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I have an empty HDD. I would like to avoid using my USB flash as a bootable device. Can I use LinuxLive boot creator to make the HDD bootable and then install the OS on that same HDD? Wouldn't that mess up the bootloader?

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Are you willing to create a /boot partition that is 1GB? If yes, then create a 1GB partition at the start drive, drop your iso on it. Install grub 2 and build a config to boot your ISO.

Then simply reboot and install. During the install tell the installer to use that first partition for /boot. Simply don't format it. This has the added advantage of leaving the iso there for rescues, and reinstalls in the future.

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Haven't thought of that- thanks! Simple and elegant. – Goran_Mandic Nov 1 '12 at 0:18
@Goran_Mandic Very nice, Zoredache! ext2 partitions are also easily resized down to a more reasonable size (for /boot, 50-100MB can be typical) when the install is completed. In this case leaving a hole for a new partition, or maybe enlarge your swap partition to fill the gap. – zero2cx Nov 5 '12 at 5:50

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