Ubuntu 10.10 on external hard drive

[true_petra]

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. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks a lot!

[sgosnell]

Exactly what happens when you try to boot from the USB drive? I've installed to external drives many times, and it usually works, but you have to make sure the bootloader goes to the external drive. At the penultimate window of the install process, click on the Advanced button and select where to put the bootloader. You can put it on sda, the internal drive, but you probably want to put it on the drive you're installing to. You then select that drive at boot time. The easiest way is to pres Esc when the BIOS splash screen comes up, and you should then get a menu to select the drive to boot from. You can also set the BIOS to boot from a particular drive, but you have to make sure it comes up as the same drive each time, and that can be problematic if you have other USB drives connected at boot. I generally just use the Esc key at boot to select the drive. If it won't boot that way, you may need to reinstall grub, but if you select to put it on the install drive during the installation, it should work.

[true_petra]

When I installed it to the drive and tried to boot from it, It would go no further than the black screen with blinking curser. I've never done this before; I'm not sure exactly what all I need to do to the drive at installation. From the live CD, after clicking install, do I go to the advanced option and specify to place the boot loader on the external drive? And would I have to do anything particular, like partitioning the drive? Thanks

[yancek]

I agree with sgosnell. It would have been helpful if you posted the link you used for your install. That way someone might have been able to point out problems. The different files are most probably because the site tutorial you were using was referrring to an installation using Grub Legacy. Ubuntu and most of its derivatives have switched to the beta software Grub2 which does, as you said, have different files.

I'm not really sure from your comments that you actually installed Ubuntu to your drive?
If you can boot your usb/cd(?) and open a terminal, run the command: sudo fdisk -l; post this output here. It gives us information on your drives and partitions and someone should be able to give you explicit instructions.

[sgosnell]

You click on the Advanced button on the screen just before you click on Install. I think it's the same screen, but you need to make sure the bootloader goes to the correct drive. The partitioning will be done however you specified on the previous screens. You don't have to do it separately, but you can if you like.

[true_petra]

I tried to go through the advanced option to no avail. This is what happens: 1) Click install 2) I'm given 3 options: Install along side other operating system, Erase and use entire disk, and specify partitions manually (Advanced).
I then clicked specify partitions (the advanced option). I'm taken to a menu titled Allocate Drive Space. After choosing to install Ubuntu and the boot loader to the external drive, I'm given an error message that reads: "No root file system is defined. Please correct this from the partition menu" I tried several different modifications and got the same message. Any ideas?

[sgosnell]

You have to specify the partition where you want to put /, and optionallly /home or other folders. I generally use a separate partition for /home, but it's not required. You do have to select a partition for /, the root filesystem.

[true_petra]

I've tried and tried and can't get it to go past the error message. I have a clean drive, partitioned it, selected that partition and still nothing.

[tahseen]

Hey! I do installation on External Hard disk quite often without any problem. In fact I have recently installed Ubuntu 10.10 on my external hard disk. I boot directly from it.


All you have to do is normal installation.

Make sure that you write your Boot Loader on the External Hard disk during the installation. For this there is an option when Hard Disk Partitioning option comes in the installation setup.

Write to me in case you need help

[sunny89]

So how do you do it on your external disk? and how do you load it if you want to use it?