Hy Henry, if your system is able to boot from USB it is not problem to deploy gentoo on external drive.
You can just install gentoo on that drive the same way as you will install it on internal hdd. You will just install on /dev/sdb (or the correct drive). Also the grub can be placed there. Just think of it as a normal drive. Only difference is that you need usb, mass storage and correct filesystem modules in kernel builtin or in initramfs. When using external drive I would use better UUID when defining root in fstab/grub, or better use LVM (I would use zfs, but thats pretty different story). Yes there are desktops without second hdd bay, even without another sata connector, for example a lot of Dell SFF desktop computers. Robert. On Wed, 28 Aug 2013 16:39:47 -0400 "Henry W. Peters" <hwpet...@jamadots.com> wrote: > On 8/28/2013 3:46 PM, czernitko wrote: > > Hi, it seems improbable that your desktop PC would have only one > > HDD slot. Could you post your exact model number please? :) > > To give you some hope, I have had Linux installed on external hdd > > for daily use for about two years. It is at least five years back, > > it was over USB 2.0 and worked quite well. I did some photo editing > > and retouching and it was ok. > > How big is your internal drive anyway? Isn't it possible to use > > around 30GB for Gentoo system partition? Or do you just want to > > keep original hdd intact? > > Regards, > > Peter > > > > Hi, > > If you really need a new drive (i.e. - the one that came with > > your machine is just too small, etc.) then I'd look at imaging the > > drive that's currently installed, putting in a larger drive, > > partitioning this larger drive to hold both Gentoo and what ever M$ > > OS you might be using, and then just work to get both OS's working > > but keep the current drive on the shelf as a backup. This way you > > could always go back to what you have. > > > > Just an idea. > > > > Good luck, > > Mark > > To the point of the original poster: I currently use a Lenovo W520 > > laptop. I have a USB3 external hard drive that I mostly use for > > backup, but I have occasionally edited some audio (small audio > > files using Audacity) directly on the external drive. Again, it's > > not the OS drive, so temp files and such are most likely stored on > > the internal drive, but I know that Audacity operates in the > > directory in which the project is located, so it's still doing a > > fair bit of I/O to that external drive. > > > > Hope this helps! > > > > ~David > > Thanks all for helpful suggestions! > > First off, capacity of current internal drive is not really an issue > with me... it is 2 TB... I tried installing Gentoo on another (very > much older computer) a while ago & had problems installing Grub, with > Gentoo, as I was dual booting with windows (not to mention conflicts > with xstart & my old integrated SIS graphics card)... so my thinking > is to install Gentoo on a whole other HD... which seemed to work out > on my old computer (or perhaps it was simpler to do for a Gentoo > novice, like myself). > > & Peter, I'm with you... I have not seen a desktop computer that > didn't have at least one expansion bay (not that I've seen that > many)... but apparently this HP Pavillion 500-046 does not. & I > really had to dig to find out (the hard way). > > Good to hear that some have had some measure of success with external > drives & Gentoo, rather sounds like I'll just have to try it... > > I have done a little more research since my earlier post, & I see > that LaCie (& possibly others) make/sell an external drive that has > usb 2 & 3/firewire 400 & 800/eSata (& there are, it seems, some extra > Sata slots on the mother board of this HP computer). > > My plan, in fact, after a installation of Gentoo... would be to > shrink the 2 TB partition that is currently formatted in NTS... > (Windows 8), use the other partition formatted in ext 4 (i.e., Linux) > data storage. > > Henry > (who's trying hard to get away from windows, again (been using > various flavors of Linux for about five years) > >
