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I recently bought a 512 GB Samsung Portable SSD T7 Touch.

I would like to create 3 partitions:

  • One bootable partition containing Ubuntu 18.04 (of about 100 GB).
  • One swap partition for Ubuntu (of about 10 GB).
  • One storage partition

The goal is to have the first 2 partitions to work as a portable external Ubuntu that any computer can boot to (by entering the BIOS and asking to boot to external SSD). The third partition is for storage, which can be accessed from any computer using Windows, Ubuntu, and also can be accessed by the Ubuntu on the first partition.

That way, I can access the information on the third partition at any time no matter what computer I'm on, and if I ever need Ubuntu I can just access it easily.

Is this possible, and if so how?

Also, the SSD comes with password protection and fingerprint. Does that need to be turned off in order to be able to boot on it?

Thank you.

Drade
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    You would do well to look through the answers here: https://askubuntu.com/questions/16988/how-do-i-install-ubuntu-to-a-usb-key-without-using-startup-disk-creator. There is no reason to create a swap partition, Ubuntu will use a swap file by default. You also need to consider if you want to boot in Legacy mode or UEFI mode. The drive will not boot on a computer running in UEFI mode if your drive is set up for Legacy and vice versa. There are ways round this so google for a guide. You will want your shared data partition to be formatted in something Windows can read such as NTFS – PonJar Apr 09 '20 at 11:46
  • Is it enough to boot in either UEFI mode or BIOS mode (alias CSM alias legacy mode)? Or should the drive boot both in UEFI and BIOS mode? The advice will depend on your answer. -- Is the password protection made with hardware (built into the device itself) or software? If software it will probably be overwritten, when you create a new partition table with the partition that you want. – sudodus Apr 09 '20 at 11:46
  • If it isn't too hard I would like it to be able to boot in both UEFI mode and Legacy. If not possible (or too hard), then I would choose Legacy (as the computer I will use it on has Windows installed in Legacy). – Drade Apr 09 '20 at 11:51
  • Then I suggest that you try according to advice by @C.S.Cameron. I will search for a good link for it. – sudodus Apr 09 '20 at 11:52
  • This is one such link but I know there are other links, that I think are more detailed. – sudodus Apr 09 '20 at 12:02
  • I would still partition with gpt and include both an ESP (FAT32) for future use and bios_grub (1MB unformatted with bios_grub flag) for BIOS/CSM/Legacy boot. Grub only installs in BIOS mode to gpt partitioned drives if you have a bios_grub partition. And having ESP will give you flexibility for future UEFI. Not sure how C.S.Cameron configures it. UEFI/gpt partitioning in Advance, new versions do not need swap partition: http://askubuntu.com/questions/743095/how-to-prepare-a-disk-on-an-efi-based-pc-for-ubuntu – oldfred Apr 09 '20 at 15:03

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