Linux talk

[veethree]

So i decided to play with some linux distros. And as i used ubuntu as a primary OS a few years ago, I thought that would be a good place to start. See what the latest version looks like and stuff. But i also wanted to explore some other distros, So i was wondering what distros you use.

Also i have a question that perhaps some of you linux users could answer, I have 2 hard drives in my pc, One SSD which i plan to leave untouched, And then a HDD which is where i plan on installing any distros i may want to try out. My question is regarding the bootloader, Last time i did this i was working with a single HDD, But now as i have 2, I'm not sure which one i should install the bootloader on. The PC is set to automatically boot to the SSD, But if i install the bootloader there, Will it be able to find ubuntu(or whatever else i choose to install there) on the other drive?

[raidho36]

There will be bootsector marked up correctly on your SSD to boot up from HDD. Even if it fails, you can manually edit device paths in GRUB/LiLo to point to the right drive. Note that it often bites when you re-plug your drives with sudden RESCUE MODEs. At least it was last time I did that under Linux, which is two years by now.

[soulmata]

You should probably leave the bootloader on your primary drive, in this case your SSD.

Otherwise, in order to boot into Ubuntu, you'll need to tell your BIOS to use your HDD as the first boot device.

Grub is fantastic these days for booting multiple OS, including any variant of Windows, so you should have no trouble at all. If you're concerned about potentially losing the HDD, you can always install the boot loader to the HDD, then change the boot order in BIOS permanently, or at least until you decide to switch back - though that may be more of a PITA than you're looking for.

You can have as many OS on as many drives as you want; the Ubuntu installer will find and properly configure grub for all of them, and give you a nice pretty menu on start for which one to choose.

[veethree]

You should probably leave the bootloader on your primary drive, in this case your SSD.

Otherwise, in order to boot into Ubuntu, you'll need to tell your BIOS to use your HDD as the first boot device.

Grub is fantastic these days for booting multiple OS, including any variant of Windows, so you should have no trouble at all. If you're concerned about potentially losing the HDD, you can always install the boot loader to the HDD, then change the boot order in BIOS permanently, or at least until you decide to switch back - though that may be more of a PITA than you're looking for.

You can have as many OS on as many drives as you want; the Ubuntu installer will find and properly configure grub for all of them, and give you a nice pretty menu on start for which one to choose.

I've actually installed ubuntu on my primary drive, And windows on the secondary. And grub isn't recognizing windows at all. This is probably something simple to fix, I just haven't really been trying to fix it as i don't need windows at the moment. (definitely gonna need it in the future)

[retrotails]

You should probably leave the bootloader on your primary drive, in this case your SSD.

Otherwise, in order to boot into Ubuntu, you'll need to tell your BIOS to use your HDD as the first boot device.

Grub is fantastic these days for booting multiple OS, including any variant of Windows, so you should have no trouble at all. If you're concerned about potentially losing the HDD, you can always install the boot loader to the HDD, then change the boot order in BIOS permanently, or at least until you decide to switch back - though that may be more of a PITA than you're looking for.

You can have as many OS on as many drives as you want; the Ubuntu installer will find and properly configure grub for all of them, and give you a nice pretty menu on start for which one to choose.

I've actually installed ubuntu on my primary drive, And windows on the secondary. And grub isn't recognizing windows at all. This is probably something simple to fix, I just haven't really been trying to fix it as i don't need windows at the moment. (definitely gonna need it in the future)

Boot repair fixes all... (maybe...)

[raidho36]

I should mention that Windows loader won't recognize any other loader (or the OS for that matter), you're lucky that it didn't pemanently deleted GRUB. When using multiboot, you first install Windows and then other OSes.

Also, try running reconfigure grub from Linux, it should re-scan and set up everything.

[veethree]

I should mention that Windows loader won't recognize any other loader (or the OS for that matter), you're lucky that it didn't pemanently deleted GRUB. When using multiboot, you first install Windows and then other OSes.

Also, try running reconfigure grub from Linux, it should re-scan and set up everything.

I did try "sudo update-grub", That didn't find windows.

My current plan is to reinstall windows and see what happens, I'd really prefer not to have to reinstall ubuntu as it took some time to get the drivers and such set up, But if that's a necessity, Setting it up for the 2nd time should be easier as i know how to do it.

If i were to restore mbr, then manually re-install grub from a live USB, Shouldn't that work?

[raidho36]

Theoretically should, but I dunno, could be a problems with picking up your installed OSes without having complete boot data in the first place.

Anyway, you can try to simply chainload a Windows loader from GRUB manually (also just add such shortcut to the GRUB menu), it should then run standard Windows loader like normal. It's a default way of handling Windows' loader.

[veethree]

Theoretically should, but I dunno, could be a problems with picking up your installed OSes without having complete boot data in the first place.

Anyway, you can try to simply chainload a Windows loader from GRUB manually (also just add such shortcut to the GRUB menu), it should then run standard Windows loader like normal. It's a default way of handling Windows' loader.

Thanks for your input, But as it turns out my plan worked, I reinstalled windows, Booted into ubuntu, Ran the "sudo update-grub" cmd, And it found windows.

There's a problem though, I can't access the ubuntu disk from windows.

EDIT: Wait fuck, It's a different file system. Discard that.

[raidho36]

Windows had a third-party readonly driver for ext3, dunno if that helps. Just make sure you don't go off with NTFS under Linux because it's a user-mode driver and it makes really heavy CPU load on any operation, and also is pretty slow to transfer data. Not to mention that NTFS sucks really hard and outdated by ages if that wasn't enough.