Why is my external hard drive so slow to boot xubuntu?

Question

I've got a external hard drive, partitioned, with an NTFS and a Fat32 partition. I've got random stuff on the NTFS and i'm trying to install Xubuntu onto the Fat32 partition.

I've created a Xubuntu boot usb pen drive which i can run xubuntu on, but whenever i try to install it onto the external hard drive, the installation just sits there, reading the external hard drive, blinking away for a long time. it looks like it's getting read, but the installation process doesn't advance.

I've also tried booting xubuntu from the external drive, using Yumi (on both the pen drive and external hdd drive), and if i boot the latter drive, the hdd also blinks forever, as it's being read, but i never get the Yumi window, which allows me to select the OS i want to boot.

the external hard drive is recognized by the bios, name and all, and placing the boot order as the external hdd first, the booting process doesn't move onto the pen drive, looking like it recognizes there's a boot in the external hdd drive (in the fat32 partition), but the computer just sits there, black screen, blinking underscore and the external drive being read (i let it sit for an hour!)

any ideas why the external hard drive is acting so slow? could it be ram? what could it be?

• i have no hdd in this computer.
• the drive has a 30 GB, Fat32 partition onto which i was to either a) install xubuntu onto, or boot from. (none work; the external hdd sitting there, being read for a long time)
• this pc is old. it doesn't have a uefi system, it has bios.
• both the external hdd's partitions are set as primary.
• hdd is not fragmented at all (checked in windows).
• pc has 2GB memory (doesn't stop it from being able to boot xubuntu from the pen drive and being used just fine for navigating files and opening 1080p videos)

Answer 1

Any currently supported OS will run very slow in any internal HDD let alone in an external HDD, much less so in an external SSD, but even that is a moot point in such old machine with USB2.0 ports. Linux is only marginally "faster" than any current Windows in this scenario.

You should have realistic expectations.

Start by choosing an (Linux) OS that has good chances of working in that machine (and its handicap) while at the same time being (and being kept) up to date, i.e., a supported release with security patches. Xubuntu is a good(-ish) choice - there are arguably "lighter" flavors - but even that will be very slow to do anything with. And this assumes the computer/CPU is 64-bit otherwise Ubuntu or flavors aren't an option, they dropped support for 32-bit many years ago.

The current options for Xubuntu are 22.04 LTS (supported until April 2025) or 23.10 (supported until July 2024). Either one can be easily upgraded to the next LTS 24.04.

Now, before proceeding, check the partitioning type of the external drive where you want to install Ubuntu. It's probably MBR ('msdos') and that's what's needed. Although it should be possible to install (Linux in BIOS mode) in a GPT drive with an additional partition it's probably better to avoid that additional step. User @oldfred at AskUbuntu have been using GPT drives for Linux in BIOS machines since many years ago but all, as far as I know, were internal drives.

Next, BACKUPS!!! Make sure you have a backup of all your important files in that drive before trying to install an OS! It seems you have one partition (NTFS) with data you want to keep and another one (FAT32) to use:

the drive has a 30 GB, Fat32 partition onto which i was to either a) install xubuntu onto, or boot from.

A misunderstanding or, perhaps, two?

If you don't have an internal drive the firmware (BIOS) will have to boot from the external drive after you install Xubuntu and its bootloader (GRUB) in the drive's MBR (Master Boot Record). MBR is not a partition.

FAT32 cannot be used for installing Linux. Current Xubuntu by default will require at least one EXT4 partition (it uses a swapfile so a separated swap partition is no longer required).

So, you'll have to remove the FAT32 partition and use that space to install Xubuntu. This can be done within the installer or in the live session.

30GB is doable but barely considering the current standards. You should be fine in this regard provided you don't install too much or too "heavy" software and keep media and personal file elsewhere, e.g. in the other partitions or other drives.

About the installation itself, if the target USB is the only one (besides the installation/live USB stick, of course) in that machine it should just work with the aforementioned conditions - MBR, enough unallocated space or at least one EXT4 partition for root (/) - and automatic installation mode then selecting the target drive. At this point it's better to just have unallocated (not partitioned) space, the installer will do the rest. Otherwise, with a previously created partition you have to do manual installation and set it to use that partition as root. At the end the result should be the same: Xubuntu installed in and booting from an external drive, extremely slow.

An additional problem to consider: If you don't have Windows you should not keep NTFS partitions. At some point they may need error correction and that can only be done with Windows tools in Windows. Keep this in mind going forward and plan accordingly.