linux mint on external harddrive

[misswham]

I would like to put linux mint on my external harrdrive. Does the harddrive have to be blank and is there an easy way to do it?

[Ozymandias_117]

Question 1.
You should be able to install it the same as if it was an internal, just boot to your live cd, and when it asks where to install it, select the drive you want instead of your internal.

Question 2.
It doesn't HAVE to be empty, but if it isn't, the drive will have to have it's current partition shrunk, and a new one made for mint. I haven't installed mint, but I assume it's all done automatically same as in Ubuntu.

Edit: Changing the partition can, in some cases, corrupt data that is on the drive. Make sure you back up important files before doing this.