Ubuntu Installation :: Dual Boot From External Usb Hdd
Aug 29, 2010
I installed ubuntu 10.04 on external usb hdd after having the internal drive disconnected. When now I try to boot i can only do it from the internal. I can see the external when in ubuntu, but no booting. Also I can see the external in the internal grub menu but when booting disappears. I suspect that it has to do whith the designation of volume names, when installing from external the disk is named sda1 but in the internal grub is sdb1. How can I change the name to sdba1 in the external grub
I installed Ubuntu to an external hard drive and I wanted it to be a portable OS I could take with me and still maintain my settings and files and what not. My problem now is, I cannot boot into Windows without having the USB drive connected. I also cannot boot directly to the drive by selecting the USB drive from my boot options on start up, I have to let it go into the boot menu.
So I need help with being able to boot directly from the USB drive on any computer, and being able to boot into Windows without having the USB drive plugged in. Hopefully this can be done without re-installing Windows.
The thing is i want to have windows xp on my internal drive and ubuntu on the external. Not very hard but i want it so that i can choose what to boot when i start my computer and i also want to store other things then ubuntu on my external drive so i can use it in xp also
The reason i want ubuntu for is to use it while watching movies or chatting osv and use xp for games and my animation programs since they tend to be quite hard to get to work on ubuntu.
I'm new to the world of Linux, but am intrigued by the variety and functionality it offers over Windows. I have an external HDD from which I would like to dual boot Linux Mint, with Windows Vista (64 Bit) remaining on the primary internal HDD. I know that my BIOS supports dual booting and booting from USB devices (my external HDD). Are there any specific dangers I need to be aware of? Is it as simple as putting in the installation disc and selecting my external HDD?
I installed Ubuntu on external USB hard drive and while booting I did got option to log into windows XP, Ubuntu. Both operating systems ran fine. i.e. GRUB had overwritten MBR and I was able to dual boot. Main issue: I have installed Ubuntu in external hard-drive so that I can use Linux whenever I want other people who are using same computer can operate on WindowsXP. Sometimes my external hard drive gives problem if there is loose connection and so that oper people using computer do not face any problem I want to disconnect external USB HD whenever I am not using Linux. GRUB menu was pointing to external hardrive so disconnecting it meant my system wont boot!!I rewrote MBR using WindowsXP CD recovery mode. Now I am unable to boot from external USB hard disk( I thought I would be able to if I choose USB hard drive in BIOS option but it did not work it logged into WindowsXP by default).Is there any way I can change WindowsXP boot.ini file so that it also shows Ubuntu in external hard disk? Or is there any way.(I do not want GRUB way as then I would have to keep my external drive connected to log into windows - which I do not want).
I am dual booting windows and ubuntu. I bought a external hard drive to use as a backup solution. I like the idea of my external HD being an exact copy of my internal one so that if my internal one completely fails I can just plug my external one in and carry on (it's an internal drive in an enclosure).
I notice a lot of people use rsync to backup their home directory. Can I use rsync (or something else) to back up the whole drive including the Windows partition.
I have Mandrake 7.1 installed on a laptop and I have several problems that an upgrade would likely fix or provide a path that will support a fix. The Mousepad is irratic and the PCMCIA WiFi and Ethernet cards are not recognized. What's a good way to upgrade? (I can access the network from an external modem and from a dual-boot Windows 98 WiFi)
I am quite experienced user of Ubuntu desktop / server distributions. Recently my desktop 9.10 disk failed and I decided to reinstall using 10.04. My configuration is a dual disk dual bot system. I have XP Pro SP3 on one disk and Ubuntu 10.04 on second. XP has own, untached MBR ubuntu got Grub 2 installed on the same disk as Ubuntu. Ubuntu disk is booting first in BIOS. Grub 2 detected both system, however I can boot only to Ubuntu. When I am trying to boot XP I got black screen only. Looks like booting is stack in BIOS stage, because crt+alt+del reset system.
I read Ubuntu forum, search Google and did not come with any solutions. My XP MBR is OK. I can boot directly, choosing XP HDD in BIOS as a starting disk. All entries in grub.cfg looks fine to me. I made 3 different clear installations of Ubuntu. Each with the same result. I reinstaled Grub2 with no effect. I wonder if this may be a hardware/Grub 2 compatibility issue. I am using quite old components.My motherboard is Assus P4C800 Delux. I have 5 HDDs 2 CD. Exactly the same configuration was OK with 9.10/XP dual disk dual boot using Grub legacy.
