Move Grub from HD to USB

[syst3m]

Disk /dev/sda: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders, total 488397168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xe30dc1d9

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 63 468408319 234204128+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 468408320 488386559 9989120 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdb: 4063 MB, 4063232000 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 493 cylinders, total 7936000 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0005dfcc

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 63 7470224 3735081 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2 7470225 7920044 224910 5 Extended
/dev/sdb5 7470288 7920044 224878+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

[caljohnsmith]

OK, how about doing the following to install Grub to the MBR of your USB drive:

sudo grub
grub> root (hd1,0)
grub> makeactive
grub> setup (hd1)
grub> quit

Then to restore a Windows equivalent MBR to your sda drive, how about trying:

sudo apt-get install lilo
sudo lilo -M /dev/sda mbr

Then reboot, set your BIOS to boot your sdb USB drive, and if all goes well you should at least get the Grub menu on start up, which is 90% of the battle. If you installed Intrepid to your USB drive, you should also be able to boot into Ubuntu, but if you installed a previous Ubuntu version, most likely your Grub's menu.lst file will need some tweaking in order to boot into Ubuntu. How about giving that a shot and let me know how far you get.

[syst3m]

It worked! Grub now only pops up when the usb is plugged in.

So does this mean that I can boot ubuntu off the usb on any computer now that grub is on the usb? Also you said 'Windows equivalent MBR' meaning I'm using lilo now instead of the windows default or grub, right? If yes, will that be over written if I were to reinstall windows at a later time?

[caljohnsmith]

It worked! Grub now only pops up when the usb is plugged in.

So does this mean that I can boot ubuntu off the usb on any computer now that grub is on the usb? Also you said 'Windows equivalent MBR' meaning I'm using lilo now instead of the windows default or grub, right? If yes, will that be over written if I were to reinstall windows at a later time?

Yes, you should be able to boot your Ubuntu USB drive on other computers, assuming they support USB booting, the only thing you might have to be concerned about is how well the other computers' hardware is compatible with Ubuntu. And when I said "Windows equivalent MBR", all that means is that you have a boot loader (lilo) installed to the MBR of your sda drive that performs the exact same function as a proprietary Windows MBR. So if you reinstall Windows at some point, you'll just get a genuine honest-to-goodness proprietary Windows MBR, rather than your present lilo MBR which does the same thing. So bottom line is, it doesn't really matter since they both do the same thing.

[syst3m]

Well thanks for everything.