installing linux

AnonymousMike

So i went to unbuntu and follwed their instructions on making a usb flash drive except i used an externalhard drive and when i restart my computer and change my boot to usb the screen just goes black and doesnt doing anything. what am i doing wrong? I have a toshiba netbook and a seagate 500gb external harddrive.

Goineasy9

First, a usb flash drive is not an external usb hard disk. The setup required is different. The instructions on this link are old, but, step 5 is the important part. I have not installed Ubuntu on an external drive, so, I can't verify whether it works or not, but, it looks like the method is the proper one.
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/installing-ubuntu-to-a-usb-hard-drive/

Just remember that Ubuntu uses Grub2 now, but, that should not matter if your not installing grub to the mbr.

AnonymousMike

what is grub2
i have no experience with linux im just interested in trying it out

mfillpot

grub2 is a newer bootloader than can be difficult for new users to configure.

AnonymousMike

It says that i need to disconnect my internal hard drive how do i do that?
It says to burn to a cd but i have a netbook and it doesnt have a disk drive.