Install problem on Vista64 multiple drives

[Pateris]

I am trying to install Ubuntu 9.04 on my Vista x64 box (dual boot) and I have a problem.

I have multiple drives - but there are three that are important:

/dev/sda and /dev/sdb are two 500 GB drives, which I had setup using Intel ICH9R fakeRAID-0 under Windows. The plan was to have a couple of 200 GB partitions for Windows and another pair of partitions for Linux.

/dev/sdc is a 70 GB drive, which is partitioned into a 50 GB NTFS partition (sdc1), leaving me 20 GB for /boot and /.

I thought that the easiest thing would be to install Ubuntu onto the 20 GB partition of /dev/sdc, but when I did that, the installed put GRUB on /dev/sda. The problem being that this mangled the RAID config, and the BIOS is set to boot from /dev/sd3 (HD2) - so it tries to boot Vista (but Vista bluescreens on boot).

Can I fix it? Or do I start from scratch again (I have images of all the Vista partitions backed up)? And if I start from scratch, how do I make sure Ubuntu's installed puts GRUB on /dev/sdc?

[BooNality]

Oh wow, I "think" you can fix it but I don't know how. I had an issue with GRUB earlier today where it suddenly gave me 2 of ubuntu and recovery mode to select from when I only have one distro installed, and to fix it I used this...

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RecoveringUbuntuAfterInstallingWindows

The link is geared toward recovering GRUB after a Windows isntall over an already good GRUB config but it has alot of information in there and I was able to use this guide to remove a copy of my ubuntu and recovery mode from the GRUB menu so now it is correct again and looking the way it should.

[cariboo]

Have a look at this howto and as well maybe have a look at the FakeRaid Howto (http://help.ubuntu.com/community/FakeRaidHowto)

[Pateris]

I think what I am going to try to do is a hardware trick.

I'm going to change which drives are plugged into which SATA ports on the MB.

That way the boot drive will be /dev/sda and hd0 to both operating systems and I won't need to worry about trying to figure out the MBRs on the fakeRAID...

[Pateris]

OK, I've gotten Ubuntu up an running after switching which harddrives were on which ports.

/dev/sda is hd0 and is the 74 GB boot drive
/dev/sdb and /dev/sdc are supposed to be in a RAID 0.

When I start the machine, my Intel ICH9R controller tells me that the two disks in the RAID are OFFLINE MEMBERS. I think this is because of this (from bootinforscript):


============================= Boot Info Summary: ==============================

=> Grub0.97 is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda and looks on the same drive
in partition #2 for /grub/stage2 and /grub/menu.lst.
=> Grub0.97 is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdb and looks on boot drive #3 in
partition #2 for /grub/stage2 and /grub/menu.lst.
=> Windows is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdc

sda1: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows Vista
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System: Windows Vista
Boot files/dirs: /bootmgr /Boot/BCD /Windows/System32/winload.exe

sda2: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: ext2
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Operating System:
Boot files/dirs: /grub/menu.lst

sda3: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: swap
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:

sda4: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: ext4
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Operating System: Ubuntu 9.04
Boot files/dirs: /boot/grub/menu.lst /etc/fstab

sdb1: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system:
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Mounting failed:
mount: unknown filesystem type ''

sdb2: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system:
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Mounting failed:
mount: unknown filesystem type ''

sdc1: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows Vista
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:
Boot files/dirs:

My big question is: How do I repair the MBR on /dev/sdb back to a Windows Vista MBR? (which is why I think the RAID is screwed up...)

[Pateris]

OK - the hardware thing did the trick.



Ubuntu installed and booting from /dev/sda (hd0,1).
On restart, Intel ICH9R RAID says two disks are OFFLINE MEMBERS
Vista boots from hd0,0 without the RAID working at all
On a second restart. Intel ICH9R RAID says two disks are ONLINE
Vista boots from hd0,0 with the RAID functioning.
Only problem is that because I had the Vista /USERS/ directory on a RAID partition, the boot into Vista without the RAID locked up my profile - still trying to work that out.

Now we'll see if I can get Ubuntu to see the RAID so I can move /home there...