Dual Boot on Two Drives

**JW9** · November 17th, 2006

Here is what I ran into booting on two disks. After successfully installing XP and Ubuntu on separate disks, (XP should be first), the ubuntu grub gives you a choice of which OS to open. This is fine........untill you want to or have to replace ubuntu. When you take it out the bios can no longer find Windows. The bios is still controlled by Linux. The only safe way to use them that I have found is to change the boot in the bios. Surely someone can come up with a safe and easier way to boot either without having to change the bios or use the grub.

**MrBeard** · November 18th, 2006

Hi all,

First post and already i have come with questions...

I'm planning on puttin ubuntu 6.06 onto the drive from my old machine and (assuming I can get the bits) poke it into the case of my new machine as a second drive.

Can I do the annaconda solution with Win M.E.? (Please stop laughing at the back). Eventually I'll get round to putting XP onto the other bit (probably when MS stop support for that too.)

If not I'll try the whole thing with using the bios which may work best anyway as then Mrs Pete will be able to just switch it on and use it and I won't have to set up a linux user for her...

Thanks,
Pete.

**gn2** · November 19th, 2006

Originally Posted by MrBeard

Hi all,

First post and already i have come with questions...

I'm planning on puttin ubuntu 6.06 onto the drive from my old machine and (assuming I can get the bits) poke it into the case of my new machine as a second drive.

Can I do the annaconda solution with Win M.E.? (Please stop laughing at the back). Eventually I'll get round to putting XP onto the other bit (probably when MS stop support for that too.)

If not I'll try the whole thing with using the bios which may work best anyway as then Mrs Pete will be able to just switch it on and use it and I won't have to set up a linux user for her...

Thanks,
Pete.

I would recommend Windows 2000 Professional rather than XP Home.

Can be had on eBay cheap and doesn't suffer from product activation.

Better yet, explain to Mrs Pete that you will save a fortune on software by going Linux-only, and you will be able to take her for a nice meal out with the savings?

Recommend either the Tolbooth or Carron restaurants in Stonehaven.

**Village** · November 20th, 2006

After lots of headaches, I've been able re-install windows having backed up what I needed.

I have 3 HDD's two are for Windows, although one has not been installed for Windows yet and the other will be for Ubuntu.

I want Windows to be the default. Currently Windows is the Master (I think).

My question is annoyingly strait forward. What's the easiest way of doing this?

Thanks in advance.

**gn2** · November 21st, 2006

Originally Posted by Village

After lots of headaches, I've been able re-install windows having backed up what I needed.

I have 3 HDD's two are for Windows, although one has not been installed for Windows yet and the other will be for Ubuntu.

I want Windows to be the default. Currently Windows is the Master (I think).

My question is annoyingly strait forward. What's the easiest way of doing this?

Thanks in advance.

Depends if they're all IDE, SATA or a mix.

And whether you can access a "Boot device selection menu" at boot time.

If you've already got Windows loaded, unplug that drive's power and connect the drive you wish Ubuntu installed on to the slave connector, and install Ubuntu and Grub.

After you have got both installed and re-connected you can put the desired default OS's drive first in the BIOS boot list, and switch to the other OS by pressing F8 (or whatever key depending on make/model)and selecting the desired drive from the menu.

If you format drive 3 as FAT32 you can safely read/write to it from either OS.

If you can't access a "Boot device selection menu" you will need to do some Grub editing, as per the Anaconda/Bulldog method outlined in post 1 of this thread.

**Village** · November 21st, 2006

There all IDE. Know of any good How-to's?

Thanks
Village

**la3875** · November 21st, 2006

See this thread http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=179902 and the link to hermanzone. It helped me get up and running on two IDE drives with Windows as the slave. As necessary I can boot into either and this set up has kept the peace with the other users in the family.

Good luck and may the Ubuntu be with you...

**gn2** · November 21st, 2006

Originally Posted by Village

There all IDE. Know of any good How-to's?

Thanks
Village

Read post 1 on page 1 of this thread.

Which I started as a "How To" for dual-booting avoiding overwriting the Windows native bootloader with Grub.

**j3cakes** · November 24th, 2006

This method worked beautifully for me. I was a bit apprehensive putting ubuntu anywhere near my main PC - mostly because there are a number of posts on this forum mentioning having to reformat drives once it's all gone horribly wrong - but it's all good right now.

There are other.. issues.. but they're not relevant to this thread and I'm sure there's a solution here somewhere.

**MrBeard** · November 26th, 2006

Originally Posted by gn2

I would recommend Windows 2000 Professional rather than XP Home.

Can be had on eBay cheap and doesn't suffer from product activation.

Better yet, explain to Mrs Pete that you will save a fortune on software by going Linux-only, and you will be able to take her for a nice meal out with the savings?

Recommend either the Tolbooth or Carron restaurants in Stonehaven.

I like this plan...

Would've been looking for XP Pro in any case (use it at work don't like the fact that XP Home won't let me do so much, ME is a real pig.)