Oct 23, 2013 - Installing Ubuntu 13.10 on an external hard disk drive (HDD) connected to a computer that's already running another operating system like.
Installing Ubuntu 13.10 on an external hard disk drive (HDD) connected to a computer that’s already running another operating system like Windows 7/8 or another Linux distribution is the subject of this article. Installing or any other Linux distribution in standalone mode on an HDD is normally a simple, point-and-click operation. To do it on an external HDD connected to a computer running another operating system require a little bit more care, if you don’t want to overwrite the contents of the internal HDDs Master Boot Record (MBR). It’s still a simple process, but you have to watch out! This tutorial gives those new to Ubuntu and Linux a step-by-step guide on how to complete what should be an easy task.
The computer to which the external HDD used for this tutorial is running a self-installed copy of Windows 8. And note that the result of this operation is not the same thing as dual-booting, even though the Ubuntu installer will append an entry for the internal HDDs OS to the boot menu of the external HDD.
To start, you, of course, need an external HDD connected to the computer you are going to use and an installation image of Ubuntu 13.10, which is available for download. Burn the downloaded image to a CD/DVD or transfer it to a USB stick. To avoid wasting a CD or DVD, transferring it to a USB stick is the recommended option. See if you need help with that. One last thing: Set the computer to boot from an external media.
Reboot (the computer) and let’s get started. By the way, if you are new to disk partitioning in Linux, read. It will make it easier to understand what you will be doing. Installation Requirements: When you boot from the installation disc or USB stick, you are given the option of booting into a Live desktop or straight to the installer. Which ever option you choose, click past the first step of the installer to get to the step shown in this screen shot. You may opt to enable the two choices available at this step. Be Aware!: You need to click Yes here.
Because sdb is the external HDD, which is the target device. Partition Methods: This step shows available partition methods.
As noted earlier, the computer used for this tutorial is running Windows 8 on the internal HDD. And I have two Linux distribution – in dual-boot fashion, on the external HDD. What all that means is that I’ll need to be doing a manual partitioning of the target HDD. That is the only way you can be sure that you will not be erasing the contents of the internal HDD. So, click on the Something else option. Advanced Partitioning Tool: That will bring you to the Advanced Partitioning Tool’s window.
This step shows all the HDDs detected by the installer and their partitions. For the computer used in this tutorial, there are just two HDDs – sda and sdb. The target HDD is sdb, so don’t touch any of sda’s partitions. Erase Unwanted Partitions: This screen shot shows all the partitions on sdb. You can see that there are two Linux distributions on it already.
Since I don’t need them, the task here is to delete all of its partitions. To delete a partition, simply select it and click the – button on the lower-left corner. All partitions have been deleted, time to create partitions for Ubuntu 13.10. Notice that the size of the external HDD is 320 GB. However, I do not intend to use all that disk space for Ubuntu 13.10, just about half of it. With regards to creating the partitions, the goal is to create the same set of partitions on a default installation of Ubuntu 13.10.
That means creating just two partitions; the main partition mounted at / (root) and a Swap partition. Partition Editor: This is the partition editor’s window. With no existing partitions on the HDD, the installer will set up the options to create a primary partition. And that’s just fine, at least for the first partition. The only fields you need to change are the size and mount point. The default file system is ext4, which you don’t need to change unless you have a specific reason to. Create Root Partition: For the root partition, I chose to allocate 150 GB to it.
This is just an example. Assign whatever you think is appropriate for your installation, keeping in mind that the minimum disk space required is just under 6 GB.
Select the mount point as shown and click OK. Back to the main partitioning window, the partition just created should be listed below sdb. Select the free space and click the + button. Back here again. By default, the installation will want to create the next partition as a logical partition. That, too, is fine.
However, I chose to create the Swap partition as another primary partition. Whether the partition is primary or logical will have no impact on the system, so if you don’t want to mess with the default, don’t.
Create Swap Partition: So I allocated the Swap partition just 2000 MB (2 GB). That should be more than enough for any desktop system.
