need help installing to external drive

I'm trying to install Zorin 7.1 via DVD to a 3.0 USB external mechanical hard drive. I'm getting the message at the end of installation that it cannot install Grub to dev/sda which is my laptops internal hard drive. I try to re-select the same option to try and instal Grub to dev/sda again, and hit O.k. - instead of trying to install grub again the installer immediately says the installation is finished installing the OS and asks me to reboot.

Of course, the entry for this copy of Zorin 7 does not make it into the grub already installed on my internal drive so i cannot boot into it. ( i already have Zorin and other OS's dual booting with Windows on my internal drive.)

I need a solution.. I'm sure I'm just mucking things up LOL This Zorin BTW will install into a partition on the external drive as most of that drive is used for storage. It's a 100 gb partition.

What am I doing wrong? Thanks..

My suggestion is to install grub on the external hard drive. This way you will be presented with the grub menu only when your external is plugged in, and your main HDD (sda) will not be affected.

To do that, when you start the installation of Zorin and you get to the options screen on how to install (i.e. wipe the drive, install in parallel with another OS or "something else"), chose the 3rd option - "something else".
Scroll down and you will see that the is a drop down menu that lets you chose where to install grub. Choose the external drive i.e. sdb or whatever is your external. Do not chose the partition (i.e. sdb1) but the whole drive (i.e. sdb).
Then click "back" to get back on the options screen and this time chose your external's partition that you want to install the OS.
By doing this trick, the system keeps in memory where you want to install the grub. It is a little trick I found.

Interesting.. Thank you, I was thinking that installing grub onto the external might work but never tried it.. Thanks for the trick. I'll report back if I have problems.

I tried to install the bootloader onto the My Book drive and when installing grub I got the same error. that it cannot install grub to dev/sdb and that it is a fatal error.

Any ideas?

Hi, madvinegar's trick should work - did you follow his instructions to the letter? Normally you can't install to any drive if it is 'mounted' which I am guessing is why you are getting that error.

Another solution might be to look at disconnecting your PC's hard drive and just have the usb drive connected and boot from DVD - NO GUARANTEES!

I couldn't follow madvinegar's trick to the letter because I do not see the options he mentions for installing "grub" to another location. If I load directly into the installer without loading the Live system which is how I always install a distro, I do see the drop down box to change the location of the "bootloader" but it's on the same initial screen where you choose your partition; there is no other area to choose where to install grub that has a Back button.. if from here I had a back button.. it would put me back at the Welcome screen which ask me to choose a language.( I always choose Something Else)

I also tried this after booting the live system fully then choosing the installer. I did unmount any partitions the installer sees. I do not get the option to unmount these partitions from the installer when loaded from " load installer directly" - It Only shows up after loading the full live system.

Another thing, is I've never tried to install to a drive before that does not have a copy of windows installed - there is no active or boot partition on this external drive. I thought this might be my problem so i tried to install as this video suggests and it didn't work either.. still Grub fails to install to dev/sdb http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDM2LqFoHv4 the video has you create a /boot area which I tried but it didn't help. they have you create

The Partitions You Have To Create are:
A 500 MB partition mounted as /boot
Your choice sized partition for Ubuntu and files mounted as /
And a 4 GB partition used as swap space

( I created these partitions with Mini Tools Partition Wizard in Windows, I do not use Gparted unless I'm using it from a live installer. I'm more comfortable creating these partitions in windows first then simply choosing them in the Linux installer.)

Here is a screenshot of my partitions ( the external is Disk 2) http://img706.imageshack.us/img706/8991/h1ts.png
I told the installer to use the 99 gig as /Root to install the Zorin to. My Swap should be 5 gigs not 47 but i'll fix that later as this is a test to be sure i can get all this working.. it can stay like it is for now, it was just a typo when setting up the swap. I still told the installer to install the bootloader on My Book dev/sdb - which is my The Tardis NTFS partition. I did not point the bootloader to the 500 MB /Boot area.. don't know if I could or should.

The 2.6 Terabyte NTFS partition you see is backup storage space for windows and Linux . If I can get this working, I plan to have Zorin on one 100 gig partition and create two other blank 100 gig partitions so I can install other distros to those in the future.

I didn't try disconnecting my internal drive - perhaps I may need to do this for installation, but it's not practical to disconnect that drive every time I want to boot from the external drive. I do know my computer will boot from a USB flash drive with an OS installed on it - this will be the first time I've tried to install an OS to a USB 3.0 mechanical drive - still even if my PC refuses to boot it.. that should not effect if Grub installs or not.

I CAN move the 80 gigs of PC data I have from The Tardis ( My Book's volume name) to my internal hard drive then copy it back later if i need to re-formatt the drive and start from scratch.

I feel like I'm missing something simple and just don't know what it is.

