Can I install Linux on External Hard Disk ?

aarsh · 08-25-2010, 07:01 PM

Hello all !
I am using Transcend 320GB HDD. And on my PC I've installed MS Windows XP.
Now I want to install Linux on my External HDD , which would not effect my XP's installation or its boot loader. Yeah, I wanna make my XP stand-alone OS. and another purpose is also that I can carry my Linux OS with me and so I can boot Linux from any other PC.

So is there any way so that I can achieve my goal ?

Thank you.

please note :
I don't wanna the boot loader of XP to be modified.
It should be something like,If & only if I've inserted my External HDD, & I opt for booting from that HDD then ti should boot from that,otherwise it must boot normally...Also I don't want to install Linux with any Visualization S/W ...
AND IF I'VE NOT INSERTED MY EXTERNAL HDD THEN XP MUST BE BOOTED SMOOTHLY.

AlucardZero · 08-25-2010, 07:18 PM

unplug internal. plug in external. Install Linux. set your BIOS to prefer to boot from the external drive first. Plug internal back in.

That should do it.

jefro · 08-25-2010, 08:54 PM

You may also wish to look into using a Virtual Machine such as Virtualbox or VMware's VMplayer or even QEMU.

You could also use a boot cd or floppy which would then boot to the usb device.

As suggested above. You can install the linux in such a way that when you do boot normally you can select the boot device from the bios's boot menu either through bios or from Fx Key choice at boot.

aarsh · 08-26-2010, 09:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlucardZero

unplug internal. plug in external. Install Linux. set your BIOS to prefer to boot from the external drive first. Plug internal back in.

That should do it.

But in this will my boot loader of XP will be effected ? Also would I be able to boot from my internal HDD ?

AlucardZero · 08-26-2010, 09:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aarsh

But in this will my boot loader of XP will be effected ?

Not if you do it the way I described. But you've confused me.

"I don't wan to the boot loader of XP." and "and if opt for booting from that , then and then it should." don't make any sense.

With the external connected, do you want the option of booting XP or not?

Quote:

Originally Posted by aarsh

Also would I be able to boot from my internal HDD ?

Yes.

By the way? It's rude to go back and fundamentally edit your original post after people have replied. You have broken the flow and made jefro look silly.

thorkelljarl · 08-26-2010, 10:08 AM

For Mint...

I just installed Mint on a USB HDD. My BIOS will either allow a one-time boot of a USB HDD or changing the boot order to boot a USB HDD before an internal HDD.

I made sure that Mint was installed on the USB HDD by changing the default Mint installation proposal using the Mint partitioner during installation. I further specified that the Mint bootloader be placed on the USB HDD.

I had to read carefully the notices and directions presented on the partitioning screen and understand the function of the partitioning tool.

Installing Mint or another linux his way lets me boot the USB HDD when it is attached and boot my other linux when the USB HDD is not plugged in at boot.

The choice of operation system is at the level of the BIOS, and the effect is the same as if booting a linux live-cd. The internal HDD is left unchanged and undisturbed.

jefro · 08-26-2010, 07:58 PM

If you use bios. You have to understand how your bios works. Most newer bios's don't care about which device you select as the first bootable device. It relays that info to the device so that the device now thinks it is first even if it is not.

So you can (and I do) use it all the time to install OS's to other devices without changing the original boot order.

You must know how your system works. In general if you have a boot screen option to select devices then the above method would work.

frieza · 08-26-2010, 10:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlucardZero

unplug internal. plug in external. Install Linux. set your BIOS to prefer to boot from the external drive first. Plug internal back in.

That should do it.

correct me if i'm wrong though but a portion of GRUB is stored in /boot, so if the OP were to install linux on their external hd, install grub on the internal then unplug it, bye bye ability to load grub at all
though if you install grub on the root of the usb drive it should work either way

pkhera_2001 · 08-26-2010, 11:17 PM

Hi!

Here is good link which describes that how to setup Ubuntu Linux OS on an external disk and how to use it.

http://pocketseo.com/scripts/43

Thanks,

jefro · 08-27-2010, 04:03 PM

Grub would be installed on the partition that the OS thought (or user selected) as the first boot device.

Newer bios's can select which one that is. The OS simply follows what it is told.

aarsh · 08-28-2010, 08:52 AM

OK guys , I am done successfully. And this forum really help me out ! Cheers for that ! But the last small problem is that I want to access my Internal HDD ( On Which MS Windows XP (R) is installed ) . So for that think I've to mount that particular partition. So I am I right ?

If right then any of you genius guys, please illustrate with command.
Else correct me please...

djsmiley2k · 08-28-2010, 08:56 AM

aarsh you are correct

Firstly we need to find where your windows HDD is appearing - I'd presume its your only hard drive? If so then run:

Code:

dmesg | grep hd

and hopefully that'll bring up a line showing you where its been set (something along the lines of hda or sdb)

Then you can choose where you want to access it from (I choose /home/$user/windows for ease

Code:

mkdir ~/windows
sudo mount /dev/sda1 ~/windows
cd ~/windows
ls -la .

and you should see what you formularly knew as your "C:" drive.

aarsh · 09-17-2010, 08:44 AM

hey I get it done..thanks for your response...

Now the only doubt here is that , I can not access my HDD (openSUSE 11.3 installed & bootable)thru MS Windows XP...

in future how can I format this HDD to use it as a normal data drive ?