Select swap area from the “Use as” menu and click OK. Back to the main partitioning window, you see the two partitions you just created. Notice also that I left a lot of free space unallocated. I didn’t have to, just did it in case I have to create an extra partition after installation. This free space could also be used to create a shared NTFS partition. The most important thing you need to do here is ensure that the external HDD is the device where the boot loader will be installed. You do that by selecting /dev/sdb from the menu.
Install Now: Here’s the menu just before you click Install Now. After installation, reboot and verify that the installer did not mess with the MBR of the internal HDD. If you can boot from it, you are good to go. And if you see an entry for the OS on the internal HDD in the boot menu of the external HDD, all is good, too. I installed Linux Mint 18.1 Cinnamon to an external hard drive this way. First I took the hdd out of its enclosure. Next I installed it in the desktop and disconnected the windows hdd.
I installed Linux Mint. I then removed the external hdd and returned the windows hdd. I then installed the external hdd in the case attached it to the desktop with the USB and set BIOS to boot from the external.
Everything is working fine. I would like a boot loader that allows me to select the operation system at start up. Sometimes I just gotta use windows. I have this problem too having exactly followed the instructions in this article with particular care to ensure “sda” was not selected for the bootloader.
When I type exit at the “grub” prompt a big message box, in the ugly PC/BIOS font, appears saying “no bootable device found.”. When I hit enter I get a boot menu from BIOS from which I can select Windows boot manager. However this is a PITA. How can this be fixed so when the external HDD is not plugged in the PC simply boots to Windows? BIOS shows the following boot order: 1.
“Windows boot manager”, 3. “USB HDD” (which changes to include the disk name when the USB disk is connected). If I swap 1 and 2 it always boots into Windows.
If I change the order to 3, 2, 1, it won’t boot linux when the external HDD is plugged in. Seeing as how there’s been no response, allow me to add some specifics. I want to install ONLY Ubuntu Linux onto my external HDD (no other OS, so Swap Space really would not be necessary). I have been able to do this with a USB flash drive, but for some reason with my external hard drive I receive an error on (re)booting into the external drive stating: “error: attempt to read or write ourtside of disk ‘hd0’. Entering rescue mode. Thus far, nothing online has provided a viable solution.
The only two conclusions I can come to is that either some jack. who made the drive thinks it’s funny; or a 300 GB external hard drive is less capable than an 8 GB flash drive to perform thismaking the company that made the hard drive a bunch of overpaid morons. Once again, if someone can provide a workable solution, it’d be appreciated. Did you really install it to a USB stick or you just transferred it to the USB stick? Big difference, there.
From my experience, the main problem with installing a Linux distro to an external drive connected to a recent PC, that is, one with UEFI firmware, is that you stand a good change of messing up both the internal HDD and the external one. And it comes from how the boot loaders are handled and/or the failure of the installer to install the bootloader in the proper place. Try this: Access the computer’s boot menu (I think the F11 or F12 will get you there).
You should see a list of attached HDDs and also a list of boot managers for all the OSs that have been installed on that system. You should see one for Ubuntu. Select that and see if it will boot.
The reason why this is a trial and error thing, is that each PC vendor implements UEFI in a different way. So on some PCs, you can boot an OS by selecting the entry for the HDD on which the OS is installed on, but not on others. This is why moving a Linux external HDD from one PC to another has become a major pain. As far as I’m concerned, UEFI is a curse, for Linux, that is. All this is assuming that your PC has UEFI firmware. Keep me posted. I don’t misspeak.
I’m very literal. I have a 16GB flash drive which has the Ubuntu Linux OS installed on it and runs just fine. For some reason, the external hard drive I have is just (expletive) stupid and will not install the same way. It comes up “No filesystem found” no matter how it is installed. With the flash drive, accessing the boot menu (F9 on an HP Probook) is how I boot into Linux on the flash drive.
The 300GB external HDD doesn’t seem to want to do the job though. It’s how I’ve always done it, though.
Install just to an external drive (I’ve done Ubuntu and Fedora on flash drives) and after install, use the boot menu options to boot into Linux. (If I don’t go to the boot menu options Linux isn’t even listed. That’s how I set it up in the first place, and how I want it. Too see more clearly what I mean, you can view my video on how to install it to a flash drive at.
