Old laptop new installation

[Musky]

I have an old laptop and was thinking of using it to replace my even older appliance. Please can someone tell me if the following will work/is wrong! If I buy a new hard drive and put it in a usb caddy can I download the latest version of Vortexbox to it, then fit it in the old laptop? If I do this will I have a functioning Vortexbox or do I need to do anything else. Please explain in english as I have looked at the Wiki and it baffled me already! I lack basic knowledge but was still able to replace the current laptops hard drive with a smaller SSD one without any hitches - kind of looking for the same level of expertise being required ie 3 screws, 2 Amazon orders, one free download and 4 hours of patience (that being the hard bit!) Please be gentle...thanks in advance

[garym]

why wouldn't you install Vortexbox system on the exisiting harddrive in the laptop?

[Musky]

Thanks for the quick reply. Basically it is quite old and as my daughter had one fail recently it has made me favour a new one - also they seem quite cheap now! Would it be worth getting an SSD one - dearer obviously - or will the old type be ok? An SSD did noticeably speed up the current laptop but thats a different sort of use - isn't it?

[garym]

got it. SSD is better but way more expensive. if its an old laptop, I'd not likely spend on a SSD. I'd just get a regular spinning drive. Once that is installed, you just need to install Vortexbox on the laptop (it is an entire OS, so wipes out anything on your drive). depending on how much music you have, you can also have all your music on the same drive.

[Musky]

Currently all my music is on a NAS as the appliance had become untrustworthy - something to do with Windows and SMB1 but also had become a bit cranky. Not sure how well the old laptop is working - Windows update problem - hence thinking that if I downloaded Vortexbox onto a new drive in the caddy I already bought to update the current laptop then simply replaced the old laptops drive. Would that give an operating system or are more operations required. Would make useful ripping system and back up and be portable. Its not much use for anything else at the moment.

[garym]

If vortexbox is installed on the laptop's boot drive, it is all set to go. install contains the operating system (fedora), CD ripper programs, music server (LMS), can be a player too (squeezelite). All contained in the basic vortexbox install. Follow the install instructions exactly, including the commands to expand the root partition, etc. I don't understand linux, but I can always follow these instructions step by step. If you're truly lacking any computer skills, it might be good to have a friend that is more computer savvy to assist you.

https://wiki.vortexbox.org/installation_guide

https://wiki.vortexbox.org/

The basic install assumes the music files are on the same drive. You can change this after the fact and point to your NAS files (not sure how but see link below) or files on a USB drive connected to laptop. see:

https://wiki.vortexbox.org/how_to_use_a_usb_drive_for_storage

https://www.vortexbox.org/forum/main-forum/23-mount-network-drive-in-2-4

[Musky]

Sounds like its worth a go then! I'll order a drive and let you know how I get on. Thanks for the help