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I install ubuntu on my HDD but can not use it on any computer

Installing Ubuntu 11.04 or any other distribution on an external hard drive connected to a computer via USB is about the same as the method used to install it on an internal hard disk. Your choice of external disk to use are many, but the one I used for this tutorial is a 2.5′ hard disk that I put in a similarly-sized hard disk enclosure.

A 320 GB 2.5′ hard disk purchased for this tutorial cost US $45. Enclosures tend to be very cheap. The one I bought cost about US $7. At 5′x2.75′, the whole unit can fit comfortably in any pocket. You can use it to clone your Ubuntu 11.04 installation that you carry along with you. And with the USB connection, you can use it on any computer that can boot off a USB device. extDisk

Jorge Castro
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abidine
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2 Answers2

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OP answered his or her own question within the question. I moved the answer here

To start, connect the disk via the USB cable to any computer and boot the computer using an Ubuntu 11.04 CD or DVD. At the disk partitioning step, select “Something else.” Doing that and clicking on Forward will take you to the installer’s advanced partitioning tool, which you are going to use to configure the partitions for Ubuntu 11.04. dualBoot4

If the computer you are using has only one hard disk, the external drive you are attempting to use will be detected as /dev/sdb. The “b” shows that it is the second disk detected by the system. The task now is to select the disk and configure the partitions for Ubuntu.

Note: If you are intend to use this installation for serious stuff, it is better that you encrypt the disk. That entails using an Alternate Installer ISO image. You may use how to install Ubuntu 11.04 on an encrypted LVM file system as a guide, if you decide to follow that route.

By default, Ubuntu’s installer configures two partitions – the first for /, the root directory, and the second for Swap. When creating partitions for installing any desktop Linux distribution, my recommendation is to create the following four partitions:

/boot, the boot partition. This is where programs critical for booting the system will reside.
/, the root directory. The bulk of the programs used for running the system will be installed here.
Swap, unformatted disk space for use as virtual memory.
/home, the partition where your home directory will be located. In the course of using the system, files and folders you create will reside in various folders here.

To begin configuration, select the free space as shown, and click on Add. eBuntu

The first partition will be for /boot. When setting up an LVM-based system using an Alternate Installer ISO image, the default disk space allocated to /boot is 258 MB. However, only about 22 MB of that is used, so anything thing between that size range will do. For this tutorial, the default will be used. The mount point will, of course, be /boot. The default file system is ext2. OK. eBuntu1

The second partition will be for Swap, disk space that the computer may use as virtual memory. The suggested size for Swap is 2000 MB. Select “swap area” from the “Use as” dropdown menu. OK. eBuntu2

The third partition will be for /, the root directory. The default journaling file system on Ubuntu 11.04 is ext4. You may stick with it or choose another journaling file system available. The installer recommends a minimum of 4.4 GB for Ubuntu 11.04, but on a new installation, less than 3 GB of disk space allocated to / is used. Note that as you install additional application after installation, disk space used will grow, so be generous here. I think 10 GB should be more than enough. OK. eBuntu3

The last partition will be for /home. The file system is ext4, and you may allocate all available disk space to it. OK. eBuntu4

All the partitions have been configured. Before clicking Install Now, you need to change where GRUB, the boot loader, will be installed. By default, it will be installed in the MBR of the computer’s internal disk. But that is not what you want. You want to install GRUB in the MBR of the external disk. So, under the “Device for boot loader installation” section, click on the dropdown menu, and select the entry that matches the external disk that you just partitioned. Once that is done, continue with the rest of the installation.

After installation, test the system by booting the computer from the disk. You may use this as a mobile clone of your Ubuntu 11.04 installation. eBuntu5

Panther
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I have done this with my hard drive, and I did it so that I still had 250GB to use as a normal hard drive, and then 70GB for Ubuntu. The method I used was:

  1. Burn a CD or make a LiveUSB with ubuntu on it (pendrivelinux is very good, so is YUMI for the thumb drive)

  2. In Windows, go to Disk Management, and with the external drive plugged in, delete all partitions, so that in the end you see it say X GB unallocated, with X being the whole amount of the external HDD.

  3. Boot of the CD/USB Flash Drive which you prepared, and select install. Make sure your empty External HDD is plugged in.

  4. From install, choose 'Something Else'

  5. You should see a list of disks, your drive is most likely dev/sdb, but just check to make sure. It'll be the one which just says 'free space'.

  6. You need to make two partitions. the first will be 4000MB and will be a swap area. Add this by pressing the add button while the 'free space' row in your external HDD is selected.

  7. The second partition will be ext4, and can be any size you like. If you want to use up the whole drive, put it to the max it will go. in mount point, type '/' without spaces or the quotes.

  8. At the bottom of the partitioner, there is an option for where to put the bootloader. make sure to select your drive.

  9. Press install now and continue!

  10. to boot, restart the computer but go into BIOS (when starting up press the specified key, F2 for Vaios, F8 for Dells, etc.) from there, go to the boot options, and there should be a list of boot priorities. move 'External Media' or whatever your computer's version of this is, to the top. save these settings and switch on again with the HDD plugged in. You should boot into Ubuntu.

Yi Jiang
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Balaji Krishna
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