booting from external usb hard drive?

From: ziliath (ziliath_at_myway.com)
Date: 07/25/04 

Date: 25 Jul 2004 09:46:18 -0700

I'm curious as to how I could install Linux on an external USB
drive. I expect that my internal hard drive will fail soon,
and I'd like to avoid opening it up to put the new
drive in because it's an ultralight--opening it is a big pain.
Plus I don't know if the whole system will last long--maybe
a six months if I'm lucky.

Is it possible to boot off a floppy, somehow automatically
mount the USB drive as my boot drive, and then boot?

Thanks.

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