Problem Description:
TL:DR
I want to install kubuntu on an External USB HDD and the installer wants to change something on another HDD. Is that normal? Is that safe?
Full text
Hi. I am new. I want to switch from Windows 10 to Linux. People suggested I tried Fedora and Kubuntu.
Since I am not fully committed to one or the other I decided to install them on an external USB HDD. I set up my BIOS to boot with the external drive if present and fall back to windows otherwise.
I tried Fedora first and it installed just fine. Over a week I was then able to set up 90% of what I need to do on a daily basis. The thing is, Fedora crashed at least once per day (I do not know if it was me that was doing something wrong, though). By comparison, my Windows 10 crashed three times in the last 8 years.
Then fedora botched a system update and I was unable to open any programs anymore. I tried to fix it, but ended up ruining all data on the disk.
So, not the most skilled user ever…
I checked the disk integrity and it was fine.
Then I decided that instead of insisting with Fedora I should try Kubuntu.
At the installation I used the option to erase that same disk and install Kubuntu.
The installation failed repartitioning the disk multiple times on multiple days.
I read in a forum that the installer is not very good at that and I should format the disk myself. I then deleted the partitions using Windows and tried again.
This time I payed more attention and something caught my eye: The install process was trying to change something in my windows disk (screenshots below). Is that normal? Is that 100% safe? I still need windows to work while I am transitioning.
What do you think was going to change on your Windows disk?
According to the partitions image, your Windows disk ST8000DM004 (sde ) is unaltered.
The target disk Samsung HD204UI (sdf) is going to be changed.
This is perfect advice, only have the target disk available.
Alternatively, many PCs have UEFI settings where disks can be isolated (i.e. without physical removal)
Edit
Ah, I think that I see what you mean by your Windows disk being changed.
Are you referring to Set up fat32 partition /dev/sde1 with mount point /boot/efi
This means that the Kubuntu bootloader will be installed on your Windows disk (sde)
If you do not want this to happen, you have to set a /boot/efi mountpoint on /dev/sdf
If you did an online search for dual boting windows EFI with Kubutnu you would have found a number of sites explaining the process such as the one at the link below. The installer is using the already existing EFI partition on the windows drive because you did not create one on the drive with Kubuntu as pointed out. Depending upon circumstances and use case, this might not be a problem as it will not overwrite any windows files in the process without user interference.
I am afraid I did not fully understood your attempt to guide me, sorry.
I do not want to dual boot. I want to boot from the removable drive if it is plugged and boot from the internal drive if it is not. Although the article said dualboot in the title, I did not get dualboot vibes in the tutorial. Am I using the dualboot expression wrong? I though dualbooting meant a menu for you to select from which OS (or OS version) to boot from.
Are you saying that I should follow the step 5 and manual partition the drive according to those instructions?
I would very much create everything Kubuntu on the external drive to not risk my system at any % (for now). I am not sure you are saying that the procedure the installer is planning to do on my windows HDD is harmless.
The instructions in that link are slightly outdated for some things (I will explain more).
In order to make this work, yes you need to choose the option in Step 5 to manually partition the external drive.
If all is done correctly, this will not touch your internal Windows drive and once completed you should have the option to choose which operating system to boot from via your computer’s boot menu.
So, here are the caveats:
there is no need to create a swap partition, modern systems including Kubuntu use a swapfile instead
the rest of the drive will be for root and should be formatted as ext4
the bootloader MUST be on the EFI partition of that drive, make sure to carefully select this
Ubuntu & other distributions use different installers. Ubuntu’s defaults typically use the first drive’s ESP - efi system partition. For most with one drive or even a permanently installed second drive that works just fine.
But if you want Ubuntu totally separate or want an external drive to be able to boot from more than one system, you have to have an ESP on that drive and make sure the installer installs the grub2 boot loader into that drive’s ESP.
Often systems “forget” a disconnected drive. Many auto find Windows UEFI entry, but never find an “ubuntu” entry. An external drive may then be booted from the drive entry, just like you boot the live installer. My Dell does seen to remember the install on my external SSD which makes it easier than most systems.
I tried installing Fedora KDE to my second drive in desktop which has several Ubuntu test installs & its own ESP. Fedora installer would not use existing ESP on that drive & required me to create a new one. So I have two ESP on my second drive and will have to manually reconfigure then after booting.
