I’ve got a laptop (Compaq Presario R3000) that has no battery. It worked decently enough when plugged in, but recently, it’s internal hard drive failed. I’ve removed the faulty drive (which had Windows XP installed on it) and plugged in my external hard drive. Looking to use this frankenstein laptop as a media center, and so I’d like to install XBMC onto it as an operating system. I’ve downloaded and burned a disc for XBMC 9.11 (most recent XBMC live cd) but I do not want the install to erase the files on the external drive (namely, the dozens of gigs of media files that I want XBMC to eventually play). I can’t back up the files since my only other storage option is my working laptop, which only has 5 gigs free. So how can I ensure that the installation does not format my external drive? Does XBMC format the drive it gets installed on (as an OS)? Thanks for any help.
PS, If I have to install Ubuntu, or some other Linux version, to get XBMC working, I will, but the same problem applies. Save my files! Thanks!
