How to install Linux on an external hard drive correctly, easily and quickly? step by step guide

There are few reasons why it is necessary to have an operating system on an external drive, one of them is to save space on your computer and to work with two operating systems at the same time. It turns out that this is a simple process to accomplish.

Before doing such an installation, You should first consider some aspects such as the quality of the hard drive and the type of distribution that will work best on a removable device.

In this article you will have at hand everything you need to know to make a clean and safe installation. In addition, you will have a step by step so that the installation does not become a disaster. Finally, we will help you select the best distribution if you need to do this step.

What are the benefits of installing Linux on an external hard drive?

As we mentioned, there are few reasons why you need to have an operating system on an external device.

But, when the need is pressing, you must be clear about the reasons for doing it:

• Take your Linux wherever you want. If you usually work from one place to another, this is a possibility to have your operating system and place it on any PC.
• Work with two OS at the same time. Generally, it is the programmers who want to need to have two working environments when testing hardware and software.
• Only a computer is required. By using an external hard drive or pen drive, two computers are not required to work with two OS and put aside the need to restart the machine every so often to move from one environment to another.
• You need a controlled environment. There are markets such as public and private banking that need to have a good protection of their information and the use of an external disk guarantees data protection in part.
• There are no limitations on functions. When you install an operating system on an external drive, this is done completely, with no limitations on functions once the drive is connected to a computer via USB connection.

If you are an end userthat is, you work at home with office tasks, opting for this option is not convenient because not everything is rosy. When the external disk or pen drive suffers a failure, all the information stored on the device is compromised. In conclusion, it is not a path that you should take in the medium or long term, you must be clear about what your primary needs are.

What should we take into account when choosing the ideal distribution to install on our external hard drive?

Before choosing a Linux distributionyou should know that any of them can be installed on a removable diskbut few can really work 100% when you want to work on a computer via USB cable.

There are some considerations that must be taken into account if you want to do this process successfully:

• Choose lite versions: there are operating systems with less features that require fewer physical resources, including the storage capacity of the machine, in this case, the removable disk.
• Select 32 Bit versions: it is only a recommendation, you already know that the 64-bit versions are more demanding in terms of storage and bit transfer rates.
• Look for OS specially designed for this purpose: there are options like Slax and Elementary OS that will have no problem being installed or running on a hard drive or flash drive. You just have to be clear about the purpose and the reasons why this installation is required.
• That the operating system is not so heavy: Debian is unlikely to be able to run smoothly from an external drive, it requires larger storage capacity and fast flash drive when transferring large files back and forth.

Learn step by step how to install Linux on an external hard drive without errors quickly

To do the Linux installation correctly, we will do it in this step by step with the Lubuntu distribution do you know her Lubuntu is part of the Ubuntu family, which is a lightweight operating system that does not require many physical resources and meets the needs of people who need to do office tasks. It has been available since 2008, but the best features were revealed in 2011.

Now that you know the operating system you are going to have, it is time to start the installation:

Before starting

As long as go start a new installyou must have on hand all the resources required so that there are no errors and you can use the operating system for your purposes.

In this case, the following resources are required:

• A portable hard drive of at least 512Mb. Failing that, a Micro SD card with an adapter or a class 10 pendrive, not least as a suggestion.
• The ISO of the distribution that you chose to install, in this case Lubuntu.
• A computer where you can do the formatting and installation of the portable device.
• patience and wisdom in case things go wrong and the installation is not successful.

Format the drive

For the purposes of this step by step, we are going to use the program SD Memory Card Formatter.

Download SD Memory Card Formatter

Next we follow the following steps:

• Install the app and run with administrator permission.
• Put the device on your PCso the program detects it automatically.
• Press “Refresh” if it doesn’t detect it.
• Press “Select card” to choose the memory to format.
• Select “FAT 32”.
• Press “Format” and wait for it to reach 100%.
• you can close now the formatting program.

Download the ISO

You can get the image of Lubuntu on its official website lubuntu.net/downloads/. You may download the 32 and 64 bit version. Keep the image in a place where you can easily find it on your computer.

Download Rufus

Be it a flash drive or a hard drive, we will always call this step the same way because it is a USB connection in general, even if the devices are different. To make a good installation, the Rufus program will be used, which has been assisting people who choose to have a bootable USB for several years with which they want to install a portable OS.

Let’s see the steps to follow:

• Go to the web of this program rufus.ie/es/.
• Search the section “Downloads”.

