How do I install Fedora 35 on a removable hard drive?

Ask Fedora
1

My friends will be install Fedora 35 on a removable hard drive,How install it?

2

Yes it is possible to do
1-first make a bootable usb with your favorite linux distro
2-then live boot in to it and open anaconda installer and install in advanced option
3-choose your external drive and format it with btrfs /ext4 or any linux partition then mound it with / mount point
4-and select your external hdd for bootloader and that is all install the os
5-once installed reboot and open bios and select your drive where you havev installed your linux as a first boot(boot priority) option and make your internal drive a second boot option so that when your drive is connected it will be booted from that drive else it will boot from the internal drive if any.

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3

Hi again. I see now the cause of your previous problem. Another to notes when installing Fedora Linux to external drive are:

  1. Make sure your PC/Laptop does not have Fedora Linux installed or it will ruining installed Fedora Linux boot in your PC/Laptop. It’s to avoid headache from repairing the efiboot bios.
  2. Make sure connecting the external drive directly to PC/Laptop USB port and not from extended dock USB that have chip on it to prevent from turning into power save mode that will disconnect your external drive during the installation.
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4

This shouldn’t happen because you choose a completely different drive in Anaconda (the installer), so the computer’s hard drive should remain untouched.

5

:thinking: This morning I tested it (install on external hard drive) on my laptop that have 2 Fedora installed (F35 & F36) and it’s ruin my F35 that have efi path EFI/fedora/*.

After finished the installation, on reboot the UEFI firmware prompt me a display that will reset my firmware and after that I can’t boot to my installed Fedora F35. I could fix that with efibootmgr.

I’ll test it again. May be I did something wrong during the installation.

Update:

@ankursinha I just tested again. For me the problem still present. I think if there Fedora label already presented in EFI boot list firmware, anaconda have tendencies to replace it with new installation even though the newly installed EFI path presented in different hard drive.

If we then modify it with efibootmgr, we can add 2 boot list with same label name.

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6

I don’t know what is wrong i was using and i just tried it but it didn’t ruined my efi it was working fine as intended once i remove my drive it was again like before show me olf grub and i could find my 2 linux os so for my case it worked.
But
If you have fedora before in internal drive it will not register that fedora partition.

7

Yes, that exactly what I means. I have Fedora installed in my internal drive and anaconda ruin it like when creating dual boot with different version of Fedora Linux. That’s why I recommend not to installing Fedora to external drive if the internal drive already have Fedora Linux installed.

8

I think it is a bug because it is possible and required to have 2 version of fedora installed in a same system. So anaconda bug maybe

Okey i understand but some days ago maybe i read about anaconda in under work so hope this issue fixed with newer anaconda(installer)

9

That would be awesome! I love it.