Can I choose which partition to Install the GRUB files on?

[andrewwg94]

i know that part of grub is in the mbr, and the other is usually in ubuntu's root partition. I want to install those grub files in a diffrent partition. Is that possible? can i put them in the windows partition? if not, can i just make a small new partition to put grub in it?

[caljohnsmith]

i know that part of grub is in the mbr, and the other is usually in ubuntu's root partition. I want to install those grub files in a diffrent partition. Is that possible? can i put them in the windows partition? if not, can i just make a small new partition to put grub in it?
Sure you can make a dedicated Grub partition, but usually an easier way is to make a ~200 MB partition and mount that as /boot during the Ubuntu install process; that partition will then contain all the kernel and boot files, including Grub. Or if you want to use Grub inside of an NTFS partition (Windows), you can install "grub4DOS", which coincidentally is how I have my machine set up at the moment.

But first, why do you want to put the Grub files in another partition? In order to best help you, it would be best if you state your ultimate goal in addition to what you are thinking of doing. :)

Also, just so I can get an idea of your setup, please post:

sudo fdisk -lu

[andrewwg94]

Sure you can make a dedicated Grub partition, but usually an easier way is to make a ~200 MB partition and mount that as /boot during the Ubuntu install process; that partition will then contain all the kernel and boot files, including Grub. Or if you want to use Grub inside of an NTFS partition (Windows), you can install "grub4DOS", which coincidentally is how I have my machine set up at the moment.

But first, why do you want to put the Grub files in another partition? In order to best help you, it would be best if you state your ultimate goal in addition to what you are thinking of doing. :)

Also, just so I can get an idea of your setup, please post:

sudo fdisk -lu

Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders, total 156301488 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xb3cf5238

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 63 41945714 20972826 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 75939255 156296384 40178565 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 41945715 75939254 16996770 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 41945778 44949869 1502046 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 44949933 75939254 15494661 83 Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Disk /dev/sdb: 17.2 GB, 17245863936 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 2096 cylinders, total 33683328 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xcae7cae7

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 63 33672239 16836088+ 7 HPFS/NTFS

i'm just trying to keep the boot files as safe as possible

[caljohnsmith]

i'm just trying to keep the boot files as safe as possible
I would recommend going with a /boot partition then. Do you want to reinstall and do that like I described before, or do you want to keep your current install? Either way, you'll need to make a ~200 MB partition for mounting as /boot; you can do that from the Live CD by running:

gksudo gparted
And use Ubuntu's gparted partition editor to make the new partition.