Ubuntu Installation :: Install On External USB Drive
May 23, 2010
A while ago I installed Ubuntu as a dual-boot on my Windows XP machine. It worked ok, but I quickly realised that I had neither the hard drive space or RAM to really run a dual-boot machine properly. So, I tried to uninstall Ubuntu and return to XP. Unfortunately, I discovered that uninstalling is not that straightforward and I've ended up with a theoretical dual-boot but with the HD repartitioned so that Ubuntu takes up the smallest amount of space possible. Because of this, when the machine boots, I still get a GRUB boot screen where I have to manually select XP to continue with the boot. (Ubuntu is still the default boot OS - I don't know how to change this!)
I've now decided to install Ubuntu again but this time on an external USB hard drive. In my head (and this could be wrong) this will give me the option to run the machine with Ubuntu if the external HD is connected or run XP if it is not.I've seen several tutorials about how to do this, but none seem to address the situation where GRUB is the boot loader already. Some tutorials tell me to disconnect the internal HD before attempting to install Ubuntu on the external. Do I really need to do this? Another alternative I've heard of is to download a LIVE cd to the external drive and then run the OS from that instead of performing a full install. Any thoughts?
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Mar 19, 2010
If I wanted to install Ubuntu to an external eSATA drive, how would I do that and not screw up the GRUB install on my primary internal drive? I'm guessing I would want to tell that eSATA installation to install its GRUB to the first partition on that drive rather than on my primary internal, but then.... how would I get there from the GRUB on my primary drive?I guess my problem is that the eSATA drive is not always powered up, and I'm not sure what GRUB (on the primary internal drive) would do if there was an entry pointing to a drive that wasn't there (because it's not turned on)
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Apr 8, 2010
is there a way to install Ubuntu -from- an external hard drive. For example, let's say, you have a complete Ubuntu system with everything (no need to download additional packages/softwrae/etc anymore) , but you can't use remastersys to create an ISO with it because it is way over 10GB in size. Much larger than any DVD you could burn that newly created ISO to.. (besides remastersys is limited to the size of a DVD-r anyways)
Maybe someone has tried this before? Someone has created a dedicated large hard drive that is essentially the same thing as a ubuntu installation usb flash drive, to boot from an then install Ubuntu onto another "new" hard drive? I think it would be nice to have a hard drive (external usb or even better, an internal hdd drive i could hot swap to each new computer I have that I wish to install it onto.. ) And I think it would be so much faster to install from a Sata internal HDD drive than a USB pendrive or a cd/dvd rom, right?
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Feb 14, 2011
I have downloaded UBUNTU 10.04 and saved to external hard drive since I have no CD drive in my note book. I want to install it from external hard drive what is the command and how can I install it.
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Jul 9, 2010
I have the Debian Lenny 5-0-5 DVD's but they are not live bootable. They come with a setup.exe file which copies over the kernel images to boot from windows. Thing is that at the moment I am running the Ubuntu distro of Debian and cannot use the setup to do it. Can anyone tell me how to boot this disk in ubuntu itself?
Also does the debian installer allow you to choose which disk it installs to?(I am talking about the thing in the ubuntu installer that allows you to partition disks and define your own mount points before the install)
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Feb 20, 2011
my problem here in not 'how to install ubuntu on an external HDD' but the thing is that after installation,i play around a bit in ubuntu(install on my external HDD). ok,so the external HDD is connected through usb. My problem is ,is it safe to install ubuntu on it? As i am using an external HDD from : Western Digital Element 500GB, so when i shutdown ubuntu ,i hear(from the external HDD) a sound like a sudden stop,for example,when you are playing a movie from it then ,you just unplug it.It not the sound when you make a safe remove,then unplug it. i am worried as it may cause some problem to my external HDD over time. So ,tell me,do you think i can go on with this?
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Jun 9, 2011
I have an external hard drive connected to my iMac. I have installed Ubuntu on unallocated space on my external, the first time I chose to put the bootloader on the external but when I booted up the computer and held the Option key it didn't recognize an OS to boot from.I am currently reinstalling Ubuntu but placing the bootloader on the internal hard drive hoping that the Mac boot menu will recognize an OS to boot from.
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Nov 11, 2009
I have an Acer netbook that I installed Remix on. Now I can't get the thing to boot from the CD drive which is connected via the USB port. Any suggestions? I set the boot order with the CD drive first and the HD last.