After installing ubuntu 9.10 on external HDD I cannot boot vista if external usb is unplugged(where ubuntu is installed). it says grub loading and after that recover grub ( i think that is what is says ... not certain in this moment ) anyway hope you get my dilemma. If you need more information I'll be glad to provide it.
I have a (slightly complicated) dual/multi boot system.
I keep getting boot errors (when choosing ubuntu from the grub2 menu)
Code: Serious errors were found while checking the disk drive for /boot
If I switch off and restart, ubuntu will then start without issue.
My setup is like this ....3 disks, one with 10.10 clean install - so Grub2, separate partitions for /, /boot and /home, one with windows 7, one with windows XP and 10.04 wubi (this is my old disk which I will trash once I'm happy with my upgrade to 10.10 & 7 on separate disks.
I installed 7 and 10.10 with ONLY their disks installed. After both were working, I added all disks and rejigged the grub2 menu (using update-grub and StartUp-Manager).
This problem only seems to occur if my previous boot was not 10.10 ( I will investigate this further). It's as if something (grub2 ?, the bios ?) is remembering part of the previous boot and not using the grub2 menu completely.
Can Ubuntu install and boot from external HD while still booting windows off internal HD?In an attempt to spread Ubuntu my friend wants to use ubuntu off an external HD and still have windows fully operational on the internal HD. Questions:1) Can Ubuntu install on external HD without tricky mounting methods and if so how doabout it?2) The bois have the capability to boot from usb, will grub work?
I had a dual boot machine with fedora 12 and windows vista and I could use grub boot-loader to switch between two. Few days ago windows got corrupt and I have to reinstall it. I put windows 7 now and as usual it erased grub. So to reinstall I put the fedora 12 installation CD on and followed some usual setup steps. When I got the command line I issued the command "grub-install /dev/sda" (sda not hda because It showed bunch of sda, sda1..) but surprisingly it said grub command not found. I remember doing it before while it worked fine.
Have just installed 9.10, again, many failed attempts previously.Cannot get to boot up and show menu on dual boot with Vista initially,However when I delete the grubenv file the system boots ok and works fine.But does not show the grub menu to choose boot up choices.Got the information to delete the file on some posts elsewhere about booting problem, and tried a longshot and got into Ubuntu for the first time from trying to install now for 3 months!The problem is the file grubenv is created each time so on subsequent boot ups the sytem fails to boot again.The Grub version is 1.97 beta 4, most up to date for Karmic I think, I have seen a version 1.98 but dont think its for Karmic?
Is there a way to modify the grub.cfg file to stop this problem ( all posts say dont touch this file??Or install a script to delete the grubenv file on shutdown as a workaround for me, (I have no idea how to do this whatsoever, I'm not familiar with linux at all)I did read that this problem was fixed/patched in Grub version 2, but dosn't seem.so on my system afetr I updated it when I got into Ubuntu.I couldnt find the patch or fix, I got the information I am on about from this post:URL...It seems to say it was fixed or patched by Colin Watson reading through, but I don't really understand whats being said or how to get the patch on my system if indeed there is one?Sorry for being a bit thick about all this, its a bit beyond my brain now, hope somebody can help out as I have enjoyed my brief bit of fun in Ubuntu.
I have a netbook running Windows XP as standard. There is also a recovery partition which came from the factory.
In the past I installed Ubuntu (I think 9.something) from USB key and all worked fine. However my XP became corrupted and I needed to do a repair on it. After this, Ubuntu became removed from the boot select menu.
Since then, Ubuntu has become updated to 10.04, which I now cannot install.
The Live CD tells me there is a "file IO error" and simply stops installation at around 70%.
I did manage to get into Ubuntu from a Live USB using Wubi. However when I chose to install Ubuntu to a Harddrive, the option to "install side by side" was missing.
After reading on the forums, I did a chkdsk /f on Windows and tried again. Now my liveUSB does not show a boot menu!
When I select to boot from USB stick, the screen goes blank with a flashing cursor. Ctrl+alt+dlt reboots.
I'm really lost here! It seems when I fix one problem, another problem arises!
