quote:
Originally posted by NanaFreak
the only way you can have ram dedicated to linux, is to install it on a different computer, not a portable HDD
It doesn't have to be another computer, you can always dual-boot.
Also, you could install linux on the portable HDD, make it bootable, and boot from the portable HDD whenever you want to run linux on any computer (including a virtual machine).
Note that the linux distribution on the portable HDD will have to support the target PC's CPU architecture and hardware, eg. a x86-64 linux distribution will not run on a regular 32bit CPU.
Both methods I mentioned here (dual-boot and install to portable HDD) do not necessarily require a virtual machine, however you could use a virtual machine to install the linux distro to the portable HDD by pointing it (the virtual machine) to use a physical HDD instead of a virtual HDD file.
Both methods will also use all of the available RAM (if configured correctly with PAE as Ezra mentioned), except when the portable HDD is booted inside a virtual machine under a windows installation which does not use all of the available RAM.
/ 
