Old computer help

[DubbDesigns 10+ year member]

I have a few dell optiplex gx270 desktops and I am trying to clean them out and put windows or linux preferably on them. well only one will function more than likely. One of them has no video but the hdd works, but the second has a bad hdd but the video works.

So i took the HDD out of the one with no video and put it in the one with video, but when I go to boot it I get a blue screen that says something about boot device being inaccessible

Problem is neither one of the CD drives work, so I have a empty Flash drive, so is there anyway to get a bootable flash drive and have a tool to format the hdd?

Or if you can tell me a quick way to fix the blue screen that would be better

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[bubbagumper6 5,000+ posts]

it's unlikely but if the mobo supports it you could install linux onto the flash drive and boot of it. Then go from there

 

[DubbDesigns 10+ year member]

The dell's mobo supports USB flash drive as a boot device so I am sure would prolly work, so you just install linux on a flash drive like you would install it on a HDD?

Just put the linux distro in your windows machine and take the drive and install it on the H drive or whatever drive the flash is?

 

[bubbagumper6 5,000+ posts]

i've never done it so I couldn't tell you how I was just giving you a suggestion. Can you get to the bios settings?