Ubuntu

How to install Linux on USB Hard Drive

Asked by hawaiiduffer

Aloha

My extensive knowledge of Linux is best displayed by the fact I bought the book "Linux for Dummies" two days ago and I'm already asking for help. I want to install Linux on my HP Windows 7 desktop computer. I do not have room for a second internal drive but I do have a 1TB HP "Personal Media Drive" (USB Portable Hard Drive) that connects inside of a dedicated space in the computer. I do not want to fool with the internal hard disk but instead want to install Linux on the "Personal Media Drive" and want to be able to choose either Windows or Linux at boot up. Hopefully I want to use half of the 1TB for Linux and the other half for Windows storage and back-up. The "Linux For Dummies" book covers everything but what I need to know to get started on the equipment I have. Any help would be appreciated.

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colorlessprism
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colorlessprism (t.bradley-deactivatedaccount) said : 		#1

the only way i can think on how to do this (aside from an extravagant Grub menu) would be to upplug the internal hdd and boot up a LiveCD. plug the USB drive in and format the drive using gparted. once formatted run through the install choosing the partition you want ubuntu on. when the install finished you will have to restart the computer. when the computer is starting up go into the BIOS and change the boot device order to boot from a USB HDD first and move the internal drive down the list. with any luck you should be able to boot into linux when the drive is plugged in and to boot to windows you would unplug the drive. i did this with an IDE/SATA combo on my old desktop. good luck

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Best colorlessprism (t.bradley-deactivatedaccount) said : 		#2

btw dont forget to plug you internal drive back in after you install on the USB HDD, i forgot to add that

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hawaiiduffer (duffer-inbox) said : 		#3

Thanks T.Bradley, that solved my question.

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hawaiiduffer (duffer-inbox) said : 		#4

Thank you for the suggestion your help is appreciated.

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Tom (tom6) said : 		#5

Wow :))
Congrats, have you completed the install already? I think you may need to do some tweaking after you plug the internal drive back in if you have done it this way. The easiest is to just change the bios boot-order to boot from external/usb when you want Ubuntu & internal hard-drives when you want the other. We can show you how to re-install just the boot-loader another time which will help. Just ask.

Top marks for this :))
"... two days ago and I'm already asking for help". Some people never learn the importance of asking questions and stay stuck at really easy things. I think most of the people that answer questions in here are also quite happy to ask questions. People tend to learn one or a few areas in much greater depth than other areas. By sharing knowledge and asking questions we all improve.

If you haven't yet installed then i think the most important thing to do first is to try booting the machine up off a LiveCd to check the distro works on your particular hardware. After that the install is a lot easier!
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCD

Here's a guide for re-installing the grub2 from the LiveCd session
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2#Reinstalling%20from%20LiveCD
but just ask cos i enjoy helping people through this :)

Good luck and regards from
Tom :)