I'm trying to install fedora core 5 on my 300g seagate usb hard drive, I have the cd iso's but the only problem I'm having is during the installation. when i boot from the cd, everything works properly except the fact that its trying to install on my laptops hard drive. I've read a lot of articles but they haven't seem to help my understanding or give alternatives such as live cds. how do i get the option to install fedora to my usb drive?

i'm not to familiar with fedora, but you should be able to manually select the drive. I'm pretty sure fedora loads usb drivers from the cd, try mounting /dev/sda1 that will tell you if it is detected.

are daemons good?

when i boot up from the installation cd at the bottom and where it says boot:/ is that where i'm suppose to type it in?

try it at that point

no that didn't work. i don't know what to do now... any suggestions?

If you select expert mode you will be able to install to the USB drive.
However, you need to create a new inital ramdisk to include USB modules before you can boot.

http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/lin...isk-drive.html

how can i create an initial ramdisk to include usb modules before i boot?

Did you read the link? Use the install CD and boot using rescue mode.

where can i download grub free? and which version is best?

No need to download grub since it is already included with Fedora.
Or maybe I do not understand the question.

o i didn't know that. on the link it says to "make sure that grub is installed to the boot sector of the USB drive. " and following that it gives some steps. are those step explaining how to do this?

i'm sorry mike but i don't understand what he's talking about. i don't understand the steps he's taking. i'm not sure how to mount it and change the root.

During the install process you will have a choice on the location for grub. Be sure to select the USB drive. After the initial install process you will reboot the computer with the 1st install disk and select rescue mode. The / partition will be mounted at /mnt/sysimage. So once the system is rebooted:
1. chroot /mnt/sysimage
2. mkinitrd .... per the link
3. mount your /boot if it is on a seperate partition and copy the new image to the directory.
4. Edit /etc/grub.conf to modify the initrd line for the new image (Use vi text editor since you will be in console text mode only)
5. Reboot the PC and hopefully it boots from the USB drive.

one last question and i'll leave you alone... uhm how do i know if grub has been installed? when i boot up with the installation disk it gives me the boot command prompt and a few options, and if i don't have grub installed how can i install it?

ps i know i'm being a lil troublesome. lol

No worries, your not being troublesome....
To install grub to the MBR of the USB drive.
1. Boot 1st install CD and select rescue
2. Enter the commands:
chroot /mnt/sysimage
grub-install /dev/sda (assuming this is the only scsi type drive. SATA drives are also have SCSI devices IDs so verify before entering command)