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Apr 4, 2016
I have spend way too much time on this and it still fails. I installed the debian 8.3.0 AMD64 CD1 iso image on an empty external USB 1TB Western digital My passport Ultra. I use the graphical install method and the installation process of Debian appears to go fine, except it informs me at one point I am missing some nonfree firmware for something with wifi, but that shouldn't relate to this.
*FYI I put GRUB on the external hdd, sdb in this case.
*windows 7 is on the internal hard drive and I excluded it from the boot sequence
* using laptop lenovo t410
I reboot my computer and it hangs with a flashing - in the upper right corner. Never even gets to GRUB. For awhile I thought I might have partitioned something wrong, but I am now convinced that isn't likely. I tried countless number of different partition configs. Separate /boot partition and I also tried using guided partitioning.
I mounted the partitions of the external hard drive using another OS and GRUB appears to be there. So it is there.
I know some Western digital hard drives have added priopertary firmware crap, so I tried installing on a external Seagate drive and it still hangs. I tried installing linux mint on the Western Digital drive and it works fine!
BIOS settings fine. USB settings fine. I tried booting via the boot menu and moving the USB HDD to the top of the list.
I also tried installing with Debian Live on a USB, but that actually has more problems for some reason. I can never get passed the partitioning phase because it fails to create /boot or /swap partitions saying something about how they are still in use and another thing about how the partition table hasn't been updated in the kernal yet.
It seems I might be having this same issue, not sure: [URL] ...
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Jun 19, 2011
I would like to install Linux Ubuntu 11.04 on an external hard drive - its partitioned and ready for Linux.I've downloaded and burnt the .iso file to a DVD so its all good so far...First of all... is this possible without messing up my macbook? I don't particularly want to break into my macbook to disconnect the hard drive (I read on a tutorial for a previous version of Ubuntu that I'd have to do that... - does it still apply to 11.04?) - as it voids the warranty (I checked ).The reason I ask this is because I had a friend who partitioned their internal hard drive and installed Ubuntu on it. But after installation was complete they couldn't boot up Windows 7 or Ubuntu... and it resulted in them having to clean install Windows 7... - I don't want to end up in that situation
Second... If it is possible to install it without messing up my macbook... - Do I just follow the install instructions but just make sure that where possible I make sure that everything is installed on my external hard drive?...I really need someone to put my mind at rest that everything will run smoothly and that I'll be able to run Mac OS X as usual but also that I'll be able to boot from my external hard drive to run Ubuntu.
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Mar 30, 2011
i have installed fedora 14 with so many libraries ,development tools installed on my pc but i usually have to present some projects which can run on my system .........and can't be executed or compiled due to absence of libraries and tools there so, i there some way to so that i can use this current installation on my hard drive of my pc to some external media like external hard disk and plug and use that installation anywhere on any system..
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Sep 28, 2009
I have a Western Digital Pasport 320 GB hard drive. I wanted to create a live installation on it like a USB stick. I wanted it to serve as a portable OS that I could use to boot any other computer off of, and use it for diagnostics and anti-virus scanning on Windows based computers. The additional space is for my own personal use, kind of like having a mobile desktop where I have all of my documents in one place.What I need to know is how to set up Fedora 11 so that the hard drive will boot on most PCs regardless of their architecture. I also need to know what's a good Anti-virus to install onto it for the sake of fixing Windows hard drives.
Please keep in mind I'm a noob when it comes down to a lot of things, so if there's an antivirus I have to install manually, please included a step by step.
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May 13, 2010
I initially installed OpenSuse on my Laptops internal drive (clean formatted) and everything worked fine. Later I took out laptop's hard drive and put it into a USB enclosure to use as an external drive.
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Oct 19, 2010
I've pretty much installed Ubuntu Linux9.10, 10.04 and Debian 5 on external hard drives before, however, I just want to avoid certain pitfalls that may occur with openSUSE11.3. Has anyone successfully done this before? And, is it similar like Debian and Ubuntu installs in that you have to install the OS using an advanced option and specifying /dev/sdb, etc? Right now, I have Ubuntu installed on an external harddrive along with Debian as well and wanted to do the same for openSUSE11.3 and was wondering if all Unix derivatives share similar installation processes. I would just like to keep things as I have it currently where the system does not boot with Grub, and instead I have to go to the bios and specify which physical drive to boot from in order to change the boot order.
