Ubuntu – Installing Ubuntu On Second Hard Drive

bootdual-boothard drivewindows

I have 2 1tb hard drives on my computer with Windows 8 on the first hard drive and nothing on the other.

I want to install Ubuntu 14 on the second hard drive. I've looked up some guides and they all say to install Ubuntu on the sdb partition when booting off a usb stick. I have also seen some say to unplug the Windows HDD and then install Ubuntu onto the second HDD, and Ubuntu will automatically detect Windows and ask what you want to boot into upon boot.

I am really concerned about this – Will it ask me to choose what OS I want to boot into? Is there something like rEFInd(Mac) for Windows? Can anyone please give me a guide on how to do it without ruining my computer?

Thanks

Best Answer

First of all you should note that you are going to install Ubuntu on a second hard drive and not on the same disk alongside, Thus you shouldn't care if Ubuntu can show the Windows or not, since the booting option now is not controlled in the Ubuntu boot Manager which is called GRUB. The booting option now is controlled by your system BIOS, so that you have each time to choose which harddisk to boot from and thus boot the needed OS.

Anyway, To install Ubuntu now on the second harddrive you can keep the Windows HDD pluged but you should be careful to choose the right drive to install Ubuntu on(the free drive), and since this have some rescue I advise you to unplug the Windows drive from your Pc, then Install Ubuntu on the second drive then replug again the Windows.

Don't forget you have to choose the HDD to boot from the BIOS.

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I read your ubuntu forum thread. Since the problem is the kernel, why don't you just update it? I'm thinking you should be able to just download the latest kernel, import your current configuration, and compile it after adding SATA 6.0 gB/s support.

I see a second option too, and more in line with the Ubuntu way: PPA. Check out UbuntuUpdates.org, they have a ppa that backports the Narwhale kernels to Lucid. I don't see why that shouldn't also work for Maverick. Go read their site first, and make sure this is something you really want to do, because it's definitely not supported; but it looks as easy as:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kernel-ppa/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo synaptic

Once you've got Synaptic open, you need to edit the repository so that you're accessing what is intended for Lucid.

Click to Settings > Repositories
Go to the Other Software tab.
You'll see this line somewhere, probably at the bottom: http://ppa.launchpad.net/kernel-ppa/ppa/ubuntu lucid main. Click to highlight it, then click Edit.
In the box that pops up, make sure the Distribution field says lucid, not maverick.
Press okay, then press close.
Press the Reload button in the menu bar.
On the left side half way down, there are several buttons (Sections, Status, Origin..). Click the Origin button.
Click the LP-PPA-kernel-ppa/lucid above that, and you should see all the new kernels you have access to.

synaptic screenshot of kernel-ppa

I trust you can take it from here?

For posterity, here is the bug fix report with all the juicy info. In short, support for your controller isn't around till Linux Kernel 2.6.37-rc4, aka Ubuntu Kernel 2.6.37-8.x.

To test this answer without buggering about your case and controllers and cables, please update your question with the output of lspci before, and after. You should see the controller going from Unknown to whatever it actually is.

Ubuntu – Installing Ubuntu on a second hard drive with data on it

You can create partitions on your HDD without erasing any data if there is enough space.

You can boot from Ubuntu LiveUSB, start gparted and do it there.

You will not need to change boot order in bios.

You can install grub on SSD or HDD, that will provide boot menu, where you will be able to choose which OS to start.

If you install grub on HDD, then when HDD is the first boot option, you will have that menu. If you switch boot order to SSD, you will boot right into Windows.

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