Linux (need help)

is there a way i can install Linux on my external harddrive?

my external harddrive

www.trustedreviews.com...


i have stuff already on the drive that i dont want to lose.
is there a way i can do this so at boot i can choose between Vista and Linux?

Have Vista on my normal harddrive and Linux on the external

Yes, it can be done, but your pc bios will need to be capable of booting to USB.

Older pc's don't have that bios option.

reply to post by makeitso


mines not USB
its eSata (i installed a eSata PCI cardaswell)

I've never tried it but... Linux latest distro's are reported to support eSATA.

I've read the pc's that have a build in eSATA port see the eSATA drive as a standard SATA drive in the bios, and are bootable.

I've also found some bootable PCI cards for eSATA. So I guess it will depend on your mobo/bios, and the PCI card.

When you boot does the bios see the eSATA drive? If it does, moving it up in the selection list should make it available as the first boot drive.

I've also read a lot of complaints about Seagate not supporting Linux anymore. They say this model has a function that puts it to sleep after 15 minutes and Linux can't handle it. But thats for a USB connection, so hopefully it won't affect a PCI connection?

Someone more familiar with Linux will have to walk you thru the install, and if you need a boot loader or not. Sorry.

Best of Luck

reply to post by makeitso


thanks
i installed a Esatata card in my PC so
its got two Esata connections from behind.

havent checked the boot yet

Originally posted by makeitso
I've also read a lot of complaints about Seagate not supporting Linux anymore. They say this model has a function that puts it to sleep after 15 minutes and Linux can't handle it. But thats for a USB connection, so hopefully it won't affect a PCI connection?

That's lame. But you could set a cron job to touch something every few minutes as a keepalive.