Install Linux on a Imac 24 to an external drive

Hello everybody
I have an Imac 24 and I am trying to install linux and windows on an external USB hard drive.
Is that possible?
So far that I tried I think I messed it up with the boot loader where to install it.
Is anybody else facing the same problem?
I would appreciate your advice.
Thanks in advance
Yannis

Newl Post wrote:
It took me several tries to figure out how to highlight the external drive icon the right way to get the file menu to actually show a Get Info choice. A double-click to highlight did the trick.
Just FYI, as with any type of file or object, normally it should only take a single click to select it in any view (desktop, or Finder window list, icon, or column view).
Newl Post wrote:
The external drive is a 1TB drive with 879.12GB left available. Would back up to cd or dvd be reasonable? Or would that require a rediculous number of discs?
It would require a ridiculous amount of discs. 1TB minus around 880GB of free space means it is currently using maybe 200GB or more. Backing up would take almost 300CDs or 43 DVDs. But the real cost would not be the discs, it would be the time to burn and then restore all those discs. And the discs would need to be burned cross-platform so that the Mac can read back the files. Also, since the drive is in NTFS format, it would be easiest to back it up using a Windows PC.
But here is another way to solve your problem. Instead of backing up and reformatting, you could download some add-on software to make your Mac read and write NTFS. (Apple does not include it due to licensing & fees & such, since NTFS is Microsoft proprietary.) If you install NTFS read/write software for the Mac, you can simply use the drive as is and not go through something complicated and time-consuming.
I am not well versed in using NTFS, but my understanding is that you can download software like Paragon NTFS (paid) to get this done. I have heard that there are free options but again, I don't know them very well. Until someone comes by with more info that I don't know, you can do a web search on "NTFS Mac" to research more about your options. You will find links to software and how-to articles.

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