Download Rufus

• Choose the version of your preferencealthough the latest version will always be the best.
• Nope needed decompress.
• run the program with administrator permission.

Create bootable USB

Rufus does not require to be installedis one of those portable programs that are very useful and are safe for the integrity of the equipment.

The steps are very simple and works both with Lubuntu and with any other operating system, be it Linux or Windows:

• open the program and check that your portable device appears.
• Press “Select” to find the image.
• press the image (ISO) and hit “Open”.
• In the “Unit Property” there should be no warnings about the process you are performing.
• Remember that he “File System” must be on “FAT 32”.
• Now, press “Start”.
• Within a few seconds, there will be a warning message. press “Yes”.
• It is likely that in this step you see that there is a file updateallow it to finish.
• Then you will see a window asking if you want to “Write in ISO Image mode)”. press “OKAY”.
• There will be another warning window, it will tell you that everything on your drive will be erased. press “To accept”.
• Wait for the process to finish and you will have your unit ready to boot.

Perform the boot

Since you have the hard drive with the configured image, you must now allow the computer to start with the operating system that you have installed:

• Configure your BIOS what for boot from usb port.
• Turn on your PC and press the key “F8”. Although sometimes it can be “F1, F12, F9, F10, TAB or ESC”This will depend on the manufacturer.
• Select the USB drive which recognizes.
• Select the idiom.
• Then press “Start Lubuntu”.
• The installation wizard will appearfollow all the steps by pressing “Following”.
• When you get to the section “Partitions” you must be careful. press “Manual Partitioning”.
• In the section “Storage device”select your own external hard drive, flash drive or Micro SD.
• You will see only one partition, select “Erase”.
• You will see a window where you can select “FAT 32” in the part of “File System”. and in the section “Flags”Choose “Boot.”
• In total, four partitions must be created on your portable drive: a mount point “ephi”a mount point “/”a mount point swap and a mount point “/home”.
• press “To accept” in each of the partitions.
• There will be a new window to say to Rufus that the installation goes on the same hard disk where the previously created partitions are.
• press “Following”.
• Fill out a form with your data.
• Press “Install”.
• Read the latest instructions and now select “Install Now”.
• Wait for the process to finish and the boot is finished.

start linux

Now what you have your removable disk readyyou can start Lubuntu on any computer you want to work with. You don’t need to stay at the same workstation Where did you install for the first time?

Let’s see:

• With the PC turned offplug the portable drive into the USB port.
• turn on the PC.
• Enter BIOS with the key “F8”although they may be others.
• Select the USB drive you want to boot with and press “Enter”.
• You can choose in the GRUB the operating system you want, in this case Lubuntu.
• Your PC finally will boot with Linux Lubuntu.

As a last suggestion, if there have been problems booting Lubuntu on any machine, it is likely that there were problems passing the partitions. It is important that you pay attention to your selections at this stage of the installation to avoid headaches later.

These are the best and most useful Linux distributions to install on your external hard drive

In fact, Lubuntu is designed to be lightweight and handy if it is required to be a portable operating system. However, there are other options that you should know about and, for this reason, we leave you this list of the best alternatives.

Go for it:

KaliLinux

Kali Linux is a light version of a Debian-based distribution. It has a very closed niche because it was designed for the forensic area, in which tests and measurements are required with computer support. It has more than 300 solutions in terms of security and data analysis.

MXLinux

It is a distro created to revive very old computersthat they can still put up with a super light Linux version. It is based on AntiX and Mepis, which are open source. It serves as a laboratory base for beginning developers.

slax

This OS is considered as a pocket systemweighs a fraction of what any application of Windows Y macOS. It is open source and with a Debian kernel, it only requires a memory 256MB RAM. It is also available on 64-bit systems, but its forte is reviving 32-bit computers.

Peppermint OS

This is a Lubuntu’s younger brotherso it has almost the same qualities, but in this system everything is customizable, from settings to appearance. It has a mini Xfce panelone of the most popular Linux environments, due to its simplicity in the interface.

Ubuntu GamePack

It serves as a video game transport platform, with a package of more than 28 thousand games available and they all fit in a single portable device, although it is better if it is 1 Tb, due to the amount of temporary files and options that this operating system demands.

Porteus

It has the LXDE desktopwhich creates modular systems for 32-bit and 64-bit systems. It weighs only 300 Mb, making it one of the least heavy operating systems in the entire Linux environment. The best thing about it is that it has a large number of developers feeding its app bundle data to keep it attractive among the competition.