Installing Linux on a Removable Drive
Read This First
You CAN put Linux on a removable drive and boot your laptop from it.
HOWEVER
You will need to make significant changes to your operating system to do this.
You will
have to
disable BitLocker and SecureBoot, features that make your laptop more resistant to viruses and trojans.
At the end of the process, your laptop will have a very unusual start-up.
This could be good if it prevents anyone but you from turning on your laptop.
This could be bad if it annoys you—And may take a lot of time to reverse.
The Laptop:
Lenovo T16 Gen2 with Intel Core i7 processor.
16 GiB Memory
512 GiB SSD main drive
Available USB-C and Thunderport USB ports
The Portable Linux Drive
Western Digital MyPassport
Thunderport USB access
2 TB storage
You also need
A flash drive of at least 8 MB with nothing on it.
Handy Access to your Microsoft Account ID and Password.
Step One: Turn off BitLocker in Windows 11
Within windows,
[Win] S --To bring up the search field
PowerShell
Run As Administrator
Allow it to change device? --Yes
Get-BitLockerVolume --Tells you if the drive is encrypted
manage-bde -status C: --Confirms your drive is unlocked.
Manage-bde -off C: --Turns off BitLocker on Drive C:
Your laptop says:
“Decryption is now in progress”
It takes a long, long time to decrypt the hard drive.
When you get nervous, you can type
manage-bde -status C:
to check whether it is still decrypting. Or just the up arrow to re-enter previous PowerShell commands.
Finally the system will say;
“Conversion Status: Fully Decrypted”
Step Two: Turn off SecureBoot
Restart Computer to get to the Boot Menu:
Hit the [Win] button as you would
to restart the Windows System, then hold the [Shift] key while clicking on the Restart button.
[F1] to the Main Menu of Boot
Select UEFI Secure Boot , then Security. Switch Secure Boot to “OFF”
[F10] to Save and Exit.
The system will take you immediately to WWW.Microsoft.com.
You must log into your Microsoft Account, and re-set your PIN. Resetting it to the same one you
had before is OK.
Step Three – Download the Ubuntu ISO image from Ubuntu.com.
Save it to the desktop.
(I used Ubuntu 24.04)
Insert your 8 GB flash drive.
Log into Rufus or download Balena Etcher and install the Ubuntu ISO to the Flash drive.
Note: This will erase everything that was on the flash drive.
Step Four – Install Linux to your SSD Drive
Insert your Linux 8 GB Flash drive and restart the laptop from the Flash Drive.
On the Lenovo T16, hold [Shift] key while you select ‘Restart’ from the shutdown menu.
Select “Try/Install Linux” from the GRUB Menu
Go to “Activities” on the Linux Menu.
Type gparted and select the gparted utility.
Click the drop down list in the upper right .
Click the partition that corresponds to your SSD drive.
Mine was ‘/dev/sdb1’
Right click on it and unmount it.
Close gparted
Select Install Ubuntu from the upper left corner.
Choose ‘Something else’ (not the overwrite hard drive or install side-by-side options)
Select your SSD drive from the list of drives
Click Minus (-) to delete all partitions on the SSD drive (could be denoted as sdb)
Box in the ‘Format’ Column will be checked for the SSD drive
Click [Format Now]
Continue through the final warning -- Ubuntu gets installed.
Step Five – Restart the system with Ubuntu
Remove the flash key, and leave the SSD drive installed.
Restart the system, select ‘Ubuntu” from the menu.
Ubuntu should work.
Step Five-A – A Problem.
Now your laptop won’t start unless the SSD drive is installed.
Step Six – Change the Boot Loader to Load Windows 11 first
Install Grub Customizer, a download from the Ubuntu Software Menu.
Start Grub Customizer.
Highlight Windows Bootloader (at the bottom) and use the arrows to move it to the top.
[Save] and exit.
Step Seven – Learn to Love Your Very Weird Laptop Startup
If you restart your computer
with the SSD inserted, you have the option to restart in Ubuntu or Win 11-- and it defaults to Win 11.
If you restart without the SSD drive, you must start from the Boot Menu each time.
In the Lenovo T16,
Hit [Enter] after the Red Lenovo logo comes up and asks you to hit [enter] for alternative startup.
Hit [F12] to go to the boot menu, and select Win 11. It will boot into Win 11.
The Good News
– This prevents people from casually starting your laptop, even if they know your password.
The Bad News – It’s another step that could annoy you.
Eventually, someone could come up with a fix for this.
If it’s you, tell the rest of us how you did it!
Videos on this by people who know a lot more than me:
They must know more than me, because they apparently got this to work in a more elegant fashion;
Video Linux Tips install a full ubuntu on a usb drive
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2RYqahtkNc
How to Install Linux on External Drive || Run Linux From External SSD
How To Install Linux On An External Drive Or SSD With Disk Encryption. Plug & Play on PC & MAC!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvYM6hqTkQo
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