external hard drive partition

[daniel_g]

I have read in several places that it's possible to partition an external Hard Drive and install Linux on it. Is that true?

If so, I would like to do it, but I have never done anything like that before, so here go my questions:

1- How do I partition an external Hard Drive? (A link or instructions will be fine).

2- I would like to make 3 parts on the HD:
a) Store personal files (password protect it: will do this on my own)
b) Files that anyone can access(would it be possible to access from both linux and windows?)
c) Linux(may need advice later on this)

3- If I have Linux installed on the external HD, how would I accomplish dual booting? Somewhere I read that because it's 2 different drives, I wouldn't be able to "dual boot", but I could still choose from the BIOS where to boot from.
If going to the BIOS everytime I wanted to change OS could be avoided, please tell me how.

Any, and I trully mean any, help will be greatly appreciated.

EDIT: One more question:
Is it actually possible to password protect Linux? If so, how secure would that be? That way I could avoid creating a new partition for secure data, and just put it on Linux right?

[rafiki]

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,73826-page,1/article.html how to partition
http://www.linux.com/article.pl?sid=06/07/20/1654251 using both linux and windows on same machine

obviously not tried googling it :)

try google for anything else you need to know

[oracleguy]

I believe you can add a password in grub (a boot loader), I'm not sure if you can set it to apply to specific menu choices or not though.

You shouldn't need to change the boot order in the BIOS, if you install a boot loader, it should handle dual booting for you. Do you know what distro of linux you want to use? If so, there are probably specific instructions in regards to that distro on how to setup dual booting. The fact that one hard drive is external shouldn't be an issue.

[daniel_g]

I was looking at Mandriva or fedora, but I gotta make sure command line can easily be accessed from it.(EDIT: never mind this I just read it does)

I had also looked at the 2 links provided by rafiki, and also googled it. The problem is that pcworld is not using a freeware, and most freeware I found on google seems to only work on your main drive.
If really needed to, I would pay for software, but I would like to avoid it if possible.

The problem with the article on linux.com is that they assume you are using the same hard drive that you use for windows.

[oracleguy]

If you are using Windows 2000/XP you can right click on my computer and click 'manage' then click 'Disk Management' and you should be able to create the partitions on your external. For the linux space, you can partition it but just don't format it.

And for your partition anyone can access, it should be FAT32 so you can use it in Windows and Linux. However in XP Microsoft decided to abritrarily limit the ability of making FAT32 partitions larger than 32 or 37gb (its one of those). So if you want it larger, you'll have to format it as FAT32 under Linux.

[daniel_g]

I was actually going to use 100 Gig for personal use.
So basically you recomend installing Linux first and then partitioning it right?

If that's the case, then I will download Linux and attempt to install as soon as I get home.
Here's my plan:
1- Download the ISO images into a CD
2- Boot computer from CD
3- Install Linux on drive F. The CD should give me the option on where to install Linux right? I mean, I don't want it to install over drive C at all (maybe in the future).
4- Partition Drive F.
5- Download a boot manager?
I assume I could boot from the ext.HD by just plugging it in, and boot from windows by not plugging it in, when starting the computer. But hopefully a boot manager/loader will make life easier.

Do you guys see anything that I should be aware of before doing this?

[oracleguy]

Which distro are you gonna try out?

[daniel_g]

I'm inclining towards fedora, but I still have 3 hours before I get home, so feel free to suggest something better.

[oracleguy]

The reason I ask is you might want to search for some guides relating specifically with Fedora and dual booting for more guidance.

[daniel_g]

Well, I'm about to start downloading fedora.
The installation software actually comes with a disk partitioner called Disk Druid, so I guess that's what I'll be using.

I belive Grub will give a password for the boot loader, but not for the OS.
During installation, Fedora will ask for a System User Password. Is that safe enough to protect files? Or is it as vulnerable as XP user passwrods?

[daniel_g]

Ok, I'm in the process of downloading fedora, the DVD image.
Do I still need the rescue CD ISO?
What's the SHA1SUM thing?

I'm getting them from here:
ftp://ftp.tu-chemnitz.de/pub/linux/fedora-core/5/i386//iso/

3 hours to go :( wont be awake by the time it finishes

[_Aerospace_Eng_]

You should probably switch steps 4 and 3. I mean you can install linux first but what are you going to install it it? Linux will try using the whole external drive and will reformat it. Partitioning will allow you to have an empty "drive" you can install linux to. There are some other tools that allow you to partition a drive. I use Partition Magic but there might be others not sure. That SHA1SUM thing is there just in case you want to check the integrity of the download, you know making sure its legit. I'm not exactly sure how to use it though. I would imagine it might be decoded into the url of the file you are downloading. Just to be sure you do have a DVD burner right?

[daniel_g]

Thanks AE, will consider those thoughts.
I thought Disk Druid would do the trick, but will def. look at other options before doing anything.

[daniel_g]

Fedora installer doesn't see the external Hard Drive at all.
Now I have no idea on how to proceed.
Maybe I should start playig with the BIOS?

[Spookster]

You will run into troubles trying to install Linux on an external drive. Is it a USB external drive? The linux kernel needs to support enabling the drivers for the external drive at boot time. Not all linux kernels have that support at boot time. You might try digging around in the fedora forums. http://www.fedoraforum.org/forum/index.php

And yes you can dual boot with each O/S on a seperate drive. That is the preferred way. Makes it easier for reinstalls. Keep in mind that you will want to put XP on the primary drive and linux on the secondary drive. Use grub as the bootloader and have it install onto the master boot record of the primary drive. Just keep in mind that whenever you reinstall XP it will overwrite the MBR and you will have to reinstall grub.

If all else fails you can always remove the harddrive from your external enclosure and just install it in your computer as a secondary drive and install everything that way. That's what I ended up doing. I also bought an external USB drive but Fedora didn't have support to enable the driver at boot time so I just installed the drive internally. That was a couple of Fedora versions ago though so they may have support for it now I don't know.

[daniel_g]

It's sill not supported. Someone over at those forums suggested a boot cd that would load the usb drives first. But I've been trying to make that cd for the last couple days with no success.

I have a laptop, so there's no way I'm installing a new Hard Drive in it

My last resource will be trying to somehow enable UBS boot on my BIOS, and in case I don't achieve this, that will be the end of the road for me. :(

Say, bootloaders change the order on which things boot. Is there maybe one that will enable USB boot?

[live_up1314]

Actually, I also found the more useful information about partition external hard disk drive recently-Guidelines on how to partition a hard drive (http://www.extend-partition.com/resource/how-to-partition-a-hard-drive.html) by Creating, Deleting, Formatting and Resizing Partition.
Partition Assistant Home Edition, my friend has used it, and he said it worked like a charm, free tool, we can experience its advantages in advance, too.