Dual Booting Ubuntu under Windows

[cowboy.bebop]

So I just cleared off an old HDD that I had and I would like to install Ubuntu on it, which I don't have a problem installing. It's tearing my Windows HDD apart.

Right now my present setup is

Samsung 250 SSD: Windows 7
Maxtor 160 HDD: Future Ubuntu <
Western Digital 500: Program Files
External HDD: Windows User Profile

I would like to boot unbuntu from the windows boot loader without tearing up the MBR. Not sure where to start really. I have seen white papers and articles online, include reading: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WindowsDualBoot however, it doesn't explain how to use the Windows boot loader and doesn't say much how the MBR will be written.

http://i.imgur.com/dl4QK6Wm.jpg (http://imgur.com/dl4QK6W)

I am using oracle virtualbox to run ubuntu, but its really sluggish and I would like to utilize my hardware within ubuntu.

[yancek]

If you are using windows 7 and it is installed using MBR rather than UEFI/GPT, this should be no problem if you plan to install Ubuntu on a separate hard drive. Simply install the Ubuntu bootloader to the master boot record of that drive. Each hard drive has a specific location on it for this.

A default windows install is incapable of booting any Linux system. To do that from windows you will need to manually configure/edit windows boot files and to do that you would need to be very familiar with the windows bootloader. You could use third party software but installing the bootloader to its own drive would be simpler.

[oldfred]

The only Ubuntu install option that gives you the choice on which drive's MBR to install grub2's boot loader into is the Something Else. That is a bit more complex as you have to understand drives & partitions. Most Windows users learn "drive" as in c: drive, d: drive. But a d: drive in Windows can be either another partition on the same physical drive or another physical drive.
To avoid that confusion Linux uses sda, sdb, sdc as drives and number for partitions like sda1, sda2.

You then need to know which drive you are installing Ubuntu into, like sdc or sdd. And choose to install grub to sdc or sdd. You also have to manually create and choose a / (root) partition and swap partition. You can create partitions in advance with gparted and during install just click change to choose mount point like / or create during install.
Default install is always / & swap which is the minimum you need. But with Something Else you can add /home or other partitions.

Several examples with lots of screen shots:
Lots of detail, screenshots and essential info.14.04 Something Else example
http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/ubuntu-14-04-install-guide.html
http://askubuntu.com/questions/343268/how-to-use-manual-partitioning-during-installation
(http://askubuntu.com/questions/343268/how-to-use-manual-partitioning-during-installation)
Any install with Something Else which is required with external drives or any second drive or any install with separate /home
Also shows combo box with location of grub2 boot loader
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2/Installing
(https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2/Installing)
Install 14.04 Something Else explanation and screenshots (note boot load to VM, most may install to MBR of drive sda, or sdb)
http://www.tecmint.com/ubuntu-14-04-installation-guide/


(https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2/Installing)


(http://askubuntu.com/questions/343268/how-to-use-manual-partitioning-during-installation)

[cowboy.bebop]

So what you are saying, it would be best to install Ubuntu to the HDD, but use the Windows HDD for the bootloader?

[oldfred]

Always best to keep system boot loader on same drive as system, if at all possible.
Then in BIOS choose to boot drive with Ubuntu as grub2 is a boot manager or has a menu of all systems. Windows only manages Windows installs.
Then if grub breaks for any reason you can still change BIOS or use the one time boot key often f10 or f12 to boot another system.

Some suggest that you disconnect all drives except the drive you want Ubuntu on. Then you can use the auto install.
But if drive is large, you may end up with a very large / (root) when a smaller / & larger /home or data partition(s) is somewhat better.
If you disconnect drives, be sure to plug Windows back in as sda, or same SATA port as it is in now. Usually drives are in SATA port physical connection order.

[cowboy.bebop]

Ok, I just wiped one of my maxtor hdd just now, preparing for an install. I usually do custom edit and set


[Fri Jul 17 - 04:25:03][~][d:9+/-16][-:3+/-18]
bebop@cowboy]$ lsblk

NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT

sda 8:0 0 12G 0 disk
├─sda1 8:1 0 9G 0 part /
├─sda2 8:2 0 1K 0 part
└─sda5 8:5 0 3G 0 part [SWAP]

sr0 11:0 1 1024M 0 rom



15GB for / at the most, 3GB for swap and the rest for /home

[oldfred]

That is saying sda is 12GB, I thought you were using a 160GB drive.
I use 25GB for / (root) and have used about 14GB, but that includes /home, but not any data.


fred@trusy-ar:~$ df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda3 24G 14G 9.4G 59% /
none 4.0K 0 4.0K 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
udev 3.9G 12K 3.9G 1% /dev
tmpfs 793M 1.5M 792M 1% /run
none 5.0M 0 5.0M 0% /run/lock
none 3.9G 92K 3.9G 1% /run/shm
none 100M 60K 100M 1% /run/user
/dev/sda1 500M 16M 484M 4% /boot/efi
/dev/sdb5 28G 3.5G 23G 14% /mnt/backup
/dev/sdb4 385G 82G 283G 23% /mnt/data
/dev/sda6 24G 44M 23G 1% /media/fred/wily
/dev/sdb3 24G 4.3G 19G 19% /media/fred/vivid

[cowboy.bebop]

lol sorry bout that. That was from my virtual drive, I guess I didn't think about that at the time. My install was successfull here is my output now



[Fri Jul 17 - 08:29:38][~][d:10+/-13][-:1+/-10]
cowboy@bebop]$ lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda 8:0 0 232.9G 0 disk
├─sda1 8:1 0 100M 0 part
└─sda2 8:2 0 232.8G 0 part
sdb 8:16 0 465.8G 0 disk
└─sdb1 8:17 0 465.8G 0 part
sdc 8:32 0 152.7G 0 disk
├─sdc1 8:33 0 9.3G 0 part /
├─sdc2 8:34 0 1K 0 part
├─sdc5 8:37 0 3.8G 0 part
└─sdc6 8:38 0 139.6G 0 part /home
sdd 8:48 0 149.1G 0 disk
└─sdd1 8:49 0 149.1G 0 part /media/cowboy/Western Dig-160GB (External)
sr0 11:0 1 1024M 0 rom

[Fri Jul 17 - 08:29:41][~][d:10+/-13][-:1+/-10]
cowboy@bebop]$