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Apr 26, 2010
I disconnect my internal Windows hard drive first. Then run the installer from the Desktop CD. Everything works great.This is approximately the steps I take: I reboot, everything is good. I reconnect my internal hard drive, boot to Windows, reboot back to Kubuntu, everything is still good. I run updates and follow the instructions of the Comprehensive Multimedia & Video Howto. I reboot again, still no problems. At this point, I figure everything is OK and I have no worries. I boot to Windows and do some work in that environment. The next time I boot to the external Kubuntu hard drive, I get the following errors:
Begin: Starting AppArmor profiles ...
mount: mounting /sys on /root/sys failed: No such file or directory
mount: mounting /dev on /root/dev failed: No such file or directory
[code].....
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Jan 10, 2011
My original intention was to install a distribution of Ubuntu onto an external hard drive so i can use it on different computers. I first downloaded and burned a copy of Ubuntu 10.10 and booted my Acer laptop to it. I then plugged in my external hard drive and tried to install ubuntu onto it by partitioning the external hard drive. After I did that, I booted from the external hard drive on my laptop and it ran the new distribution i created. However, when I tried to boot it from a different computer it said something like "partition not found." So the next time I tried to install ubuntu onto the external hard drive with out partitioning it, using the entire drive. This is what started to cause problems.
Now when I start up my laptop without the external hard drive plugged in i get "error: no such device: xxxx..... grub rescue>. When I start it up with the hard drive plugged in a grub comes up with the new installation, my old ubuntu installation, and my old windows vista.
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Apr 25, 2010
Is it possible to install Linux on an external SATA drive?I have a system dual booting between OpenSuse and Windows XP. I wanted to see what other distros were like so I tried installing Ubuntu to my external SATA drive. After installing, I got an error from GRUB, and I had to recover my MBR.I tried the same thing with Mandriva, and got the same result. Finally, I tried another install of OpenSuse 11.2. The result was that I get a grub error 21. The only result of my efforts to try other distros is a lot of experience recovering my MBR.
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Jan 14, 2011
So I'm planning to do a full install on a flash drive. I searched the forums for previous threads and there were loads. Was there a BIG one that I missed in the mess? If so, please direct me to it.
There was two contentious issues in all the threads and I'd like em resolved once and for all
1.Should I or should I not make a swap partition on the flash drive? What about /var, /tmp and /log?
2.Also can someone rank the following in terms of access speed and snappiness:
1) Live CD
2) Live USB with or without persistence (average Sandisk stick)
3) External 2.5" HDD (5400-7200 RPM connected via USB 2.0)
4) Internal 5400-7200RPM HDD using SATAII
5) Full install on USB flash stick (average Sandisk stick)
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Oct 28, 2010
I have a 40 gig external drive that I want to use for Linux. I want the complete install of Ubuntu 10.10 on it so that I can boot straight from there. I tried for hours to accomplish this. The instructions I saw for the issue were for an older version of Ubuntu, and the menus have changed since then. The furthest I got with the project is creating a bootable disk on my drive; it will boot from the drive, but not the full installation. It brings up the menu just like it was a live CD and gives you the options to either "Try Ubuntu" or "Install Ubuntu." I have installed it straight to the drive, but it will not boot from it. My computer does give me the bios option to select boot priority with USB external drives.
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Jan 14, 2009
I have 2 ubuntu's: 1 on my ineternal hard drive, 1 on my external
When I startup without my ext drive =>GRUB error 21.
And when I plug it in I can choose: the standard ubuntu kernel is the one on my external, and the original one is listed under other...
I'd like to be able to startup without external hard drive and make the ubuntu on my internal drve the standard.
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Mar 13, 2010
I was wondering wether it is possible to boot an eee 901 from an external usb cd drive? (for those who are unfamiliar with the eee, it has no internal cd drive) The cd drive is not listed in the bios boot menu.
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Apr 2, 2010
I have windows on my internal drive on a dell D 800. I removed the drive and installed 9.10 on an external drive through the USB port. It works great, until I put the internal drive back in. With the F12 button on startup, and choosing the USB device to boot from, I get a grub recover>. If I remove the internal drive it boots fine with this method. I don't want to have to remove the HD each time. Do you have any idea what to do? Is there a command I can enter at the grub recover prompt?
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Oct 1, 2010
I recently installed Maverick RC to a partition on my external drive.Following the GUI, I used the advanced option and installed the bootloader to "sdb" and had Maverick install to a partition on the external drive (I want the GRUB to be on the external drive so I can boot directly into Win7 when I don't have the external connected). And, to note, I did set my BIOS to boot from the external drive first, I have that option in my BIOS. So, when I finished installing, I rebooted and all I got was a "-". Not even a "disk not bootable message". It just hung at "-" .
