evyxmsj
June 6th, 2009, 03:22 PM
Hello everyone,
I realise that there have been innumerable posts on this subject, but I find myself turning in circles. I'd really appreciate it if someone could address my problem specifically...especially as I am a complete novice when it comes to Linux/Ubuntu. So:
What I want to do
I want to use an external (USB) freecom hard drive as a portable OS. I would like to perform a full installation of the latest Ubuntu version onto the hard drive. So this is not dual booting.
Preferably, I would like to create a partition on the drive with FAT32 formatting, in order to allow simple transfer of data.
What I have
- My main computer is an Advent 4211 netbook that can boot from USB.
- Freecom HDD (I can get the full info if needed).
- Ubuntu Live CD
What I've tried
First Attempt: My netbook doesn't have a cd drive, so the simplest option for me was to aquisition a friend's computer and disconnect the internal SATA hard drive. I then booted from the CD, with the USB hard drive plugged in. I followed the Ubuntu install wizard with manual partitioning:
- primary partition "/" ext4 - 30 GB
- logical partition swap - 3 MB
- primary partition "/store" FAT32 - 217 GB
- Boot loader set to sd0 (or hd0, I can't remember)
Result: failure to create vfat partition. At this point I figured I'd skip the FAT32 idea, and stick with ext4 (I also tried ext3). It seems I can create a vfat partition later within ubuntu.
Second attempt: I started again with the above options, but changed the partition "/store" to ext4.
Result: installation finished, but restart resulted in Grub error 18.
A little research led me to believe that it might be a problem with BIOS. Suggested options included changing BIOS hard disk options from LBA or Auto, to Normal. For some reason, I don't have this option (and does it even apply to USB drives?). So I followed another suggestion: I created a seperate, smaller partition for booting:
Third attempt:
- primary partition "/boot" ext4 - 5 MB
- primary partition "/" ext4 - 30 GB
- logical partition swap - 3 MB
- primary partition "/store" ext4 - 212 GB
- Boot loader set to sd0,0 (ie the /boot partition, not sd0)
I must admit that the last setting was just a guess as I couldn't find any advice.
Result: installation finished, but the restart resulted in Grub error 22.
I am at my wits' end! Can anyone help me? Please bear in mind that I am a complete beginner when it comes to linux.
I realise that there have been innumerable posts on this subject, but I find myself turning in circles. I'd really appreciate it if someone could address my problem specifically...especially as I am a complete novice when it comes to Linux/Ubuntu. So:
What I want to do
I want to use an external (USB) freecom hard drive as a portable OS. I would like to perform a full installation of the latest Ubuntu version onto the hard drive. So this is not dual booting.
Preferably, I would like to create a partition on the drive with FAT32 formatting, in order to allow simple transfer of data.
What I have
- My main computer is an Advent 4211 netbook that can boot from USB.
- Freecom HDD (I can get the full info if needed).
- Ubuntu Live CD
What I've tried
First Attempt: My netbook doesn't have a cd drive, so the simplest option for me was to aquisition a friend's computer and disconnect the internal SATA hard drive. I then booted from the CD, with the USB hard drive plugged in. I followed the Ubuntu install wizard with manual partitioning:
- primary partition "/" ext4 - 30 GB
- logical partition swap - 3 MB
- primary partition "/store" FAT32 - 217 GB
- Boot loader set to sd0 (or hd0, I can't remember)
Result: failure to create vfat partition. At this point I figured I'd skip the FAT32 idea, and stick with ext4 (I also tried ext3). It seems I can create a vfat partition later within ubuntu.
Second attempt: I started again with the above options, but changed the partition "/store" to ext4.
Result: installation finished, but restart resulted in Grub error 18.
A little research led me to believe that it might be a problem with BIOS. Suggested options included changing BIOS hard disk options from LBA or Auto, to Normal. For some reason, I don't have this option (and does it even apply to USB drives?). So I followed another suggestion: I created a seperate, smaller partition for booting:
Third attempt:
- primary partition "/boot" ext4 - 5 MB
- primary partition "/" ext4 - 30 GB
- logical partition swap - 3 MB
- primary partition "/store" ext4 - 212 GB
- Boot loader set to sd0,0 (ie the /boot partition, not sd0)
I must admit that the last setting was just a guess as I couldn't find any advice.
Result: installation finished, but the restart resulted in Grub error 22.
I am at my wits' end! Can anyone help me? Please bear in mind that I am a complete beginner when it comes to linux.