Installing to an external HDD for notebook
 

Hello all, first post here.

I have a laptop that has some issues with the hardware. I can not get the dvd drive to recognize, nor can I get a usb stick to boot on startup despite setting the bios to do so. It's an averatec 3200 and it supports booting from usb.

I have removed the HDD and put it in an IDE external case and formatted it with my macbook as FAT32 for now. I'd really like to install linux (linux mint 9 xfce or other) to the external HDD, then put it back into the laptop.

When I searched the forums and google, external hard drive installs center around either usb sticks (which I can't use) or installing to an external HDD for portability. I want to be able to install from a second laptop (I have both PC and mac available), remove the drive and install into the laptop the drive came from and finish the setup.

I can not use a live CD or USB to do this because the CD drive is not working and I have yet to get a usb stick to boot (it goes straight to the HDD even though I changed the order in bios).

If there is a tutorial out there please let me know.

Thanks a bunch!
GC

Is this what you are looking for? - http://www.pendrivelinux.com/ubuntu-...drive-install/

Will this method mess up the MBR of the laptop used to install? Sounds like it will as they suggest removing the HDD from the installing laptop which I'd like to avoid. Remember, I'd like to take the external HDD and install it to ANOTHER laptop. I do not want to mess with the OS of the installing laptop (and risk having several laptops unbootable).

On that page it does reference installing WUBI to a secondary computer then moving it to a usb drive, then deleting the wubi install from the installing computer. This sounds like creating a live cd linux on a usb hdd which I'm fine with if it works.