Page 2 of 2 FirstFirst 12
Results 11 to 15 of 15

Thread: dual booting (first time advice)

  1. #11
    Join Date
    Oct 2012
    Location
    somewhere, west of wonder
    Beans
    68
    Distro
    Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin

    Re: dual booting (first time advice)

    Quote Originally Posted by TheFu View Post
    OTOH, if you will physically disconnect each drive when the other is connected and will be changing the BIOS to point to the boot sector of the HDD between changes, then you can ignore what I've said.
    that seems like over complicating simple stuff in my opinion.

    Quote Originally Posted by TheFu View Post
    Also, MBR is for older hard drives. If you have a newer HDD, then it is likely to be 4K sectors, not 512b sectors. It is important for performance in both Windows AND Linux that you get the sectors aligned on 4K boundaries. While you can use MBR for drives smaller than 2TB, that might not be the best answer. For drives larger than 2TB, you must use GPT partitioning.
    so, this basically says what kind of partitioning i should do for the windows drive?

    Quote Originally Posted by oldfred View Post
    We normally post this:

    sudo update-grub

    But all that is, is a link to this which runs the grub-mkconfig:
    Code:
    #!/bin/sh
    set -e
    exec grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg "$@"
    You can see these files in /usr/sbin

    And what that does is run the grub scripts to write a new grub.cfg file which is the menu you see when you reboot. It also runs the os-prober which is one of the scripts it runs and that finds other installs on you system.
    so without doing the above mentioned code in Linux, the default boot-loader will only see Linux as an option to boot from and not windows?
    insanity: because its more fun the 9001st time.

  2. #12
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Location
    Squidbilly-Land
    Beans
    Hidden!
    Distro
    Ubuntu

    Re: dual booting (first time advice)

    Quote Originally Posted by majorburt View Post
    that seems like over complicating simple stuff in my opinion.
    I agree, but you didn't say how you planned to use it, so I did not assume anything.

    Quote Originally Posted by majorburt View Post
    so, this basically says what kind of partitioning i should do for the windows drive?
    I provided information without knowing your specific setup. YOU have to choose what makes the most sense for your specific needs OR provide much more detailed information. There is always a trade-off between complexity and capabilities, right?

    Quote Originally Posted by majorburt View Post
    so without doing the above mentioned code in Linux, the default boot-loader will only see Linux as an option to boot from and not windows?
    I don't know. Oldfred can answer that, but I suspect if anything bad happens around your dual-booting, it will be easier to run those commands in Linux to see any Windows AND any Linux partitions that could be booted - adding them to the boot record for one of the HDDs installed in your system. Just remember that BIOS will only look for boot code in a specified order on your system. Whichever device it discovers a valid boot on based on that order will be booted. Usually, it is best to have 1 boot menu per computer to prevent confusion later, but that is just an opinion. If 1 HDD fails, and it is the only one with a boot sector installed, that could be bad too for someone unfamiliar with the grub tools. It has gotten much easier to recover from failed/corrupt boot loaders thanks to some smart tools that understand where Linux likes to place boot information on partitions.

    Personally, I avoid dual booting and use virtual machines instead. They are less risk for my specific requirements and I've learned how to get great performance for pretty much any tasks, except GPU intensive like high-end gaming. If your PC has 4G of RAM, is at last a C2D CPU with VT-x capables enabled, then virtual machines are pretty great AND very easy. Either Windows or Linux can be the hostOS.
    Last edited by TheFu; February 3rd, 2013 at 07:39 PM.

  3. #13
    Join Date
    Jun 2009
    Location
    SW Forida
    Beans
    Hidden!
    Distro
    Kubuntu

    Re: dual booting (first time advice)

    With multiple drives and multiple installs I prefer to keep each boot loader on the same drive as the install, but set BIOS to boot from grub since grub is designed to multiple boot. That way when one drive fails, I should be able to change BIOS and boot other drive.

    If you have drives disconnected when you install Ubuntu, grub cannot find other systems. If you have the drives connected you have to use Something Else or manual install to have the option on where to install the grub2 boot loader. But then you also have to manually specify partitions, formats & sizes.
    UEFI boot install & repair info - Regularly Updated :
    https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2147295
    Please use Thread Tools above first post to change to [Solved] when/if answered completely.

  4. #14
    Join Date
    Oct 2012
    Location
    somewhere, west of wonder
    Beans
    68
    Distro
    Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin

    Re: dual booting (first time advice)

    ok, between you guys and my bro, its installed!!!!

    everything's working and as it should be.


    thanks to all here, you all rock!!!
    insanity: because its more fun the 9001st time.

  5. #15
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
    Location
    In the shadows, of course
    Beans
    37

    Re: dual booting (first time advice)

    Its good to hear you got it working. For anyone else curious about dual booting (on two hdd) here is what i did:

    Hook up first hdd, then install win7, unplug it. Then hook up different hdd, install ubuntu. Plug both in and edit BIOS to boot on the ubuntu hdd first. At first GRUB didn't show up because it didn't locate Windows 7. i edited a GRUB file to make it show GRUB, then updated GRUB. Everything works.

    P.S. This worked for me, but i am not responsible if you screw something up.

Page 2 of 2 FirstFirst 12

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •