jolivelli
May 24th, 2009, 06:57 PM
Hello,
I wanted to try a full install of Ubuntu, but I didn't want to re-partition my hard drive, so I installed 9.04 from CD onto a 4GB USB Flash drive. I wanted to have the PC boot to ubuntu if I had the USB drive plugged in, and Vista if I didn't. I thought that if I installed it to the USB drive, it wouldn't make any changes to my internal hard drive. I guess I should have read more before I tried the Install, because that is not what I wound up with. After finishing the install, my PC wouldn't boot at all. I had the bios set to boot from USB first, then CD, the HDD. if I plugged in the USB drive, it would just freeze after the bios screen. if I didn't the installer placed GRUB on my hard drive, and it would give me error 21, and freeze. Fortunately I was able to fix things somewhat by changing the boot order in my bios to boot to the hard drive first. Now, if the USB flash drive is plugged in, GRUB boots ub, and gives me a choice of Ubuntu or Vista. I can boot into either, and use either. My problem is that if I don't have the USB flash drive plugged in, the PC will not boot at all. I would like to have my computer boot to vista if the usb drive is not plugged in. Ideally, I would like to have the USB drive bootable if it is plugged in, and set to boot first from the bios, but this is secondary, my main concern is being able to boot my computer without the USB drive. Any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks
- Jean Paul
I wanted to try a full install of Ubuntu, but I didn't want to re-partition my hard drive, so I installed 9.04 from CD onto a 4GB USB Flash drive. I wanted to have the PC boot to ubuntu if I had the USB drive plugged in, and Vista if I didn't. I thought that if I installed it to the USB drive, it wouldn't make any changes to my internal hard drive. I guess I should have read more before I tried the Install, because that is not what I wound up with. After finishing the install, my PC wouldn't boot at all. I had the bios set to boot from USB first, then CD, the HDD. if I plugged in the USB drive, it would just freeze after the bios screen. if I didn't the installer placed GRUB on my hard drive, and it would give me error 21, and freeze. Fortunately I was able to fix things somewhat by changing the boot order in my bios to boot to the hard drive first. Now, if the USB flash drive is plugged in, GRUB boots ub, and gives me a choice of Ubuntu or Vista. I can boot into either, and use either. My problem is that if I don't have the USB flash drive plugged in, the PC will not boot at all. I would like to have my computer boot to vista if the usb drive is not plugged in. Ideally, I would like to have the USB drive bootable if it is plugged in, and set to boot first from the bios, but this is secondary, my main concern is being able to boot my computer without the USB drive. Any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks
- Jean Paul