OS on External HD?

I have a Laptop, with a dead HD. I want to run Ubuntu 8.10 on my External HD (I have music, photos, games, etc on it), so I can verify everything else on the computer is working, before I go out and buy a new HD.

Can I install Ubuntu on my External HD, WITHOUT erasing all of my data on the HD, and then can I boot up from a USB, and will that run the computer?

 

well i know people can do that with windows but linux is very differs from win

 

Windows XP does detect USB drives (know that as I had an HDD failure and it listed the external drives only)

Rather than installing on an external HDD, why don't you look around for a Linux Live Disc, or how this thing is called?

Runn Linux off a CD/DVD.

(Search forum - I once asked in that direction for someone - fellow maths student, he decided to punch the laptop and got a new one in the end, or so he told me...)

 

Just plug it into another computer and pull your files off.

 

I have a Live CD, but for some reason, after loading, it switches to a Black screen, with a flashing " _ " in the top, left corner.

I am not interested in the files, those I could care less about. I just want to see if the computer has anything else wrong with it.

 

I booted the Live CD from my Alienware, and it ran fine off the CD, so I know the CD isnt corrupt.

I am trying to boot from the CD again. My OS Recovery CD that came with the computer freezes during loading as well. So I am not sure the CD drive is gone too.

 

You can run your OS off an external HDD. You can run it off a USB flash drive if you wish. It will be slow. With Windows XP you will need to jump through some hoops to get it to boot from the removable device after the installer copies the initial round of files (Google it; I tried this a while ago and don't remember how I did it); I do not know if this is the case for Ubuntu. With both operating systems, if you do not format the disk at install time, it should not erase the existing files on your drive.

 

Well apparently 2nd time is the charm. The Ubuntu Live CD ran fine, so all I need now is a new HD.

 

If the CD crashed - maybe a new CD/DVD drive too?

My Medion'S drive broke... I suspect it was broken from the start as it never quite worked for burning with Sonic Stage, but Nero and reading worked fine.

 

Well since the Live CD ran on the 2nd try, I am hoping the drive will last once more.

I ordered a new HD, so I will need the CD drive once more to run the OS disk. If it doesn't work, I will copy the files from it, and burn them to another CD, and try that. Then I will order a new OS disk ($20), and if THAT don't work, I will have to buy a new drive.

 

Before you start switching OS discs - just try a new Linux Live CD (you should be able to directly copy the existing one) and try that
Cheaper