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View Full Version : [ubuntu] Installation of Ubuntu on second hard drive doesn't boot



Overv
May 31st, 2013, 03:21 PM
I have an existing 3 TB hard drive that I use for Windows files (non-OS related). I shrunk it with Disk Manager in Windows 7 to leave 128 GB of free space.

Then I booted the Ubuntu 13.04 live cd from my USB drive and selected the manual partitioning installation option. I selected the hard drive (which is apparently seen as my primary drive) and created partitions in the remaining free space as follows:

http://imgur.com/a/mCO5P

(I don't know what's up with the sizes, it seems to subtract 1 MB from the size I specify)

I then selected /dev/sda to install the bootloader in and started the installation process. It seemed to be successful and asked me at the end if I wanted to restart.

I restarted the PC and selected this hard drive from the BIOS boot menu, but it stops at "Loading Operating System". What am I doing wrong?

Edit: Also, here's some output from commands I tried:


> fdisk -l /dev/sda
Cannot open /dev/sda

> sudo grub-install --recheck --no-floppy --root-directory=/ /dev/sda
Path `/boot/grub` is not readable by GRUB on boot. Installation is impossible. Aborting.

Edit 2: I just ran boot repair and it asked me if sda is a removeable disk. I selected No, because it's an internal hard drive. Then it said that /boot was detected.

I clicked recommended repair and it gave me this:

"GPT detected. Please create a BIOS-boot partition (>1MB, unformatted filesystem, bios_grub_flag). This can be performed via tools such as Gparted. Then try again."

Full boot info: http://paste.ubuntu.com/5720036/

Overv
May 31st, 2013, 04:38 PM
I decided to just delete all existing partitions. I think the problem was that it couldn't create the 1 MB boot partition.

fantab
June 1st, 2013, 06:08 AM
HDD larger than 2TB needs and uses GUID Partition Table [GPT]. Your 3TB HDD, /dev/sda has GPT.
While your /dev/sdb is 'legacy' MBR.

Ubuntu/Linux can boot from GPT Disks in "legacy" BIOS Mode only if it has 1-2MB Partition as your first partition.

You should be able to install and run Ubuntu in 'legacy' BIOS mode just fine from GPT once you have 1 MB bios_grub.

I think your computer is booting from /dev/sdb by default. You will have to change the BIOS boot order of your HDD to boot /dev/sda first.