boot fr laptop using an external HD -help needed

[voxifera]

Hi guys

I am wondering if it is possible to install an o/s-linux on an external HD and use this external hd to boot from a laptop?????


Situation:
1. I have a laptop, I donot want to partition the internal hard disk;

2. If I buy an external HD, can I install an o/s and boot from the laptop.

Any advice....It will be mostly welcomed

Thankx for helping

 

[paparazi]

Only if USB can be set as the first device in the bios boot order, you need to enter the bios and check if this machine has USB as a boot option otherwise it won't be seen.
Martin

We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.

 

[voxifera]

Thankx paparazi - martin for the tip


I checked the bios unable to boot from usb..any other suggestion.

 

[wolluf]

is linux hardware tolerant enough to work in laptop if installed on another machine?

You could try a boot manager (best if laptop has floppy drive - then don't need to update its hard drive). Eg,

http://www.boot-us.com.

The linux install will need to have its boot manager (usually grub or lilo) installed to its own boot sector (this is important - boot manager won't be able to boot linux otherwise). Install boot-us on laptop, connect external drive & run boot-us. Hopefully it will see external drive as bootable device - so you can create boot menu for laptop's o/s & linux on external. Save this to floppy, then boot from floppy with external drive attached. I haven't tried this (though have been using boot-us for years), so would be interested (may even try it myself) in the result.

 

[dbData]

You can try one of the Linux distributions on CD. Knoppix is Linux based and has some good data recovery tools too. Boots from CD!



Rick

http://www.data-recovery-hub.com