My Vaio came with 6 partitions from factory, I don’t even get the “install alongside” option and I’m really scared about installing Ubuntu (I have done it many times) because I’m suspecting I’m about to destroy my installation and I don’t want to spend days repairing my laptop. Do you know if there’s a problem with Ubuntu with multiple partitions (the partitions are from Sony and Windows)? For my computer I believe the Device for boot loader should be the hard drive (not a partition), and then I should just use both / and swap normally but again, the gazzilion partitions (recovery, and who knows what) are making me nervous Sorry this is slightly off-topic. Thank You for the great article. I followed your instructions and it (mostly) worked, but I have a question, I can not find answer for in the message boards. I installed Ubuntu 13.10 from Live USB flash stick to another USB flash stick(128GB). Since I am new to Linux, I did not want to mess with the Windows 8.1 on my computer, trying to create a dual boot.
So as a training facility I thought I can install Ubuntu on a USB drive first. I followed exactly the same path as described.
Well first I disabled secure boot in my UEFI BIOS, set the external drive to be the prime bootable source, then let the install create /, /home and SWAP area, and made sure the boot loader installation to be on dev/sdc (the USB where I was installing). Everything went well – with the USB plugged in when I reboot grub offers me Ubuntu or Windows and both load up and seem to work. But when I shut down and reboot with no USB plugged, instead of going directly to Windows I get a black screen and grub prompt. Did I somehow damaged by internal HDD boot, or is this some setting in grub that I have to change? Any lead is greatly appreciated! When installing a Linux distribution to an external HDD connected to a PC with UEFI firmware, it’s always a good idea to disconnect the SATA cord from the internal HDD. But we are past that point in this case, so here’s what you can try, before you hit the mild-panic button: As the PC boots, press the appropriate F-key that will take you to the boot menu.
If your computer is anything like my testing unit, you should see an entry for a Windows Boot Manager and Ubuntu on there. Select the former and see if it will boot Windows. Thank You finid! I did this installation to an USB as a precursor to installing 13.10 to the Internal HDD (creating a dual boot), so did not occur to me to isolate it that much. Later I found the suggestion here and there.
But I have been reading and people say the fact that grub shows up, means grub starts, but can not find the correct continuation. Actually I managed manually to start Windows by following the commands from grub.cfg that is on the USB. I just do not know where to recreate it on the boot partition on the HDD (if it is possible of course).
OS: Windows 7. I want install Linux Ubuntu on portable external Hard Drive USB 2.0. I read a variety of methods, but I'm confused by contradictory advices and methods. Actually, installing Ubuntu on anything other than clean PC looks much more complicated than installing Windows. I need to have Ubuntu package + Python 2.7 + C compiler installed.
My external hard drive is partially filled, I need to keep all files. Will Ubuntu run entirely on external hardrive, without writing anythinhg to Windows system folders and to registry? Can anyone post detailed guide how install Ubuntu on external hard drive? A very detailed answer would be beyond the scope of a single question, but here's the general outline. It's very easy, but success will partly depend on the ability of your computer to boot from an external hard drive.
This depends on the bios. Before starting, make sure your bios has an option to boot from a USB HD. If all you need is the basic install, Python 2.7, and the C compiler, you can get away with installing Ubuntu to a fairly small partition. I forget the literal minimum Ubuntu needs to install, but it's roughly 8 GB. I would recommend 10 GB as a minimum, plus another 2-4 GB if you want a swap drive.
Create space for a partition It's best in your case to create the new partition before doing the install. You will need to shrink the existing partition on your external hard drive first. I would recommend backing up the USB HD; but if you had a second one, you could just install to that one.
Depending on how full the drive is, you may not be able to back it completely; but try at least back up any important files. This is just a general warning and precaution since your data should be safe. You have two options to shrink the existing partition:. Use the Windows partition manager in administrative tools. I believe these are available in Home Premium. If the partition won't shrink by enough, you may need to delete files to make room.
If you have more than enough available but it still doesn't shrink enough, use a free defrag tool like MyDefrag to defrag and move the files to the start of the partition. Use gparted from the Ubuntu live install media. This is probably the easier way to do it. Create a new partition Create the Ubuntu live installation media and use it to boot your computer. Choose Try Ubuntu. Plug in the external hard drive. Start the program gparted.
