How well can Linux run on an external drive? Dual-booting partitions?

[BenGBoo]

Hey everyone, I'm a tech noob a bit out of my depth here. I got a job working as a Research Assistant at my University alongside my studies and most of my work has been in Linux. I'm looking at getting a new laptop but I don't want to run exclusively Linux on it... I'd like Windows for the availability of video gaming, I suppose. Is it feasible to run Linux from an external drive and maintain optimal performance for complex tasks like machine learning without any hiccups? I know it's possible to dual-boot from the same drive through partitioning but for some reason that freaks me out... Are there any drawbacks to dual-booting through partitions?

I'd also be pretty grateful for any recommendations for laptops... I'm more software focused than hardware focused. Thanks a bunch for your help!

[Windows7ge]

Besides your usable storage for each OS getting cut in 1/2 not really. It's as easy as going into Disk Management selecting your C:/ drive & shrinking the partition. Then if you install something like Ubuntu or Mint it will ask you in the installer if you want to install Linux alongside Windows. The process for these versions of Linux have been made pretty streamline and user friendly.

 

Once it's done GRUB will take over as the Bootloader and give you the option to continue to Linux or boot your Windows partition.

 

As for live booting Linux off a USB, it's very doable but read/write operations will be limited by the speed of the USB bus (be it 2.0/3.0/3.1/etc). Also the NAND flash typically found in USBs is of a much lower quality than SSDs so for something long term the thumb drive will be liable to stop working along with everything on it faster than if you just dual-booted off the drive in the computer.

 

If the laptop is strong enough you could also look into virtualization. That's an option.

[Guest]

I would honestly just partition the drive in the laptop. I run it this way on all of my laptops and just use GRUB to pick which OS I want to boot.

I've never done it the way you're planning to though, so I can't say what success or failures you'll have.

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Windows7ge said:

It's as easy as going into Disk Management selecting your C:/ drive & shrinking the partition.

Sniped by Windows7ge.

 

Though I will say most of the distros I've used have a simple "install alongside" option when partitioning, so he shouldn't even need to do it in Windows. It hasn't done me wrong in all the times I've done it.

[Windows7ge]

1 hour ago, Den-Fi said:

Though I will say most of the distros I've used have a simple "install alongside" option when partitioning, so he shouldn't even need to do it in Windows. It hasn't done me wrong in all the times I've done it.

If the drive already has unallocated space then yes that's fine but most people have drive partitions extended to fill the disk of which I'm quite certain you can only shrink from within the OS (maybe I'm wrong, can't say I've tried to shrink a NTFS Windows partition from a Linux installer. I'll have to test this).

[Guest]

7 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

If the drive already has unallocated space then yes that's fine but most people have drive partitions extended to fill the disk of which I'm quite certain you can only shrink from within the OS (maybe I'm wrong, can't say I've tried to shrink a NTFS Windows partition from a Linux installer. I'll have to test this).

No, it will shrink NTFS/Windows partition for you.

[Windows7ge]

1 minute ago, Den-Fi said:

No, it will shrink NTFS/Windows partition for you.

So that does do it for you. Does it just split it 50/50?

 

Eh, I always like doing things full manual. DISKPART > Disk Management, Terminal > GUI.

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Windows7ge said:

So that does do it for you. Does it just split it 50/50?

 

Eh, I always like doing things full manual. DISKPART > Disk Management, Terminal > GUI.

You can size it to whatever you want typed or slider.

[Windows7ge]

3 minutes ago, Den-Fi said:

You can size it to whatever you want typed or slider.

So it'll shrink the partition but I still have to tell it how much.

I may as well shrink it with Disk Management while Rufus makes the bootable USB.

 

But that's cool to know the installer can do that. I just always did it though Windows. Both sound like equally viable options. OP can choose what he wants.

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

So it'll shrink the partition but I still have to tell it how much.

I may as well shrink it with Disk Management while Rufus makes the bootable USB.

 

But that's cool to know the installer can do that. I just always did it though Windows. Both sound like equally viable options. OP can choose what he wants.

It defaults to half. I just meant you weren't limited to it.

Just faster for me to do it that way since you have to click through that section anyway.

Nothing wrong w/ your method either.

[Windows7ge]

2 minutes ago, Den-Fi said:

It defaults to half. I just meant you weren't limited to it.

Just faster for me to do it that way since you have to click through that section anyway.

Nothing wrong w/ your method either.

If you have an always ready Linux USB installer then yeah that's a faster option. I always assumed when choosing install beside Windows that the slider was only registering the unallocated space I reserved for the OS. Didn't know it could resize the Windows partition for me.

 

I wonder how intelligent it is though. Can it distinguish the free space on the partition from used space? Will it warn you if you try to shrink it too much? If there's one thing I've learned about Linux it's that the power of root is like god. You can destroy everything with one touch and nothing's going to warn you that it's a bad idea.

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

If you have an always ready Linux USB installer then yeah that's a faster option. I always assumed when choosing install beside Windows that the slider was only registering the unallocated space I reserved for the OS. Didn't know it could resize the Windows partition for me.

 

I wonder how intelligent it is though. Can it distinguish the free space on the partition from used space? Will it warn you if you try to shrink it too much? If there's one thing I've learned about Linux it's that the power of root is like god. You can destroy everything with one touch and nothing's going to warn you that it's a bad idea.

Haven't tried intentionally going too small.

Perhaps I'll do that tomorrow.

 

 

I have one of these (Iodd2531), so my Rufus days are over.

Just drop the ISO into the ISO folder and pick it from the boot menu.

It can even boot VHDs.

 

[Windows7ge]

20 minutes ago, Den-Fi said:

Haven't tried intentionally going too small.

Perhaps I'll do that tomorrow.

 

 

I have one of these (Iodd2531), so my Rufus days are over.

Just drop the ISO into the ISO folder and pick it from the boot menu.

It can even boot VHDs.

 

Neat bit of kit. I just plan on buying a pile of cheap 8GB thumb drives and labeling them all with OS installers made from dd or Rufus.

[Catsrules]

4 minutes ago, Den-Fi said:

Though I will say most of the distros I've used have a simple "install alongside" option when partitioning, so he shouldn't even need to do it in Windows. It hasn't done me wrong in all the times I've done it.

Under windows you can run into problems if you have an immovable file (file in use) that will only let you shrink the partition to a certain spot, In theory with a Linux install you should be able to shrink the windows partition more as no files will be immovable. 

 

All of this said, we do need to make sure you actually have enough room on the main drive for a Linux install. I am guessing maybe a 15-20GB partition for the Linux OS and you can store any large data files on the windows partition and or external drive.