Install Linux on external USB HDD?

I am thinking to keep Win 7 on primary internal HDD and install Ubuntu on external USB 3.0 ( or eSATA ) HDD so when I want to work with Ubuntu I would plug the external HDD and boot from it. My laptop can boot from USB.

What do you guys say, is it possible? Will Ubuntu be running too slow off of the external HD?

I do not want to have dual-boot, I have it right now and Win 7 sometimes fails to boot in this config. I am afraid Win 7 will fail one day and I'll have to reinstall it with all my school applications, it will be bad if it happens in the middle of the semester.

THX

 

yep its possible. I had my ubuntu installation on my external HD, works quite well. just pop the livecd in and install it normally, when you get to the "Prepare disk space" screen you'll see "erase and use entire disk" just select the external HD from the dropdown list and continue normally.

so i take it you want to delete ubuntu from the current internal HD?
you can follow this guide to do that: (make sure you have everything you need from linux and windows backed up.)
How To Safely Uninstall Ubuntu From A Windows Dual-Boot PC

hope this helps

 

Thanks 1ceBlu3 - so it is not such a crazy idea after all

Did you have to remove your internal HDD before installing Ubuntu on external one? I was thinking to do that to prevent Ubuntu from configuring internal HDD's mbr for dual-boot.

I am going to wipe out everything and install from scratch.

 

nope didn't have to remove it. just plugged my external HD in and installed ubuntu normally

 

So when you boot your laptop you do not have the dual-boot menu?

When you boot with external HDD _unplugged_ the laptop boots into whatever OS you have installed on you internal drive (Win 7?), and when you _plug_ in your external HDD the laptop boots into Ubuntu, is this correct?

 

Go into the BIOS and set the boot priority to list External USB Hard drives above the internal hard drive. Then, if a USB drive is plugged in and bootable, it will try to boot off that drive. If it's not plugged in, it will go down the list until it hits the hard drive and boot to the internal disk. No need for GRUB if you don't want it.

 

Alright I am good now - thank you, guys!

 

I have to second that. I installed lucid on an xternal usb drive and had my laptop boot from usb. Make sure to install grub to the xternal drive as well.
This way, if the usb drive is unplugged, the computer will boot quite nicely into windows without even knowing there was a linux install.
I had no noticeable slow down either.
I did, however, decide to install lucid to my internal drive after all, as I like to play around with virtual box, and I found that my guest OS's would not work properly from a usb drive (usb mouse for instance).

 

-- That's good to know.

So you installed lucid on internal drive and ran guest OS ( Windows? ) in virtual box from usb drive?

 

What you want to do, when the option comes up, is to install the bootloader to the USB device. That way, you aren't making any modifications to your internal hard drive.

After installation, when you turn on the laptop, all you have to do is go to boot menu (F12 on my acer) and select the USB hard drive. This also gives it some portability too.