Booting Indepentaly

[Treacle]

From an external HDD. I ghave recently bought a new machine and if it mucks up and i cannot uninstall linux i think i may be unable to get i serviced on my warranty.

So, is it possible to put linux on my external 3.5" drive 80gb (its a normal PC drive just in an enclosure.)and boot from it ?

If so what is the best distro to boot from it ?

I currently have Kubuntu.

[devils casper]

You can install any distro in External HD. Its pretty easy. Does your machine's BIOS support booting up from External Device.

[Treacle]

I have the option to boot from removable storage so that should work.

[devils casper]

Ok ! Un-plug Internal Disk during installation. if possible. Otherwise, make sure to install GRUB in MBR of External Disk only. All installers install GRUB in MBR of Primary ( Internal ) disk by default.

[daark.child]

Some distros (actaully I think most distros I have ever used) ask where you would like to install the bootloader (In Ubuntu, click on the advanced tab when the bootloader is being installed). Just choose the external hd because if you install to the MBR of the internal hd, you will have problems booting into the OS thats installed there if you unplug the external hard drive.

[devils casper]

(K)Ubuntu installer doesn't ask for GRUB location by default and there isn't any separate Boot Loader section in Ubuntu installation. One has to click on Advanced button that appears at the installation summary Dialog Box.

[Treacle]

Silly question but,

If i had done all this could I unplug the hrddrive, plug it into laptop and boot like i was on the same PC?
(Save files, documents etc.)

Thanks.

[devils casper]

If i had done all this could I unplug the hrddrive, plug it into laptop and boot like i was on the same PC?

Yes. Just set External Disk as First Boot Device in Lappy's BIOS. You might face Graphics problem but its easy to fix that.