) to make a backup image
(burned either to CD-R or to DVD) of your computer's development
environment, then wipe your hard drive and set up your testing
environment, and finally make a backup image (also burned to CD-R or
DVD) of your computer's testing environment. In this manner you
(just like the beta testers) can use the two different backup images
to put easily your computer into whichever environment you desire.

"Ghost 2003" can handle Windows XP, and it is available as a component
of Symantec "System Works 2004 Professional" (costing about US$69 at
Symantec website and when on rebate sale at local retailers).

Information (somewhat dated by now) about using "Ghost" can be found
at
http://ghost.radified.com/ghost_1.htm

Symantec "Drive Image 7" is available for about US$70 at website.

For more information about those softwares, go to
http://www.powerquest.com/
http://www.symantec.com/driveimage/index.html
http://www.symantec.com/smallbiz/sys_pr/

___________________________
___________________________

(marvin) wrote in message . com...
Hi-

I am developing software to put on the web for download. When i test
it i want to do so on a machine without the development environment
installed. Since i only have one computer, i thought a solution may
be to install an external drive and partition it so as far as the
computer is concerned it will be like i have 2 computers. Hey..its
either that or bother someone to use their pc everytime i make a
change in my software and want to test it.

I have a notebook PC with 60GB hard drive. I'd like to pick up an
additional 80 to 120 gb external hard drive.

Question 1) can i set this up so the computer is tricked into thinking
i have the development environment installed separate from the test
installation.
For i.e. i would have only the bare minimum distribution files to run
the pc like the user will have on one set up. On the other set up i
will have the integrated development environment (vTcl), TCL/TK ASED
(all my development tools)

Question 2) why not throw in the same scenario for a linux operating
system both test and development.

Does it matter if i have one hard drive going at 7200rpm and the other
at 4200rpm ?

Question 3) It seems cheaper to go with a external drive ...right? If
i get the internal i will have to pay someone to put it in plus the
mark up on the parts. According to my research of the parts it seems
the external drive is just as fast or faster than the internal drive.
I included the specs below.
The only thing i didnt get was the access time for both.

Any help you can give me on this is great. I am on a tight budget. I
will be buying an easy to use partitioning software to help me do all
of this. Anything i left out that is worth mentioning...let me know
please.

thank you very much,
marvin

Here is the specs

Internal drive Toshiba 60GB
Rotation speed 4200 + .1 %
Track to seek 2
Average seek 12
Max seek 22
Internal transfer rate mbits/sec 154.3 298.0
Access Time msec *1

External (one i saw at walmart)
Median transfer rate
480 Mbps using 2.0 USB
Average seek time 8.5 9.5 ms

(camera critter) wrote in message . com...
If you desire to change quickly your computing environment, I
understand that many testers of beta software utilize drive-imaging
software to make the changes.

that sounds like a really cool option. i saved your message on my pc
and i will go to the links and read about it. thanks for the reply :-)

marvin

(marvin) wrote in message . com...
(camera critter) wrote in message . com...
If you desire to change quickly your computing environment, I
understand that many testers of beta software utilize drive-imaging
software to make the changes.

that sounds like a really cool option. i saved your message on my pc
and i will go to the links and read about it. thanks for the reply :-)

marvin

another option i am reading about is virtual pc. it is a bit more
expensive but sounds really cool. i like the idea of not having to
configure my environment variables every time i switch from test to
development...something i am guessing i would have to do with norton
ghost. i wish it supported non windows operating systems. i will have
to check and see if someone else makes it and it supports linux. i
probably will go with your suggestion (ghost) because of this lack of
support for non windows systems and the price.
I am going to look at Vmware by EMC also. So many cool toys!!

thank you,
marvin

If you desire to change quickly your computing environment, I
understand that many testers of beta software utilize drive-imaging
software to make the changes.

that sounds like a really cool option. i saved your message on my pc
and i will go to the links and read about it. thanks for the reply :-)

marvin

i like the idea of not having to
configure my environment variables every time i switch from test to
development...something i am guessing i would have to do with norton
ghost.

just to clarify this earlier statement...i will have to reconfigure if
my image in ghost is a drive partition. if my image is a boot partition
i will not have to reconfigure the environment variables (with ghost).
i have like 4 options now. regardless i need more partitions.
anyways i will be quiet now.
thanks again
marvin