Also when trying to instal Ubuntu within Windows, the process goes through to 100% and asks me to reboot. When I do so, the option for Ubuntu does show in the boot menu. However when I select it, I get an error "Windows boot failed: file wubildr.mbr and status: 0xc00000f - something is corrupt".
I have Ubuntu 10.04 LTS and Windows XP installed on my laptop. Usually when booting, I get the GRUB 2 menu and I can boot into either Ubuntu or XP.I was playing around with EasyBCD, then after trying to remove it I was unable to boot into Windows, I used a Windows 2000 CD recovery console to fix the MBR (using: fixboot and fixmbr).Now Windows starts up when I power on, but I don't get the grub menu anymore with an Ubuntu option. If I boot from the Ubuntu Live CD and try to mount my Ubuntu partition (/dev/sda5) I get this error:
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sda5, missing codepage or helper program, or other error In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
I recently got a netbook and setup as dual boot between win7 starter and 9.10 (64bit). Win 7 starter is not impressive so i want to nuke it and give the space all to my /USR partion. I am comfortable working with Gparted and assume that i can launch using my gparted live usb and delete the windows partion and then resize the /usr partion.
what changes do i need to make w/ Grub2? I would prefer not to see the Grub menu at all and have it load right the main kernel if possible. Also, if this is possible is there a way to get to the Grub menu during boot should i need to select a different kernel?
I have just installed Ubuntu 10.4 x64 onto a machine with Vista Ultimate x64. When I boot the machine, the Windows option comes up in the GRUB menu. However, when I attempt to boot Windows, I receive the following error: No such device: de80ab9f80ab7d21. error: No such partition. Press any key to continue...
I looked around and found a similar issue at [URL] However, before trying to fix the issue by guesswork or via solutions that worked for a similar, though not necessarily identical problem. I've run the boot info script (see output below) mentioned several places on this site as a valuable input for boot problem tracking. how to get Windows to boot on my computer?
I have searched and read threads about the Bitlocker, grub and TPM issues that might show up, but I can't draw any conclusions as some information contradict each other. To make sure I don't screw up my pc as thought I need to make a new post.
At work I'm supposed to run Windows 7 and encrypt the win-partition with Bitlocker. I have installed Windows, turned on the encryption and it ties into the TPM. But as I am moving over to the *nix department I want to run Ubuntu as dual boot to check everything rusn fine with all the systems I need. Before I installed Windows I partioned the disk:
1,5 GB for system/bitlocker requirement 147 GB for Windows, C: 85 GB which is empty where I intend to install Ubuntu (not formated yet)
I boot into Windows with my bitlocker/TPM key on an USB-stick. Without the usb-stick the pc won't boot. Now, before I try to install Ubuntu I want to make sure to do it the right so I don't mess up the Windows installation or won't be able to boot the pc at all.
There seem to be several "schools" to this. Some suggest I should have installed Ubuntu first, then Windows and then encrypt. Some say, no worries just fire away and install since you are not planning to read the windows-partition from Ubuntu. Or an alternative, install but make sure to deactive the encryption during installation. Some say, install but make sure grub is installed in (multiple choices) location.
After installing karmic with Grub2 I am unable to boot into Archlinux partition. Grub2 has removed the last line of the Archlinux boot stanza! It used to read:-
[Code]....
Following the Grub2 tutorials I have tried editing /etc/grub.d/40_custom as follows:-
[Code]....
But no luck. Only way into Archlinux is to get into the edit shell and manually add the missing line and remove other stuff not needed. I have spent hours trying to resolve this issue and I am fairly p----d off
I am ready to reclaim the disk space that is currently being used by XP in my dualboot scenario. Per the Gparted scan below, my hard drive is currently being sequenced as sda1 (NTFS data only, which I mounted in Ubuntu and write my working documents to), sda2 (XP operating system/boot drive). Ubuntu is on sda3, with home on sda4. I'm currently running 9.10.
I would like to eliminate the contents of sda2, and migrate sda1 contents to ext4. Question is, what are the best steps. I have good backups of everything, and sync my NTFS data to a NAS.
I am trying to install Ubuntu on a machine that already has Windows 7 on one partition. Obviously I intend to install it on the other free partition. So I downloaded the iso burnt it onto the disk and pop in the disk and the boot the machine. The installation screen comes up I selected the first option (Try Ubuntu without installation), I just see a prompt after a few seconds and then the screen goes blank and nothing happens. Unable to detect a signal, The monitor goes into standby. The same thing happens if I use "install Ubuntu" option as well. I downloaded minimal install version Ubuntu and tried to install with that. since its old school installation, the installation completed without any errors, but when I restart the grub come up and when I select to boot into Ubuntu, I see the same behavior i.e. the screen goes blank and never boots to anything. This is a machine on which I was using 10.4 until yesterday.