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Feb 2, 2011
I'm a newbie and can't get to linux on my external hard drive. I recently did a full install of Ubuntu 10.10 and am currenly running XP on my main drive. When I boot I can choose to go to my ext hard drive, which holds Ubuntu, but I'm stuck with a grub command line. What do I need to do to boot into Ubuntu from grub?
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May 6, 2011
I was wondering if it were possible to run and boot Ubuntu off of an external hard drive, I have a Seagate Free Agent 1.5 Terabyte external hard drive, I formatted it to FAT32 but am willing to reformat if necessary. I just really want to be able to have Ubuntu to run off of an external hard drive.
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Jan 23, 2011
I have ubuntu 10.04, and I want to have all 3 main OS's operating on the same computer.So I have linux as my main system, windows in a virtual machine (virtualbox) and now I have a Mac OS X Snow Leopard CD that I'd like to install onto a 1 TB USB external hard drive...The only problem is that I don't know how to install it to the hard drive, since it plugs in through USB.
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Jan 20, 2011
Alright, im completely new to linux. I am somewhat knowledgeable with computers in general. My programming instructor for school told us that it would be in our best interest of the course to grab a linux distro and install it on our computers. (Don't ask me why, i dont know)ANYWAY, i am trying to get debian to install on my external USB 1.5TB Seagate HDD Drive. After learning a lot about Murphy's Law, i had to fix my MBR for windows (the windows installation is located on my internal SATA 1.5TB Seagate Drive) because GRUB wouldnt boot to windows unless i had my external plugged in.
So, the natural solution to me was to fix the MBR, unplug the internal, then re-install on my external, it worked. Well to my surprise, this cloud i was on... wasn't cloud 9. NOW, Debian will boot if i have the external plugged in and windows will boot if i have the internal plugged in. The Problem is, when i have both plugged in and my external set as the boot drive i get this weird error and it will not let me boot linux.Now, i have searched for a fix.. But the ones i have tried so far haven't worked or i wasn't sure how to use those fixes(because im new).The error went as follows:/bin/sh can't access tty; job control mode offthen i get a initramfs command line. (I think thats proper terminology)The temporary fix i have going right now is i have my computer open and the SATA cable unplugged so i can boot to Debian.
SUMMARY OF HARDWARE SPECS:1.5 TB INTERNAL HDD (SATA)2 INTERNAL DVD BURNERS3 GIGs of RAM2.8ghz AMD Athlon x2 (I think its 2.EXTERNAL 1.5TB HDDDEBIAN VERSION:I believe its Debian 507 by looking at the download linkhttp://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/5.0 ... etinst.iso
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Feb 20, 2010
I looked around on these forums and google and came to no solution so, I decided to make this thread. I'm using Windows XP and after I downloaded and tested out Ubuntu 9.10, I decided I'd like it as a second OS, can I install Ubuntu on my external hard drive (1TB)? would installing on an external hard drive take away the risks of losing data etc? If I installed Ubuntu on my external hard drive would it delete any files already on my hard drive?
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Apr 5, 2010
installed Ubuntu 9.10 in an internal SATA drive and used it for quite a while, but yesterday my laptop's graphics card decided to die, and it looks like it will be a full month until I get replacement m/b. Therefore, I bought an external USB SATA Hub for my laptop's drive, but I can't seem to be able to boot ubuntu from this drive. I'm trying to boot with this external usb hub attached to an old P4 machine with USB booting enabled.I get till the grub screen, but as soon as the message "Grub loading" appears, I get a message saying:error: no such partitionand I get a prompt as follows:grub-rescue>I guess grub is trying to boot to a different device name... It's weird, I thought Ubuntu should boot irregardless of which interface I use, be it SATA or USB.
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Jun 8, 2010
I've been using Ubuntu for a few weeks now, and I like it a lot, but when I used the automatic partitioning tool on my portable hard drive (where I was installing it, it was my first time) I accidentally allotted half of the 640 GB to Ubuntu. Much more than it needs, it's unable to be accessed by Windows now. (I wanted around 40 GB for Ubuntu. Still more than it needs, but not too cluttered.)
However, I can't figure out how to erase the partition from the drive. I tried going in with the Windows Vista Drive Manager (or whatever it's called, the one that lets you manage partitions) and couldn't erase the partition. (I don't think I'd have any problems converting the partition back and combining the pieces again after doing so to work from scratch.) Does anybody have any idea how to do this so I can reinstall Ubuntu properly?
Oh, and GRUB is on the portable as well, so I won't have trouble with Windows booting up afterward, it's the main booter. (When the portable HD isn't plugged in, my laptop just boots Windows without asking about Ubuntu.)
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