StephenBartlett
October 26th, 2009, 11:28 PM
I have an <very> old laptop without a floppy or cd. It's HDD died, so I got a new one (blank - 2.5" ATA) and want to install Ubuntu.
<It has a network card, but it doesn't support PXE).
I took the HDD out of the laptop, and connected it to my desktop which is currently running XP (with Ubuntu 9.04 in a VM :-) ), via a USB->ATA/IDE HDD enclosure box. I can see the laptop HDD fine under Windows, and can create partitions, format, etc..... Call it drive L.
Now - what I want to do is make the laptop's HDD (drive L) bootable, and install Ubuntu, from within my Desktop's Windows. Then I'll take the laptop's HDD it back to the laptop, and voila - Ubuntu - right !?
I would normally forget Windows altogether, remove the Windows HDDs from my Desktop, boot right into a Ubuntu CD, and install Ubuntu on the L: drive, **but the Ubuntu install does not properly recognise the USB conncted drive**. It sees it, partitions it, but always quits after about 30%.
So - again - what I want to do is make the laptop's HDD (drive L) bootable, and install Ubuntu on it, from within Windows.
Is there a way to do what I am trying to do - especially without screwing up my exisitng MBR on my C drive ?
First post. Thanks all.
<It has a network card, but it doesn't support PXE).
I took the HDD out of the laptop, and connected it to my desktop which is currently running XP (with Ubuntu 9.04 in a VM :-) ), via a USB->ATA/IDE HDD enclosure box. I can see the laptop HDD fine under Windows, and can create partitions, format, etc..... Call it drive L.
Now - what I want to do is make the laptop's HDD (drive L) bootable, and install Ubuntu, from within my Desktop's Windows. Then I'll take the laptop's HDD it back to the laptop, and voila - Ubuntu - right !?
I would normally forget Windows altogether, remove the Windows HDDs from my Desktop, boot right into a Ubuntu CD, and install Ubuntu on the L: drive, **but the Ubuntu install does not properly recognise the USB conncted drive**. It sees it, partitions it, but always quits after about 30%.
So - again - what I want to do is make the laptop's HDD (drive L) bootable, and install Ubuntu on it, from within Windows.
Is there a way to do what I am trying to do - especially without screwing up my exisitng MBR on my C drive ?
First post. Thanks all.