Ubuntu 7.10 External hard drive installation possible?

scamartist

scamartist

scamartist

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As the title says is it possible to install on an external USB hard drive.

Would like to keep my Vista install intact on main drive and install Ubuntu onto the external.

I would then set the boot priority to USB hard drive and then have the main hard drive next in priority.

As I dont always keep the USB drive connected it would only boot when I plug it in and power on the PC.

If its possible is there any pitfalls I should look out for.

Thanks in advance....;)
 
Yes it's possible. The only niggle is the bootloader. Ubuntu's bootloader, by default, overwrites the Windows bootloader and allows you to boot both. If it's not always going to be attached you're going to need to do it differently.

Two ideas spring to mind. First, you could try to use the WIndows bootloader to boot both. You'd install windows (which is already done) and then install Ubuntu. This will install Grub on top of the Windows bootloader. You'd then overwrite Grub with fixmbr, boot into Windows, and set up the Windows bootloader to boot Ubuntu.

Second you could put Grub on a floppy and just insert the floppy whenever you want to boot into Linux.
 
make sure the bootloader goes on an internal drive, and boot to that, have a non-default option for *buntu which will only work when the external drive is attached, so that if you don't choose otherwise it will boot to the ever-present internal HD with windows on.
 
Would it work if I disconnected all drives apart from the external drive and then installed Ubuntu on to it.

Im a bit wary of killing my Vista install.

Have an annoying habit of killing installs whilst trying to setup dual boots.
 
scamartist said:
Would it work if I disconnected all drives apart from the external drive and then installed Ubuntu on to it.

Im a bit wary of killing my Vista install.

Have an annoying habit of killing installs whilst trying to setup dual boots.
Click to expand...

Yes. But you will have to manually tell your BIOS to boot from the USB HDD if you want to boot into Linux (usually by pressing F8)

Vista can be a real awkward sod for dual booting if your Vista bootloader isn't on the Vista partition. Shafted my first Vista install that way.
 
I have a bios that allows me to press F12 and select a boot device.

As a result, I disconnected the internal drives with XP on and installed to a seperate internal drive.

From there I just plugged back in the XP drives (raid 1) and used my F12 to choose which to install.

No problems at all !
 
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