If you’re new to Linux and have no idea what MBR and GPT means, read Guide to disks and disk partitions in Linux. And that’s because the installer will most likely install the bootloader files where it thinks they should be installed (in the EFI Boot Partition of the internal hard drive), not where you specified (the EFI Boot Partition of the external hard drive).įor such a system to boot from any computer, you’ll have to modify the /etc/fstab file. However, if you installed the system on a GPT partitioning scheme, with an EFI Boot Partition, it will likely not boot from another computer. If you installed the Linux distribution on an MBR partitioning scheme and correctly configured the installer to install GRUB (the bootloader) in the Master Boot Record of the external hard drive, chances are it will boot from any computer, not just the one it was originally installed from. However, things are not always as trouble-free as they should be. It can also find a hard disk drive (or SSD), as illustrated with the following picture.Installing a Linux distribution on an external hard drive should be easy and once installed, you should have no problem booting it from any computer. Use the available tools in Windows to identify and select the correct drive. Format the external drive with a file system, that Windows can see, for example NTFS, FAT 32 or exFAT. Otherwise you might overwrite valuable data. In Windows: After checking the md5sum you can clone the Ubuntu iso file with Win32 Disk Imager to the external drive.Ĭheck and double-check, that you have selected the correct target drive. After confirming things will work the same way as if it were a USB pendrive. In Ubuntu: mkusb-dus might notice that it is a hard disk drive (or SSD), and ask if you really want to install into that drive. Start by backing up whatever data you want to keep from the external drive to another drive or to an internet cloud service. If it is OK to overwrite the external drive, you can use several tools, that normally are used to work with USB pendrives, and make the external drive a live drive and it will be seen like it were a USB pendrive by the system.
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