killpotts
March 9th, 2009, 03:03 AM
Hey all, I am having troubles figuring out exactly how to install Ubuntu onto an external Hard drive. The internal Hard drive of this machine is pretty much dead. Ubuntu is capable of detecting it, but cannot mount it.
I have a 160 GB External, which is currently connected as "sdb1" and has one large partition on it.
The two partitions on the internal HD are listed as sda1, and sda2.
My problem happens on step 4 of Ubuntu 8.10 installation. It is only detecting the sda1 and sda2 to be partitioned ( which I know will not work, since that hard drive is busted. I have to wait until I get my new one in the mail, which I will likely just install windows XP on anyways. ) and does not detect the external drive as a possible selection ? Seems kind of odd since my external drive is the only one that I can mount and explore files on.
My questions are these:
1. Do I need to do something with sdb1 with Gparted ? All of the data on this external is backed up on a different drive, so I do not mind if it gets deleted. The only option I get ( as in, not disabled ) for sdb1 is "create partition table". Do I need to do something here ?
and
2. I tried this before with a different problem, namely Grub error 21. What can I do to prevent Grub from trying to default install to the main ( internal ) HD and instead pointing to sdb1 ? I really don't want to go through fixing Grub errors again, and would like Grub to just point to the external right away. ( Btw, the name for this external HD is "OMEGA_ZEN" )
I have a 160 GB External, which is currently connected as "sdb1" and has one large partition on it.
The two partitions on the internal HD are listed as sda1, and sda2.
My problem happens on step 4 of Ubuntu 8.10 installation. It is only detecting the sda1 and sda2 to be partitioned ( which I know will not work, since that hard drive is busted. I have to wait until I get my new one in the mail, which I will likely just install windows XP on anyways. ) and does not detect the external drive as a possible selection ? Seems kind of odd since my external drive is the only one that I can mount and explore files on.
My questions are these:
1. Do I need to do something with sdb1 with Gparted ? All of the data on this external is backed up on a different drive, so I do not mind if it gets deleted. The only option I get ( as in, not disabled ) for sdb1 is "create partition table". Do I need to do something here ?
and
2. I tried this before with a different problem, namely Grub error 21. What can I do to prevent Grub from trying to default install to the main ( internal ) HD and instead pointing to sdb1 ? I really don't want to go through fixing Grub errors again, and would like Grub to just point to the external right away. ( Btw, the name for this external HD is "OMEGA_ZEN" )