SolarLune
Mon Feb 17, 2014 5:09:51 am
Hello. I'm a wannabe indie game developer named SolarLune, and I wanted to share that I made a tutorial for installing Linux onto an external hard drive via Virtualbox, and the OS I used for this is Zorin. I'm a real noob to this kind of thing, so I'm sure there's tons of missing or wrong info, but I liked the idea of installing Linux onto an external drive using Virtualbox. Why?
Well, it's a bit safer, as you don't really have to back up your data. Because you're installing data straight from Virtualbox onto an external HDD, there should be no risk of data loss (except on the external HDD). Also, there's no need to burn a live CD or DVD, or make a live USB key. You also don't have to worry about the transfer process there messing up the ISO (i.e. that there was a problem in burning the ISO to a CD, and so you'll have to reburn it).
There are down-sides, too; mainly that running through Virtualbox will be slower than installing "natively", so installing the OS will probably take significantly longer (though not too long). When I tried, it took around 35-40 minutes to install Zorin OS, which wasn't bad. Another downside is that running an OS off of a USB drive will almost certainly transfer slower than from an internal drive, which isn't great. However, even USB2 transfer speeds aren't too bad. 50mb/sec is probably alright for most non-intensive uses. I think USB3's around 500mb/s, which probably would be just fine for almost everyone. It takes around 1 minute to boot from a reset into Zorin, so it's probably around 30 seconds from the blue Zorin OS select screen into the actual desktop.
Anyway, the video can be found on my YouTube channel here. Thanks!
Well, it's a bit safer, as you don't really have to back up your data. Because you're installing data straight from Virtualbox onto an external HDD, there should be no risk of data loss (except on the external HDD). Also, there's no need to burn a live CD or DVD, or make a live USB key. You also don't have to worry about the transfer process there messing up the ISO (i.e. that there was a problem in burning the ISO to a CD, and so you'll have to reburn it).
There are down-sides, too; mainly that running through Virtualbox will be slower than installing "natively", so installing the OS will probably take significantly longer (though not too long). When I tried, it took around 35-40 minutes to install Zorin OS, which wasn't bad. Another downside is that running an OS off of a USB drive will almost certainly transfer slower than from an internal drive, which isn't great. However, even USB2 transfer speeds aren't too bad. 50mb/sec is probably alright for most non-intensive uses. I think USB3's around 500mb/s, which probably would be just fine for almost everyone. It takes around 1 minute to boot from a reset into Zorin, so it's probably around 30 seconds from the blue Zorin OS select screen into the actual desktop.
Anyway, the video can be found on my YouTube channel here. Thanks!
