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Install to and booting from an external HD...

fireflyte

Thu Apr 13, 2017 4:03:42 pm

Hi,
I am enjoying having Zorin 9 on my little college laptop but I thought it might be fun to use the newest version on my bigger, more powerful home laptop.
Thing is, it's got Windows 7 on it and came with no installation disc so I can't afford to remove that or attempted a multi-boot.
So I thought a solution would be to install the newest Zorin on an external USB Hard Drive. (Not a flash-drive/SD but an actual HD).
When I want to boot to Zorin, simply, connect the external HD and when I want to boot to Windows, just, disconnect the external and boot as normal.
Seemed straight forward enough..
So I removed the internal drive (temporarily for safety) and installed Zorin from the DVD drive onto the external drive which seemed to go OK.
I made sure the BIOS was set to boot from the external drive but when I tried to boot it failed. I was just left with a black screen with a flashing cursor.
Can anyone help, please?

Swarfendor437

Thu Apr 13, 2017 7:37:45 pm

Hi, this article should help (but you don't need that many partitions!):

http://www.ubuntubuzz.com/2016/03/how-t ... xerus.html

and crucially the article linked to the above:

http://www.ubuntubuzz.com/2016/03/booti ... rompt.html

fireflyte

Mon Apr 17, 2017 5:36:54 pm

I followed the instructions in the first link... more than one attempt.
On rebooting after the installation finishes I still just get a blank screen and no activity.

Swarfendor437

Mon Apr 17, 2017 10:37:46 pm

fireflyte

Tue Apr 18, 2017 12:08:42 am

Same results. Installation seems to go OK, the machine tries to boot from the external drive, (which seems to contain all necessary partitions and OS files), but gets just past the BIOS screen then stops at a completely black screen. No activity. No Grub loader or prompt. Nothing.

Swarfendor437

Tue Apr 18, 2017 12:38:55 pm

OK, should have asked in the first place - what brand of external drive is it? Seagate is non-GNU/Linux friendly! ;) :D