booting linux from usb

[cdhgold]

I have a 20gb usb hdd that I want to install Linux to so it is bootable. Has anyone here done this? my goal is to be able to take my drive to any system that can boot to usb and boot off my drive with my own OS. I would prefer to use Suse but am flexible. Also does any one know if there would be a way to launch this system from within windows. Example: at a working windows station plug in drive and launch and run my system without modifying the existing system? I tired to install linux to a usb drive once before and the installer did not "see" the usb drive but that was with a different usb device.

Chris

[Void Main]

I boot DSL Linux on my 1GB memory stick. It shows up to the BIOS as a USBHDD device. Here's a thread specifically for SUSE on external USB hard drive:

http://forums.devarticles.com/the-lizar ... -6250.html

For Debian:

http://wiki.debian.org/USB-HD_Boot_Full_Debian