OK, the first giveaway on your screenshot is that you are using Windows 8/8.1 - I know because of the size of that Reserved area size (in 7 it is only 100 Mb not 350 Mb). If you have UEFI running at boot time you won't be able to boot into Zorin period. It would be great if there was a utility to start at boot time to switch off UEFI without having to go to BIOS setup screens on each boot (I don't have that issue as I have a pre-UEFI BIOS Board. In the old days I would put 'linux swap'/'swap area' between windows and the GNU/Linux install but the modern way that GNU/Linux does this is a bit like the old 386.swp file that Windows would put at the end of a drive. On installing without UEFI on a same drive you would have:

30 Gb '/' root - Primary.
Create Extended partition and put at end FIRST - linux swap - 4 Gb
Remainder of Extended Partition - '/home'

As you have Windows 8 this could be the issue - but please feel free to correct me - I know about the 350 Mb reserve as have been playing with Windows 8.1 preview.

The easiest is to run it under VMware Player from an external drive. Install it first on your Win 8.1 host and then move the VMware folder to the external drive. Here is how:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/27 ... zorin.html

Swarfendor437

Nope.. UEFI isn't the problem. I have both UEFI and Secure Boot permanently disabled and I'm using legacy Bios. It's a straight Windows 8 Core not 8.1 (which I'd never install, I have no use for 8,1 features)

I'll have to keep trying to install it somehow till it works. Anything else you can think of?

WHS, I recognize you from the Seven/Eight Forums.. I've spoken to you before I'm sure. I prefer not use the OS in a virtual environment, This is supposed to be a permanent install and I'll need the power of a full install.

Hi ElectricRider, thanks for the clarity. OK is your PC a desktop or Laptop? I still think that if you put 'swap' at the start of the drive you are asking for problems. Just like Windows, GNU/Linux Root needs to be near the start - swap should be at the end and even though you made a typo of 47 Gb that is going to cause some issues. Is there any way to disable the main machines hard drive from BIOS and then boot off the DVD with the USB drive plugged in?

WHS, I recognize you from the Seven/Eight Forums.. I've spoken to you before I'm sure. I prefer not use the OS in a virtual environment, This is supposed to be a permanent install and I'll need the power of a full install.

It is just another option and it gets you away from any conflics with the grub and UEFI or secure boot. I like it. But that does not mean that one size fits all.

I asked in the WD forums and found out it's the hard drives fault because it uses GPT instead of a normal MBR.. ( i asked if it were a possible a hard drive jumper setting may be keeping me from booting) here is the quote Thought i'd post this for other WD My Book owners.

Your main problem here is MBR since WD drives above 2TB need, use, and come with GPT and not MBR. Formatting the drive and the file system won't change that.

You need to zero out the unit to destroy the core partition table, and initialize the drive as MBR instead of GPT but if you do that the drive will either show 2TB or 700GB with no way around it since the sectors and discs were made expecting GPT.

Also, if you take the drive off the case it'll stop working forever because of the encryptio, which is always active.

http://community.wd.com/t5/External-Dri ... 295#M19792

My only choice it seems is to take back this Western Digital and get an external that doesn't use GPT.

Edit: Scratch that last statement. I just found out it's a limitation of the Legacy Bios MBR

Most legacy systems built before 2011 have a traditional PC BIOS. This type of BIOS uses a Master Boot Record (MBR). The MBR Partitions can define a disk drive capacity up to 2.2TB. Windows operating systems that boot from an MBR are therefore limited to 2.2TB per MBR.

http://knowledge.seagate.com/articles/e ... Q/218619en

So the trick is not another brand of 3 TB external drive of another brand, I'd have to get at most a 2 TB drive. It won't need to use GPT.

So remember folks.. No 3 TB externals will Ever work to install Linux onto

(except perhaps unless your using UEFI instead of legacy Bios - which I haven't tried cus UEFI doesn't play well with most Linux distros.)

Edit 2 : I just looked over this thread and notice I hadn't before told you guys it was a 3 TB external drive. If I had mentioned that, you guys might have told me what i needed to know - sorry, i had no idea at the time the size of the drive could effect the problem.

Yeah, drives beyond 2TB are a pain. Get a smaller drive or install in virtual. This may give you some ideas.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/27 ... zorin.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Cy-RESNhOI

Note: for some reason my YouTube video starts in the middle. Just stop it and set it to the beginning. Then start again.

My system now is set up to use Legacy Bios Mode. I plan to finish backing up my current system and re-enabling UEFI and secure boot for my next install. I'll then try installing Zorin 7 to the 3 TB external as Zorin 7 does support UEFI. This should work fine though I'd still have to get another drive for any Linux distros that do not support UEFI.

I'll report back how well this works when I'm ready to try it.

ElectricRider wrote:My system now is set up to use Legacy Bios Mode. I plan to finish backing up my current system and re-enabling UEFI and secure boot for my next install. I'll then try installing Zorin 7 to the 3 TB external as Zorin 7 does support UEFI. This should work fine though I'd still have to get another drive for any Linux distros that do not support UEFI.

I'll report back how well this works when I'm ready to try it.

Curious about your statement that 7 supports UEFI - there is (AFAIK) no EFI file present, unlike Ubuntu which has its own 'shim' EFI file.