external installation?

marbux marbux at gmail.com
Thu Nov 15 16:46:50 UTC 2012


On Thu, Nov 15, 2012 at 8:35 AM,  <aerospace1028 at hotmail.com> wrote:
> Hello,
> An update to my previous hard drive failure.  I bought a replacement from
> ebay.  It doesn't work.  Had people look at it: no dice.
>
> I'm planning to pick up a new-ish laptop soon.
>
> I got an idea.  Is it overly difficult to install archlinux to an external
> hard drive rather than a new partition on the new laptop' internal drive?  I
> think I've heard of people running linuxes from USB thumbdrives.  It feels
> like it should be possible: almost like using two internal hard drives, but
> one is mounted externally through the USB.
>
> If it is possible, are there any special considerations when purchasing the
> external drive?  Most are marketed towards "Windows backup" options, but I
> can just re-format and install linux like a standard hard drive, correct?
>
> If this idea is possible, it has a definite appeal to me.

It depends on the computer. You'll probably need sighted assistance to
check that the BIOS supports booting from USB and is set to try
booting from USB prior to booting from the hard drive.

The next things to check are whether the computer and the external
drive support USB 3.0. You would have a very slow system if forced to
use USB 2.0.

Best regards,

Paul




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