08-19-2008, 10:20 AM

Hi There,

I need to install a Linux virtual machine (to run Fedora) on my MacBook Pro (Mac OS 10.5.4). Rather than partitioning the hard drive and installing the virtual machine there, I am considering buying an external firewire drive and installing the VM there (something like a Verbatim 250GB SmartDisk FireWire/USB Portable Hard Drive). Does anybody have any experience with running Linux like this? Or, any advice?

Any advice/information/links will be appreciated.

Thanks,
Deirdre.

08-19-2008, 04:39 PM

Hi there Deidre,

I had both Windows and Linux (Ubuntu) running on my firewire external hard drive and they both ran very well. No real lag or speed issues when using Firewire. However I also have Windows XP on a SmartDisk Firelite portable USB drive and it boots up quickly but transferring data onto it would be quite slow and take a bit of time. If speed is an issue go for a Firewire drive perefeable a desktop as it has a little more power.

Just as a note I was using Parallels for Linux and Windows but now I use VMware Fusion as it seems to support more features than Parallels (I may be wrong, I havent used a recent version of Parallels). But from having used both I prefer VMWare it just ran a little quicker on my Macbook Pro.

08-20-2008, 04:10 AM

Thank you so much for the advice! Very much appreciated ...