Hello! I was wondering if it is possible to you an extra hard drive i have laying around to do a OpenSuse 11.4 Install from just like you would with a usb stick. The reason i am not using a usb stick is because my 8gig usb has seem to run >:(away and after searching all day decided to come on the forums and ask. Also if possible can anyone tell me the quickest way to do this? Thanks:P
@Jerry421
You have a HD laying around - what type of HD is this? Is it a external USB HD?
Because your question sounds like you want to use this HD as an installation source, to install 11.4 to a computer?
Is this correct?
Yes I have an extra IDE Internal Hard drive i want to use as a DVD alternative per say. To install OpenSuse 11.4 to my Sata HD.
Before I address this any further.
( I see you explained about your missing 8GB USB Flash )
But can you explain why you cannot use a CD or DVD
I can use a CD although i have both the CD and DVD version downloaded the only thing that concerns me about doing a CD install is that I have dsl internet that at most gives me 180kb a sec. Although if you think that will not be a problem for getting updates and needed packages than I will hop on it =)
Use the DVD if you have it
It kind of puzzles me what you were thinking of gaining by using the HD?
Regarding your install: Do you have a windows install? Is there also a install of an earlier version of openSUSE or any other Linux? Do you need help?
I have the CD and DvD downloaded… Now as for burning I can only Burn the CD image. The DVD image was going to be booted from a USB i do not have so its Either the CD version burned. Or the DvD version on the HD install. Yes i have Kubuntu 64bit installed.
Do you plan to keep Kubuntu?
Use the CD then.
So you must have the DVD .iso - we can add this as a source post install
Nope Goodbye Kubuntu Hello Opensuse. 
I will be wiping my entire HD so in other words i should put the Suse DVD image over to my extra hard drive and then use it after install correct?
Place a copy of the DVD .iso on your spare HD then :
Personally I would say use the CD to install.
Let it use the entire HD: by selecting ‘Create Partition Setup’ here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10573557/11.4_DVD_Install/9.Installer_suggests_partitions.jpg
Then select the first option here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10573557/11.4_DVD_Install/10.Custom.jpg (Not the custom) This will let the installer use your entire HD and select the best setup for you.
Once installed add the DVD .iso in Yast software repositories > Local iso image
Disable the oss and non-oss online repos, just leave the update active
If you want multi media I can guide you, just let me know if you have gnome or kde
Thank you! I am going KDE and i will be back once i have done this thank you again =)
The kde one click for multi media is
http://opensuse-community.org/codecs-kde.ymp
But make sure you do this:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10573557/one_click_mmedia/oneclick_install_gnome/gnome3.png
(by default it tries to ass in oss and non-oss)
So make sure your DVD.iso is available in your repo sources
Then do this if you get questions you can’t answer
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10573557/one_click_mmedia/oneclick_install_gnome/gnome12.png
@caf4926 I am posting this on Opensuse 11.4 KDE 64bit WOW is it beautiful. Thanks for the help and I have to say Opensuse 11.4>Kubuntu 11.04 the speed on my newer machine is just unbelievably noticeable, also how stable Opensuse 11.4 is compaired to the Kubuntu releases.
I’m pleased to hear that
Enjoy
I have a similar situation. An Asus netbook that has no CD/DVD drive. Some time ago I installed 11.2 using a friend’s USB DVD drive without any problems. I had to use the DVD iso because it was the only installation medium that had the appropriate driver for the Asus wireless. The USB DVD drive is no longer available to me and I want to install 11.4. Is it possible to this from a USB HD? Can I use Linux imagewriter to copy the iso to the USB HD?
Thanks.
I don’t know the answer.
But do you have wired connection? Could you possibly do a net install?
Yet, even if you used a CD image, post install it has access to all the DVD has and more, so long as you have a wired connection.
I suppose the net install is the only answer. Can I assume that all the drivers on the DVD are present in the net install repositories?
AFAIK the net install should give you access to oss and non-oss and updates
But just how it all works I’m not sure.
Ok, I’m a Linux newbie but I still think I can help out a bit here. 
I did a bunch of experiments regarding a similar question with a virtual machine. One was even a masochistic test to see if I could get openSUSE 11.3 onto the virtual machine using only a mini-CD I’d found that’d been sitting in a box since 2005 with an antique version of the slackware-based SLAX tiny OS with KDE 3 and assuming I had no burnable media.
The answer is you really don’t need to rely on the net install or the CD install per my experience as was recommended previously. Exactly what you need to do depends on what’s on the drive now and what you want to keep on it (if anything). In my test case (with a blank virtual hard drive), I was able to boot SLAX, format a partition on the drive, download the DVD ISO, I believe I was then able to mount it and use DD to copy it to another partition, install GRUB and set up GRUB to boot from the ISO partition, then boot the system from the hard drive as if were booting from the DVD, then install as regular.
You probably wouldn’t need to go through all that though depending on your situation. If you have 11.2 on the system now you can probably download and install UNetBootIn, which is capable of downloading ISOs and installing them to your hard drive, cutting out all the nonsense I did in my torture test. You could then reboot and it’d be like you were running the install DVD! If you did want to use a USB HD, UNetBootIn may still work or we could use DD. Let me know the specifics and I’ll test it out here to be sure I give you the right info.
I only install from hard drive. DVDs and CDs are so infuriatingly slow, I don’t have the patience to use them (and waste them). But if you’re new to Linux, my suggestion is keep it as simple as possible when it comes to installation (go DVD, as I did at that point).
I suggest this to boot some iso from a usb drive:
YUMI - Multiboot USB Creator (Windows) | USB Pen Drive Linux
They got a Linux and a Windows thing. Some time ago (11.4), I used a tool like this to “burn” the network installer on a usb flash drive. It should work too with the 4GB or so iso. Never tried.
Once you boot it, you get linuxrc, which allows you to install from hard drive source. I then specified which drive, which partition and where the full .iso was located. The tricky thing is that sometimes I got to insist that the .iso is there, because it might not get it the first time and will say “not found”.
Different distros have different ways and instructions on how to install from hard drive.
Some other interesting advice (never tried):
Install any Linux distro directly from hard disk without burning any DVD - Instant Fundas