Putting Linux On A Usb Hardrive

[mattmagoo]

I might be buying an external USB hardrive (80gb) for my laptop (only 40gb) and was wondering if i could get linux onto it and boot into linux when the drive is plugged in

any help would be muc appreciated

 

[Titcher]

You could check by looking in your BIOS boot settings, if USB is in there, then it's possible.

 

[ratx]

If your laptop bios supports booting off USB Mass Storage devices then yes it will work. Otherwise nah

 

[Axeman]

There are quite a few Linux distros that support this. Pretty slow, but great for messing around/rescue OS etc.

 

[mattmagoo]

I can boot from USB

Axeman: will it just generally be slower to use because it is through USB

 

[iignotus]

Yes; USB is slow.

 

[Rico]

Even USB 2 is several times slower than your hard drive.

 

[Cyclops]

For fun, I'd go for linux on a pendrive. I run a gentoo from mine, which I update every so often, in case my computer goes down. For ease of use slax has a funky package for roll your own, although I've never used it.

Although in the current climate, and with the price of hardrives. I would suggest swapping out the 40GB hard-drive for the best-price-per-GB hard drive, and just buy an external adapter. The just partition however you like. Seriously its a better option, newer hardrives are faster!! even if you bought your laptop only weeks ago.

ie remove 40GB from your machine but new big disk in machine!

 

[loz_the_guru]

err which is better firewire or usb2?

 

[Cyclops]

Firewire is better, get USB2

 

[loz_the_guru]

Huh?

 

[Cyclops]

Firewire is better, better connector, faster. There just is a lot more USB2 about, so will work in more places, and probably will be a standard for longer ,your more likely to get it cheaper, powered hubs etc etc.

Firewire better technology, USB2 better for well everything else.