If you have not already shrunk the partition on the external HD, do it now. In most cases, the internal HD will show up as sda and the external as sdb, but this is not guaranteed. Be sure you are looking at the correct HD in gparted. Shrinking the partition will leave unallocated space. Use this to create a new partition. Format it to ext4. Jot down the partition number.
This will be used for /. You don't need a swap partition, but if want one, shrink the new partition by the size you want (or just make it a little smaller in the first place). Format that space to linux-swap. Note down the numbers of the new partitions. Run the Installer Start the installer from the icon on the desktop or on the launcher.
When asked how you want to install, choose: Somethine Else. This will start the partitioner within the installer. This is different than gparted and may look a little intimidating to a beginner. Carefully highlight the new partition (check the number and drive carefully) and click Change.
Follow the dialogs to a. Use the partition as ext4, b. Mount to /, and c. Highlight the swap partition and click Change. Choose use a linux-swap and that's all for that one. Very important: change the installation of the bootloader to the USB HD.
This will most likely be /dev/sdb. This will prevent you from overwriting the master boot record on your hard drive.
(If you do this by accident, it's easily fixed). Double-check your partition choices, then click Install Now. To run Ubuntu, boot the computer with the USB plugged in. Set your bios order or otherwise move USB HD to the first boot position.
The boot menu on the usb will show you both Ubuntu (on the external drive) and Windows (on the internal drive). Choose the one you want. If you boot without the usb, you will boot into Windows normally. Ubuntu has Python 2.7 installed by default. To install the C comiler, open the terminal, any run: sudo apt-get install gcc or sudo apt-get install build-essential (if you want some additional programs helpful for C programming). To run Ubuntu in a virtual machine instead, install VirtualBox or VMWarePlayer in Windows. Both are free.
Create a new VM and use the installer media to install to the VM. But this time, don't worry about partitions. Choose Install Ubuntu to the entire virtual drive. This doesn't affect the rest of the hard drive. If you want to put the VM on the external hd, be sure to override the default location when creating the VM and put it on a folder on the external drive. Creating your installation media with persistence through a Windows program like LiveUSBCreator will also work, but this option will be very slow.
Ubuntu can, and does, run well entirely from an external hard drive. I have used Ubuntu this way for years. It doesn't affect Windows. There's nothing special about installing to USB drives.
You connect the USB drive, boot using a CD or an pen drive, and choose the external disk when it comes to selecting the installation location. However: You will have partition the external hard disk. I assume your external disk has a single partition with an NTFS filesystem. The best thing to do is shrink this partition by about 20 GB (which is more than enough for Ubuntu) and create new partitions there. This is not as difficult as it sounds (and you'd have to worry about partitions if you wanted to install another copy of Windows too). Either use Windows' Disk Management tool to shrink the partition, or use GParted from the Ubuntu Live mode.
Using the former is quicker, but limits you to whatever space is available after the last used sector in the partition (which can be very low, even if you have plenty of free space). Using the second can be very slow, especially if the partition is large, but lets you extract most of the free space. In either case, after you get the free space, use GParted to create an extended partition there and within that extended partition, an ext4 partition. Install Ubuntu to this partition. Choose your external hard disk as the device for GRUB (bootloader) installation as well. Alternative: If you have a pendrive handy, use UNetBootin or Universal USB Installer or some such tool to create a bootable Ubuntu drive with persistence.
If persistence is enabled, your settings and other changes to Ubuntu that you make when in Live mode don't vanish when you restart. It's ideal for low usage scenarios. You can install Python or anything else and get comfortable with Ubuntu, and then, whenever you feel ready, install Ubuntu. Note that changes made in the live mode do not affect any installation you make with it. I don't think this is fully supported via Wubi, but it can be done.
I'm not entirely sure of how you plan to use it. In the past, I've unplugged my Windows device, plugged in my external device, and just run through the install using the external (and in many cases, the only) drive.
Ubuntu will install correctly and treat that drive as 'a drive' - nothing special being external. Then, rather than dealing with dual-boot and GRUB, I can just use the BIOS/uEFI options to select my preferred boot device after I reconnect my Windows drive. There are other ways of doing it, but I've found this to be the easiest, with the absolute minimal risk to my Windows systems.