The ultimate question about installing a new OS.

[ShayOh]

Is there a way to install Linux/Windows on an external drive HDD/SD/NVME in an enclosure (USB/TB)?

 

I got an NVME drive with a corrupted Ubuntu (AMD GPU drivers) and i would like to reinstall Ubuntu without having to create a USB thumb drive and go thought the reboot process. 

[WhitetailAni]

Just now, ShayOh said:

Is there a way to install Linux/Windows on an external drive HDD/SD/NVME in an enclosure (USB/TB)?

I've done it on an external USB hard drive, so yes, you can at least on USB.

Not sure about Thunderbolt though.

[Sauron]

4 minutes ago, ShayOh said:

Is there a way to install Linux/Windows on an external drive HDD/SD/NVME in an enclosure (USB/TB)?

Yes

4 minutes ago, ShayOh said:

I got an NVME drive with a corrupted Ubuntu (AMD GPU drivers) and i would like to reinstall Ubuntu without having to create a USB thumb drive and go thought the reboot process. 

If you mean "install" as in flash it from the ISO then you won't get an installation in the way you mean it, you'll get an nvme installation drive. You need to go through the normal installation process. The target of that installation can be a NVME drive in an external enclosure of course.

 

What's the matter with rebooting a couple of times anyway? If it's that much of an issue perhaps you should consider a virtual machine.

[ShayOh]

9 minutes ago, Benji said:

No. Every OS install will be fit to the current hardware and will require reboots. Even Windows To Go (Windows install on a USB stick) needed it. So does Android, Ubuntu, macOS and whatever. You can't install OSes without reboots in between. Can you install an OS over the OS' installer on a USB drive? Yes, but you won't be able to do that with at least one reboot to my knowledge.

Not necessarily, for example, on LTT videos they use the same SSD to boot from different systems without reinstalling the OS every time. i do remember it used to be that way where the drivers would have mattered on the first installation, but many years ago.

[ShayOh]

5 minutes ago, Sauron said:

Yes

If you mean "install" as in flash it from the ISO then you won't get an installation in the way you mean it, you'll get an nvme installation drive. You need to go through the normal installation process. The target of that installation can be a NVME drive in an external enclosure of course.

 

What's the matter with rebooting a couple of times anyway? If it's that much of an issue perhaps you should consider a virtual machine.

My idea was thing, and i think it sounds kinda pointless but im that lazy, make a bootable USB of X, create a VM with only DOS and add the USB and enclosure and use the VM to install the on the NVME.

[Drama Lama]

@ShayOh not that it helps you in you situation but it might still be interesting:

nomad bsd installs itself on the drive it's flashed to

so if you want to install it on a usb stick / external drive you don't need a second bootstick

Edited February 19, 2021 by Drama Lama

[Sauron]

18 minutes ago, ShayOh said:

My idea was thing, and i think it sounds kinda pointless but im that lazy, make a bootable USB of X, create a VM with only DOS and add the USB and enclosure and use the VM to install the on the NVME.

You can do that but it's more effort than just doing it normally... you don't need DOS though, not sure why you want that

[ShayOh]

1 minute ago, Sauron said:

You can do that but it's more effort than just doing it normally... you don't need DOS though, not sure why you want that

I thought it is the bare minimum to install an OS.

[Sauron]

1 minute ago, ShayOh said:

I thought it is the bare minimum to install an OS.

No, DOS is an operating system on its own, maybe you're thinking of the BIOS? In that case all common virtual machine hypervisors come with everything you need to boot an operating system so don't worry about that.

[ShayOh]

It worked.