[vox-tech] LINUX installation question windows Vista

[Chanoch (Ken) Bloom]

On Wed, 2010-02-10 at 13:09 -0800, Eric Lin wrote:
> On Wed, Feb 10, 2010 at 12:55:19PM -0800, Jason Snyder wrote:
> > how do you set up the external hard drive so that I can boot from it?
> 
> You connect the drive, pull up the bios boot order menu or enter bios
> setup, and change it to boot from USB. Make USB the first option in the
> boot order if you're using bios setup.
> 
> On my Dell, temporarily choosing the boot device is done by holding down
> F12 after turning on the computer. To change the boot order, I hold down
> F2, enter BIOS setup, and change the boot order.
> 
> Note that the computer won't actually boot from the USB device until you
> install an OS on it.
> 
> -Eric

You would need to put the CD Drive first (or have a USB thumb drive with
the installer on it), the USB drive second, and your hard drive third.

When you got to the appropriate place in the installer, you would be
sure to select to partition the USB hard drive and install Linux there. 

      * For Ubuntu, see
        http://help.ubuntu.com/community/GraphicalInstall step 8 that
        there will be a radio button for each disk that you can install
        on to -- you'll want to chose the one that says USB, and is the
        right size.

You'll will want to keep the boot order you set in the BIOS permenantly
(don't go into the BIOS setup to change it back) otherwise the computer
will want to boot Windows first and won't look for Linux.

With this setup, the computer will boot Linux whenever the drive is
plugged in (the boot menu may give you an option to boot Windows), and
it will go directly to Windows when the drive is not plugged in.

--Ken