Installing Manjaro to External HDD

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Hey @woody

Please find the steps I did to get it working, easy-way and a bit advanced.

Prerequisites

Read a this mighty fine thread first how to setup the partitions.

I have created on an external SSD:

  • 512Mb EFI Boot partition
  • 50 Gb Root partition
  • 100 Gb Home partition (personal preference to separate them)

Easy-Way

  • Install rEFInd boot manager
  • Reboot into the Live CD of your choice
  • Create new partitions with GParted
  • Install Manjaro by selecting manual partitioning
  • Map the partitions accordingly to what you have created
  • Follow the rest of installer steps
  • Reboot and rEFInd will do it’s magic to detect the new Manjaro installation on the external drive, when it’s connected

Advanced

  • Reboot into the Live CD of your choice

  • Create new partitions with GParted

  • Install Manjaro by selecting manual partitioning

  • Map the partitions accordingly to what you have created

  • Follow the installer steps

  • DO NOT reboot yet

  • open GParted

  • Select the external drive - it should look something like this

    before
    before976×352 44.3 KB

    do not mind the extra 50Gb partition at the end, I just happen to have Multi Linux Boot on that one

  • Note the msftdata flag

  • This flag has to be changed to boot and esp

    after
    after977×342 44.2 KB

  • Now you can reboot

  • Use your computer build-in tool to select next boot device to be your external drive (depending on manufacturer it can be F7, F8, F12 etc.)

  • Enjoy Manjaro running on external drive

Notes:

  • I use names for the partitions, as this makes my life easier in the long run
  • in case of rEFInd - it’s easy to distinguish to what you are about to boot