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My hard drive failed, so I decided to install Ubuntu on external HDD for now.

I used the Etcher app on a Mac laptop to copy the Ubuntu 18.04 iso to a USB flash drive. This boots up fine.

Then I booted up my desktop with this Ubuntu USB flash drive, and USB external HDD drive also plugged in. I installed Ubuntu on the USB external drive, no problem.

But BIOS will not boot from the USB external HDD. I'm on my desktop, which has run Windows and Linux before (but not tested from external HDD before). I used a Mac laptop to create the Ubuntu flash drive. I tried marking the first partition as bootable, but it didn't work. I tried setting up my own partitions with the first partition as bootable.

I'm not sure how to make my BIOS recognize the external HDD as bootable.

BIOS
M4A89TD PRO USB3.
EC BIOS Version: MBECB-0012
Version: 0811.
Build: 05/05/10

HDD DRIVE
Western Digital 3TB external USB.

USB flash drive boots up Ubuntu 18.04 desktop version.

Boot Repair output

OIS
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    @karel I'm not booting on a mac, but on my desktop, which has run Windows and linux before. I used a mac laptop to create the ubuntu flash drive. – OIS Sep 25 '18 at 11:57
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    can you provide your mother board model number? – PRATAP Sep 25 '18 at 14:07
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    UEFI or BIOS system & then UEFI or BIOS install? And then is system set to boot in that same boot mode. But UEFI only boots from /EFI/Boot/bootx64.efi and grub installs to /EFI/ubuntu. May be best to see details, use ppa version with your live installer or any working install, not older Boot-Repair ISO: Just run the summary report, the auto fix sometimes can create more issues. https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair – oldfred Sep 25 '18 at 14:45
  • @oldfred Added the boot repair summary – OIS Sep 25 '18 at 16:47
  • @PRATAP added the motherboard and bios information – OIS Sep 25 '18 at 16:48
  • @OIS as per the manual of your mother board.. there is no option to choose boot from "USB hard drive". This is causing the problem. Recent mother boards have this option. – PRATAP Sep 25 '18 at 18:31
  • If a 3TB drive you have to use gpt partitioning. But your old motherboard will not have UEFI, so booting with BIOS on gpt, you need a tiny 1 or 2MB unformatted partition for grub to correctly install to MBR of gpt drive. Script shows you have gpt, but is not showing partitions, it shows the one protective MBR saying gpt, but then should show the gpt partitions. Does gdisk show partitions correctly? sudo gdisk -l /dev/sdb. See https://askubuntu.com/questions/386752/fixing-corrupt-backup-gpt-table/386802#386802 – oldfred Sep 25 '18 at 19:00

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