Can I do that, install 13.1 on the same hard drive, set it all up etc. and, when 13.1 is running smoothly with my personal files installed, later remove 12.2?
Thank you for your advice.
pe1800
I never tried, but I tried to see how it works in a VM. being on the same hardware if you can solve all the problems in a VM you have higher chances that it will install on the same hardware. That’s the way i upgrade. upgrade the VM from one version to the other and then the physical one. Good luck!
Yes you can add 13.1 to the same HD, but you will need enough free space on the HD for another separate partition to contain 13.1. You will need to be familiar and confident using the boot loader (Grub2) for multi-booting, and making changes during installation process. You should install Grub to the root partition for 13.1, when using openSUSE 13.1 installer. You will probably need to edit the installer’s partitioning proposal, or use custom partitioning when running the openSUSE installer.
Thank you. I’ve got plenty space: W7 (and nothing else) installed on the internal drive of my laptop, 12.2 (and nothing else) on the external 1TB drive.
What I do not understand is that when I installed openSUSE 12.2, about a year ago, I found, after, that I can only boot with the installation DVD in the drive. Then it offers me the normal choice of SUSE or Windows. SUSE runs definitely from the hard drive, not from the DVD! While SUSE is up I can, if needed, take the DVD out and use the DVD drive for something else and continue running SUSE as before, as long as I put the installation DVD back before rebooting. Although this is no problem for me and I have been running like that ever since I am just curious as to what brought this about.
Cheers,
Paul
Sorry, I only use an external drive for backup so I am not best placed to comment on your installed 12.2 requiring the DVD to be in the drive. It may be due to a misplaced Grub/Grub2 installation originally, but I’m partly guessing. I had rather assumed your 12.2 was on an internal drive. All my multi-boots are on the same internal drive of my notebook, along with Win 7.
You need to be sure you install grub to the external drive and have a plain generic MBR on the internal. Then set boot order to have external first. So if the external is not plugged in the boot fall through to the internal drive. I suspect you have grub installed to the internal MBR so it will only boot if the external is plugged
If you have the space you can install other versions to the external. If you don’t have the space you will have to make space buy adjusting partition sizes and possibly moving them. This type of operation is dangerous because if you have a power failure or other problem in the middle you can lose all so back up any important data first
Thank you. This strange: After I installed SUSE about a year ago, I found I could only boot with the installation DVD in the drive, and I tried a number of times. Then I gave up and ever since I have booted that way. Now I just tried once more for good measure, took out the DVD, restarted, was presented with the menu, went into Windows, restarted again, chose SUSE and booted without a problem. Could it have been one of the applied updates which fixed the issue?
I never unplug the external drive, no need to. I have lots of space, that will not present a problem, and I will most certainly back up first!