hello all,

I plan to install Ubuntu Server version 7.04 on a new USB 120GB HDD I have purchased.

The laptop is a Toshiba Satellite A100 Dual Core. (Intel Centrino Duo)

Laptop currently is running Windows XP SP2, which I cannot touch or replace for work reasons. I wish to run Ubuntu entirely off the USB HDD.

Will this in anyway mess up my Windows installation ?
I need to to be able to boot into XP normally when the USB HDD is not attached. However, when the USB HDD is attached, I want Grub to come up and and let me choose which OS i wish to load.

I have searched these threads and come across a few examples with problems in the above setup. Would appreciate if I could get guidance towards achieving my installation objective.

Thanks and regards.

It should be possible. Before trying to get GRUB to work I would suggest to being able to boot linux from USB, as by accident it may be possible to mess with the windows installation when trying to get GRUB to work.

When booting from the bios menu select boot USB or HDD let that decide what to boot windows or Linux. (on dell its usually pressing F12 a boot menu pops up).

To my knowledge this shouldn't mess up your windows installation provided /dev/hd* is not touched.

I have no experience on booting linux from USB though.

Thanks Four,

I have noted your concerns. I will experiment some more on a spare machine with respect to insstalling on the USB, before I play with my regular laptop. I wish to get the bare minimum hand-on experience on this before I put Linux on my laptop.

Accordingly, I have installed Ubuntu on my desktop (couple of years old, but still fairly powerful). I intend to dirty my hands as much as I can, want and need to on this machine before I put Linux on my laptop.

Once again, thanks for your response and your time.

Regards.