When I first installed Ubuntu as a dual-boot (about 18 months ago), I had problems booting to XP, which were eventually solved for me in this thread, which set Windows to boot Ubuntu, rather than the other way round.
I've just had to do a fresh install of Maverick, following a major problem, and I'm back to being unable to boot XP. The error is different from before and I don't want to start guessing at what to do about it and screwing things up still further.
The GRUB menu lists Ubuntu first, then Windows XP. If I choose XP, it takes me to my previous boot menu, with Windows as the first option. However, selecting this gives me
Code: Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: <Windows root>system32 toskml.exe
Please re-install a copy of the above file. Windows and Ubuntu are on separate hard drives. XP was fine until I re-installed Ubuntu.
recently sent up another computer as follows:Two sata drives. Windows 7 was installed on the first drive(sda)and booted successfully. This drive was disconnected ( I have had some installs where Unbuntu wipes out the existing C drive eventhough I am installing to D) and Ubuntu was installed to the second drive (sdb). At one point I had to rebuild the grup on the Ubuntu drive and was careful to make it installed on the Ubuntu drive. To my surprise when the PC booted up I saw the Grub menu with a menu entry for Windows. The Windows drive was always the primary drive before the Ubuntu install. I was planning on the Windows drive being the boot drive and using a boot manager to determine where to go from there. If I utilize the BIOS boot option (F12) I can boot each drive individually. I cannot in BIOS set a particular drive to boot - just a hard drive. Everything is working I am just curious why the primary drive does not boot first. IN BIOS the Windows drive is a primary SATA with a lower number that the Ubuntu drive which is listed as a secondary drive.
So we install Windows 7 home premium. Then in goes the Ubuntu Disk. Ubuntu seems to think that the windows 7 partition is one big lump of unallocated space. Tried multiple re-installs of Windows 7, all concluding the same. A bit of googling told me that it has something to do with partition tables or something. I even tried to use Gdisk to delete Gpt from the windows disk, which - as I have absolutely no idea what any of it means, - resulted in me screwing up the entire Win7 partition hence win7 not being able to boot anymore.
i've seen on the internet include a lot of technical garble which I don't understand. I've been using Linux for a while, but as far as partitioning and dual booting is concerned, it's always gone smoothly for me up until now
I updated from Ubuntu 9.10 to 10.04 via Ubuntu updater. Worked nicely. Until I had to use Win 7 for a moment, so I went to the Grub boot menu and picked Win 7. Nothing is happening. Just a black screen with blinking underscore to the top left corner. I never had this problem with 9.10, so I am confused. I tried looking around and nothing helped. Be noted that I am an amateur with Ubuntu coding and installing. I did hear that this is already a common issue now.
I just got a Toshiba Mini NB305-310 and tried to install Ubuntu 10.04 on it using the .iso file on a flash drive. When I try to boot into Windows XP, the loading screen comes up for a second, flashes blue, then restarts the computer. I'm able to boot up in Ubuntu, but it takes a LONG time with the screen black before it goes to the Ubuntu loading screen. I saw in an earlier post that it's helpful to post the output of the Boot Info Script, so I've posted it below. I'm new to the forums, so if I'm doing anything wrong, please let me know:
Boot Info Script 0.55 dated February 15th, 2010 ============================= Boot Info Summary: ============================== => Grub 2 is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda and looks on the same drive in partition #5 for /boot/grub.
I am trying to run a dual boot system with Windows 7 and an Ubuntu 9.10 installation from a live CD. I am running this on a Dell Inspiron M5030. Both operating systems have installed fine however whenever I run Windows the computer subsequently fails to run Grub upon rebooting and gives the following error message:
Grub loading the symbol 'ob_bioslgrub?+E?U? Not found Aborted press any key to exit
The unrecognised symbols are different each time. I have also had (' ') and ('ee*??S ') and ('un'). I cured this initially by reinstalling Ubuntu but after looking at the support documentation have now found that I can cure it temporarily by simply reinstalling Grub using the command:
