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Thread: Help with installing Mint 11 on external HDD

  1. #1
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    Question Help with installing Mint 11 on external HDD

    Heya doods and doodettes

    I haven't been on here for ages lol, finally installed Ubuntu on my netbook, everything is fine and dandy there

    My current problem is, I am running Ubuntu Netbook Remix Natty, but I'm also interested in Mint, I am keeping Natty on my internal drive, but I want to install Mint on my external, as an alternative to Ubuntu when I feel like it

    I am still somewhat of a noob when it comes to Linux, I am learning fast, but I just wanted to ask somebody who knows what they're doing so my internal drive doesn't get affected negatively

    Can anybody provide me with a step by step guide to installing Mint on my external HDD? I have heard it is quite difficult sometimes.

    Thankyou for any help you can give me

    Cheers (Y)

    CJ
    Intermediate Linux knowledge, 3 distro's tried and loved 8)

  2. #2
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    Re: Help with installing Mint 11 on external HDD

    I do not know Mint, but this is a good reference on how to install to a second drive. The important thing is to use manual install so you get the choice to install grub2's boot loader to the MBR of the external.

    Installing Ubuntu in Hard Disk Two (or more) internal or external
    Maverick screens shown, other versions have slight difference in screens but process is the same.
    http://members.iinet.net.au/~herman546/p24.html
    p24/041.png Shows combo box to select where to install the grub2 boot loader.
    Where Do You Want To Install GNU/GRUB boot loader?
    http://members.iinet.net.au/~herman546/p24/041.png
    UEFI boot install & repair info - Regularly Updated :
    https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2147295
    Please use Thread Tools above first post to change to [Solved] when/if answered completely.

  3. #3
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    Re: Help with installing Mint 11 on external HDD

    It shouldn't be difficult.

    You will need to choose the "Something Else" option at the disk preparation stage of installing, then make absolutely sure you choose the correct device and partitions to install to. On that page (I think) there is also a box where you can choose where to install the bootloader (grub2 in this case) and again you must be absolutely sure you put Mint's grub onto the root of the external disk, not onto a partition such as /dev/sdc1, but to /dev/sdc; (sdc here is just an example, yours may be different.)

    Apart from that there should be little difference installing to an external disk vs an internal one; just make sure you get the correct device, and that you put grub on the root of the same device and not onto your internal disk.

  4. #4
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    Re: Help with installing Mint 11 on external HDD

    Thanks for the help doods

    A warning message comes up when I go into the "Something else" option and select the appropriate drive...
    It says "The root file system is not defined" As I said before, I am a bit of a noob when it comes to linux though I can learn fast

    What do I have to do to "define" the root file system?

    Thanks again
    Intermediate Linux knowledge, 3 distro's tried and loved 8)

  5. #5
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    Re: Help with installing Mint 11 on external HDD

    You have to create partitions with manual install or have partitions already created and choose which to use for / (root). It finds swap automatically if created in advance, otherwise you should create it also.

    For the Total space you want for Ubuntu:
    Ubuntu's standard install is just / (root) & swap, but it is better to add another partition for /home:
    1. 10-20 GB Mountpoint / primary or logical beginning ext4(or ext3)
    2. all but 2 GB Mountpoint /home logical beginning ext4(or ext3)
    3. 2 GB Mountpoint swap logical

    Depending on how much memory you have you may not absolutely need swap but having some is still recommended. I do not hibernate (boots fast enough for me) but if hibernating then you need swap equal to RAM in GiB not GB. And if dual booting with windows a shared NTFS partition is also recommended. But you usually cannot create that as part of the install, just leave some space. Or partition in advance (recommended).
    One advantage of partitioning in advance is that the installer will use the swap space to speed up the install. Thanks Herman for the tip.

    http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/partitioning
    Install with separate /home from aysiu
    http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/installseparatehome
    UEFI boot install & repair info - Regularly Updated :
    https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2147295
    Please use Thread Tools above first post to change to [Solved] when/if answered completely.

  6. #6
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    Re: Help with installing Mint 11 on external HDD

    Aha! Thanks a bunch to everyone who helped

    I am going to try again tomorrow, and if I succeed I will defs mark this post as solved

    I don't use windows anymore lol, apart from fixing my family's and sister's windows computers for them... I'm fully Linux now

    I understand what the home and the other directory is for, but what does swap do? Is that basically the Linux equivalent of a paging file in windows?

    Thanks a bunch to all who helped

    I am proud to be a part of such a helpful community

    Cheers (Y)

    CJ
    Intermediate Linux knowledge, 3 distro's tried and loved 8)

  7. #7
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    Re: Help with installing Mint 11 on external HDD

    Swap is for RAM memory overflow, if you load too many programs or data at once. With 4GB or more of RAM it becomes difficult to actually use swap. Video editing or maybe using every program may start to use swap. You really do not want to use swap, as it is very slow, but it is good to have some just for system startup (looks for it until it times out) and just in case something large gets loaded.

    https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SwapFaq
    HOWTO: Use swapfile instead of partition and hibernate
    http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1042946
    UEFI boot install & repair info - Regularly Updated :
    https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2147295
    Please use Thread Tools above first post to change to [Solved] when/if answered completely.

  8. #8
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    Unhappy Re: Help with installing Mint 11 on external HDD

    Heya peeps The installation went well, everything is set up on my HDD, but when I go to boot from it, it comes up with a menu which I have to select from ie, mint normal, mint safe mode and such...

    I pick the top one, it looks right, exactly what I want to boot, but when I select it, it just goes to a black screen and doesn't do anything...

    When I boot up ubuntu with my HDD attached it comes up with the same menu, I pick the top one and boom, it boots properly, I'm typing from unbuntu now...

    What went wrong? And how can I fix it? I followed your instructions, specified the partitions properly, made the first 10gb of space the /root, the all of bar 2bg the /home, and the last 2 gb is swap space...

    Thanks for any help you can give me

    CJ
    Intermediate Linux knowledge, 3 distro's tried and loved 8)

  9. #9
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    Re: Help with installing Mint 11 on external HDD

    I don't know if this will help you, but here is what I did tonight to install Xubuntu 11.10 to a 16 gig usb stick which is similar to installing Mint to an external hard drive:

    I used gparted to format the drive, erasing everything off it first, I set two partitions:

    swap (set it to twice your computer's ram, i.e. you have 1000 mb ram, set swap for 2000 mb).

    ext 4 / (make sure you have it labelled with (/) and set it for the space needed or available space i.e. 10 gig.)

    boot up a live cd of Xubuntu (in your case Mint) and click install, follow along until you get to where it asks you to install and choose "something else" and choose that ext4 hard drive. It may ask you to unmount it to edit it, in 11.10 I had to click on edit it and labelled it ext4 again and set (/) after that I could install it. In Mint 11 you may also have to point it to your external hard drive for installing grub. Take your time, be careful, make sure you've got everything backed up, and don't take my word for gospel, look at what others say as well. I wish you good luck.
    KBD47

  10. #10
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    Smile Re: Help with installing Mint 11 on external HDD

    Thanks for the info dood

    Here's what I did:

    First partition is for the install, 10gb, ext4, and /

    Second partition is the /home ext4, all but 2 gb worth

    Third partition is the swap space which is a lil over 2gb, my ram is 1gb btw


    Everything worked out good, installed properly, didn't get any other error messages...
    Though when I go into the BIOS boot menu and select my HDD, it does start booting, but then goes to a black screen.

    Now I know that Mint 11 has no splash screen for certain reasons, but the screen stays black for over 10 mins without doing anything, I'm thinking that's a tad too long to boot lol...


    As for the grub, I didn't get any message or option about grub when I was installing, could that be why it's not booting? If I need to configure grub to the appropriate area, how would I do that?

    Thanks for any help you can give me

    CJ
    Intermediate Linux knowledge, 3 distro's tried and loved 8)

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