Boot from USB external drive, from laptop without USB boot support.
 

Hi!

I would need to install linux (preferably Debian) in a partition of my external USB disk. But my laptop doesn't support USB boot. I have been reading through several forums and it seems that my system could start in a two-phases boot.

In order to do that, I would have to build a ramdisk and a kernel with USB support, burn it in a CD, boot from the CD and wait until the USB is recognised. After, the boot can continue in the external drive.

However, as I am a newbie this is really difficult to me. Moreover, to build the ramdisk I need exactly the same distro that I need to install which seems to me like a never-ending problem...

I was wondering if a better manual on this is available or if I can download a CD image of something similar so minor changes are only needed.

thanks.

First it would help if we knew a few specs on your laptop, such as (memory - cpu speed - hd size). Any way try a live cd version of the distribution of your choice. Once up and running you should be able to get your partition your external usb disk. I presume you are talking about a hard drive.

Darirod,

First thing you want to do is check for any updates on your BIOS that may include USB boot support. Alternately, I've heard something to the extent of booting from a Live CD and storing files on an external USB drive. However, I'm not sure if you can put an OS on there and have it work. Please let me know if you get it to work and how you did it.

Regards,

Brandon