[ltp] Booting any distro from usb hard drive success and failures

[Nathaniel Robert Smith]

Hello all,

I have a T41 and want to install to a usb drive for a couple reasons.
First, I'm running low on disk space. Secondly, I want to try another
distro, without rendering my current FC2 install (on my internal hd)
unusable.

Success:

I have a Cowon Iaudio M3 digital audio player, 20 gig, usb-storage
compatible device. I resized the single partition to 13.5 gigs, then let
FC2 do it's thing for the install. I followed directions from:
http://www.benusa.com/linux/boot.htm .

Failure:

I got Suse 9.1 Personal and tried to install it on one of my 2 Belkin usb
enclosures with 160 gig hd inside. However, YAST 2 always fails when
"Activating usb devices" when I select an install method. So, I tried to
use Suse with my M3, it worked. So it seems like the USB enclosures are
not fully compatible.

Solutions:

Buy a new usb enclosure, (both belkin's fans broke, send one at a time to
get replaced - never lose use of a hard drive). Can people tell me which
enclosures have worked for them? That would help me greatly pick one to
buy.

Fix whatever problem YAST 2 was having. Not the quitter's option, but I
couldn't find much help from google.

Thanks for hints/links/help,
Nate