Linux Ubuntu on External HDD

[A7XBandJunkie]

I have have a cheaper acer laptop with a small 65 gb flash storage drive. I have tried to shrink the drive, but I can't shrink it any further and I need all the files I have. I have a new found love of linux due to some Linux classes I have taken, and I wish to become more fluent in the OS. The problem is that I don't have enough space on my laptop's drive for the OS. This has led me to thinking about buying an external drive, but I don't want the drive to make the OS seem sluggish. Basically what I'm asking is, how would an OS run on an External drive rather than a Sata drive. Like, quality wise.

 

Extra information: 

I also have Linux Ubuntu 18.04 running on my desktop, but I wish to use it on my laptop for school work, and more overall probability. I have Ubuntu running on a 7,200 RPM drive on my desktop connected via SATA III. Getting back to the external hard drive, I know they have USB 3.0's (which can hand 5gbs/sec) and 3.1's (10gbs/sec.). The reason I bring this up is because, I know SATA III operates at 6Gbs/sec, sooooo does this mean that they would feel and run the same. No sluggishness or weird bugs? And if I was to go with the 3.0 external hard drive would it be much slower. 

 

Thank you!

[Drak3]

Ubuntu runs like dog shit off an external HDD. Same for any Debian based Linux Distro, Android x86, and Kali Linux.

 

I've ran these operating systems on multiple make and models of external HDD, all USB 3.0, with various types of hardware. Running them off of a USB 3.0 flashdrive is decent for short term, external SSD should be good, but not as good as SATA III SSDs.

[Firewrath9]

It should be fine, just dont unplug the usb and if all you are doing is terminal stuff, booting off a usb 3 flash drive should work.

[Moonzy]

9 minutes ago, A7XBandJunkie said:

I know they have USB 3.0's (which can hand 5gbs/sec) and 3.1's (10gbs/sec.). The reason I bring this up is because, I know SATA III operates at 6Gbs/sec, sooooo does this mean that they would feel and run the same.

i have not done any research but my guts tells me bandwidth is only a part of the story.

there's also latency and overhead protocol to consider, as well as iops performance, which matters a lot for running an OS

[Crunchy Dragon]

-Moved to Storage Devices-

[A7XBandJunkie]

I want to get into light programing and just other normal funcality of an OS such as, browsing the internet. 

[Crunchy Dragon]

7 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

i have not done any research but my guts tells me bandwidth is only a part of the story.

there's also latency and overhead protocol to consider, as well as iops performance, which matters a lot for running an OS

This is true, practically no operating system(that I'm aware of) runs well off of an external drive.

[A7XBandJunkie]

1 minute ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

This is true, practically no operating system(that I'm aware of) runs well off of an external drive.

Then what CAN I do? Would I have to upgrade to a laptop with more storage or an extra storage bay? And just how BAD would it be on an external?

[Crunchy Dragon]

1 minute ago, A7XBandJunkie said:

Then what CAN I do? Would I have to upgrade to a laptop with more storage or an extra storage bay? And just how BAD would it be on an external?

Probably pretty bad.

 

More storage might be your easiest/cheapest option, all you'll have to do after getting a bigger drive is to set up your laptop for dual-booting Linux and presumably Windows 10.

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, A7XBandJunkie said:

Then what CAN I do? Would I have to upgrade to a laptop with more storage or an extra storage bay? And just how BAD would it be on an external?

give it a shot if you have one. From what I have done a hdd will be basically the same on usb3. A hdd is just slow slow compared to what usb3 can do. The latency of usb is much lower than the hdds latency.

 

A ssd will be much faster, but a hdd will work. Ubuntu is kinda big so if you want it faster get lubuntu or xubuntu.

[Moonzy]

3 minutes ago, A7XBandJunkie said:

Then what CAN I do?

no harm trying if you have an external drive at hand, let us know your experience for insight.

 

also, why not keep both OS on the internal drive and files on the external drive?

[A7XBandJunkie]

4 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

give it a shot if you have one. From what I have done a hdd will be basically the same on usb3. A hdd is just slow slow compared to what usb3 can do. The latency of usb is much lower than the hdds latency.

 

A ssd will be much faster, but a hdd will work. Ubuntu is kinda big so if you want it faster get lubuntu or xubuntu.

What if I got something like this (https://www.amazon.com/Inateck-Enclosure-Support-Optimized-Tool-Free/dp/B00KYF1LLI/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1533789415&sr=8-10&keywords=ssd+dock) and bought an SSD?

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, A7XBandJunkie said:

What if I got something like this (https://www.amazon.com/Inateck-Enclosure-Support-Optimized-Tool-Free/dp/B00KYF1LLI/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1533789415&sr=8-10&keywords=ssd+dock) and bought an SSD?

yep that will work fine. I have a bootable linux and windows disk like this and they work fine and are pretty fast

[A7XBandJunkie]

3 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

no harm trying if you have an external drive at hand, let us know your experience for insight.

 

also, why not keep both OS on the internal drive and files on the external drive?

Do be honest, I'm not sure how to move all file to an external. Plus, I think most of the space taken up this far is due to windows restore points or something like that. I remember Windows saying something about older restore point/updates/ or something.

[A7XBandJunkie]

Just now, Electronics Wizardy said:

yep that will work fine. I have a bootable linux and windows disk like this and they work fine and are pretty fast

That will probably be the way I will go. I might even just make it a dual boot drive for linux and Windows. 

[A7XBandJunkie]

2 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

yep that will work fine. I have a bootable linux and windows disk like this and they work fine and are pretty fast

would 3.0 be fast enough? 

[Moonzy]

1 minute ago, A7XBandJunkie said:

Do be honest, I'm not sure how to move all file to an external. Plus, I think most of the space taken up this far is due to windows restore points or something like that. I remember Windows saying something about older restore point/updates/ or something.

i would only suggest moving pictures, music, and videos onto external drives and keep softwares in internal drives

 

and a simple copy paste would do the job for media files.

[A7XBandJunkie]

1 minute ago, Moonzy said:

i would only suggest moving pictures, music, and videos onto external drives and keep softwares in internal drives

 

and a simple copy paste would do the job for media files.

Oh ya, I understand.

[A7XBandJunkie]

6 minutes ago, A7XBandJunkie said:

That will probably be the way I will go. I might even just make it a dual boot drive for linux and Windows. 

How would you compare the speeds of an SSD and this (https://www.amazon.com/Inateck-Enclosure-Support-Optimized-Tool-Free/dp/B00KYF1LLI/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1533789415&sr=8-10&keywords=ssd+dock) compaired to a traditional SATA III hard drive. Which one do think would be faster.