How to run Ubuntu 13.04 on an External Hard Drive?

Question

I have an external hard drive and installed Ubuntu 13.04 on it. I have a Samsung ATIV Book 8 running windows 8. When I go to boot, I get the Grub menu and can boot into both windows or ubuntu. However, If I unplug the Hard Drive, a Grub menu appears asking me to find the media to boot. How can I set it up so without the hard drive it just boots to windows?

Try using the Windows installation media, and repairing the MBR. Do it with the external hard drive disk disconnected, just to be on the safe side. See here for instructions. (This question is kinda off-topic, since it's about Windows' bootloader.) — edwin, Jul 30 '13 at 05:25
Does this answer your question? How to install Ubuntu on portable external Hard Drive? — karel, Feb 06 '20 at 12:39

score 0 · Answer 1 · edited Mar 20 '17 at 10:18

0

In your case, GRUB is installed on internal HDD, and it's files are on external. It is BAD. You have to install GRUB on external HDD and Windows MBR on internal. Then set up GRUB entry in Windows. Here are the steps:

Plug external HDD, boot from it into Ubuntu and run command:
```
sudo grub-install /dev/sdb
```
where /dev/sdb is your external hard drive.
Unplug external HDD (for safety), reboot and run Windows installation DVD or Windows Repair CD. You can make one while you have Windows loaded.
Open command prompt and run:
```
bootrec /fixmbr
```
Other instructions recommend also run bootrec /fixboot, but in my case it just clears BCD store (so I cannot boot anywhere), so you should run it only if you have problems with booting into Windows.
Plug external HDD and boot into Windows. From there, run EasyBCD and set up GRUB entry for your external HDD. This should be easy. If not, there is instruction.

After this, you can boot from both internal and external HDDs. Other way is to move /boot partition onto your internal HDD and use GRUB, but it is a little bit more complicated solution.

edited Mar 20 '17 at 10:18

Community

1

answered Jul 30 '13 at 02:26

Danatela

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So, I followed your instructions and now whenever the Hard Drive is unplugged Windows boots perfectly! But, with the hard drive attached, the Ubuntu option can't find the OS and, the windows option just keeps returning me to the boot screen. – tref95 Jul 30 '13 at 03:19
How did you set up Ubuntu entry? – Danatela Jul 30 '13 at 04:23
As workaround, you can boot directly from your external HDD once it is plugged. – Danatela Jul 30 '13 at 04:37
I set it up following the instructions on that page and tried it various ways. I set the path to the boot partition. – tref95 Jul 30 '13 at 17:07

How to run Ubuntu 13.04 on an External Hard Drive?

1 Answers1