Pre-Load Mint for an "Offline" install?

[jharris1993]

Greetings Earthlings!

Issue:
While working on installing Mint on an older system, (Viz., Mint on low-end hardware?), I have run into an issue where I cannot do a direct install onto the target system since the CD-ROM device isn't working and an external thumb-drive won't boot if the system sees a hard drive installed.

I have already tried:
1. Using a different system, launching the installation CD and "installing" to the hard drive attached to an external USB adapter. The result was a lot of unnecessary "hardware customizations" that were inappropriate for the target system.

2. The same as #1, trying an "OEM" install. A real pain.

3. Both installs ended up damaging the Win7 partition on my system (recovered using chkdsk) despite the fact that it was never mounted, the installer was instructed not to touch it, and all operations were done to the externally mounted HD.

Question:
Is it possible to "pre-load" a Mint installation on an external hard drive so that it completes itself when installed into the target system? Assume the system has access to a working internet connection. Likewise assume that I do not want to have to set up a "bootp" type network boot if at all possible.

Thanks!

[jimallyn]

Several forums users have put their hard drive in another computer, installed Mint on it, then moved the hard drive back. Linux is usually smart enough to detect that the hardware has changed and adjust itself accordingly. If you use PLOP, you can make your computer boot from an old electric shaver if you like. OK, not quite, but darn near.

https://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager/intro.html

[jharris1993]

Slick!

The things you learn on these fora - darned if I wish I'd known about that before. . . .

Thanks for the tip.