I just read that Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) supports Live USB installation and that basically turns my external hard disk drive into a Ubuntu OS installation right?

Would I be able to install more software and make permanent changes to the OS then? Or will it be like the Live CD where everything is temporary?

And would anyone by any chance know if the Ultimate Edition 2.1 (based off Intrepid Ibex as well) supports Live USB?

One last question! Should I just wait for the 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope since it's coming out in... 20+ days?

I would wait for 9.04 since your Laptop is sorta new. (I remember when ya bought it). New features and Kernel probably, which means better wireless support out of the box. Also uses new EXT 4 file system, besides EXT 3 or EXT 2, or rieserfs, ect.............

Check THIS out for USB Linux Info and THIS also.

If the USB drive is large enough you can save changes, downloads, etc.....

Just be aware that Running a USB hardrive and writing changes to them daily wears them out faster (there is documentation on the net about this, just google it). A cheap external Hardrive is another option.

When I said USB hard drive what I meant was a 3.5 inch Hard Disk in an external enclosure.

I spent so much time googling to finally ascertain that Ubuntu supports it and you just poppedout with a solution to my concerns within seconds. Wowza. lol.

I thought you were going to do a Pendrive install. Hence the warning. You should be fine with any external Hardrive. Watch out. Linux can get addictive. LOL

Ooh ooh oooh! I am so excited.... I can't wait!

Jaunty Jackalope is out! Downloading~ Roky I need guidance!

What kind of guidance Kai?

Something's wrong with my hard disk. I can't seem to defrag it or anything. When I try to do so, it goes halfway and then suddenly my computer becomes nonresponsive. The moment I turn off my external, an error comes out saying

G:$mft delayed write failed

or something along those lines. I've tried increasing the MFT, doesn't work. Tried using the scandisk, it becomes nonresponsive as well. I can't repartition it to install ubuntu...

Since I don't have to defrag all I can suggest is to try out what dohbar uses as his favorite defrag software.

Defraggler - Defragment your files!

Kinda confused here. You have to defrag a USB hardrive? Or is this the internal drive on Laptop you are talking about? What file system is it using and what data is on it that is fragmented? I thought this was a brand new external hardrive you were getting. Thought it would be bone empty also. This is sounding complicated as hell to me.

My mistake. I didn't give enough information there.

I'm using the external 500GB hdd that I currently have, which has about... 90-110 GB of free space left. I wanted to repartition it using O&O which has always worked for me, but it couldn't repartition it at all.

Prior to this, I've been having funny problems with this hard disk for about two months now. Including when I try to transfer some movies into another USB drive, it fails to respond and seemingly "disconnects" and starts to make my computer non-responsive. Watching those movies however, work perfectly fine.

I wish to install Ubuntu without losing everything on that hard disk... Which is beginning to seem impossible for me.