Installing Linux and Windows on two separate hard drives
Yehacid
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Yehacid -
Yehacid -
Good evening everyone,
Let me explain my situation: I currently have two hard drives in my tower; a 250 GB SSD + a 1 TB HDD. Windows 10 is installed on the SSD (EFI mode if that information is useful...? I've seen that it is for dual-booting [which is not the case for me, but anyway]).
I am going to add a second SSD to my tower and install Linux on it using a bootable USB drive so that it and Windows 10 are completely independent. The desired outcome would be one SSD with Windows 10, one SSD with Linux, and a shared HDD (which would be in NTFS). I boot up and choose which OS to boot into.
Given this, here is my request; after reading dozens of articles/posts, I am a bit confused about the best way to proceed, especially since the solutions/responses are not always the same, etc.
What I want is theoretically quite simple in my opinion: for both OS to be PERFECTLY independent; if there is a problem with one SSD (whether I unplug it, it fails, or something else), it should not affect the booting of the other OS (this problem seems to be the case when doing a dual-boot from two hard drives [it's a matter of the boot manager only recognizing the master disk, which is where Windows is, right?]). To do this, and avoid this potential handicap (to make sure they are TRULY independent), I’ve read that GRUB should be installed on the disk where Linux is installed (my second SSD, then), change the boot order to put Linux first and then do some manipulations in GRUB to make Windows believe that yes, yes, it is still on the master disk even though we are actually booting from the disk where Linux is first.
Am I correct or is there an easier way? Is it not simply possible to install Linux on my second SSD, and at startup, regardless of any issues with the SSD containing Windows 10, I can choose which OS to boot (instead of doing GRUB and manipulations to confuse Windows...)? Also, will OS updates not interfere with anything in the future? And practically, how should I proceed exactly?
Thank you in advance and have a good evening :)
EDIT: One solution seems to be to remove the Windows 10 SSD once it is installed, then in its place connect the one where I want to install Linux, and similarly once installed, I remove it and put back the Windows 10 SSD and finally the one with Linux. Because apparently if I leave the first SSD during the installation of Linux on the second one, then the GPT is installed on the Windows 10 one, resulting in the inability to launch Linux if I ever remove the first SSD since there would no longer be a boot order indication due to the absence of the disk where the GPT is stored. Finally, I will change the boot order and then do the GRUB manipulation.
Does that sound correct?
Let me explain my situation: I currently have two hard drives in my tower; a 250 GB SSD + a 1 TB HDD. Windows 10 is installed on the SSD (EFI mode if that information is useful...? I've seen that it is for dual-booting [which is not the case for me, but anyway]).
I am going to add a second SSD to my tower and install Linux on it using a bootable USB drive so that it and Windows 10 are completely independent. The desired outcome would be one SSD with Windows 10, one SSD with Linux, and a shared HDD (which would be in NTFS). I boot up and choose which OS to boot into.
Given this, here is my request; after reading dozens of articles/posts, I am a bit confused about the best way to proceed, especially since the solutions/responses are not always the same, etc.
What I want is theoretically quite simple in my opinion: for both OS to be PERFECTLY independent; if there is a problem with one SSD (whether I unplug it, it fails, or something else), it should not affect the booting of the other OS (this problem seems to be the case when doing a dual-boot from two hard drives [it's a matter of the boot manager only recognizing the master disk, which is where Windows is, right?]). To do this, and avoid this potential handicap (to make sure they are TRULY independent), I’ve read that GRUB should be installed on the disk where Linux is installed (my second SSD, then), change the boot order to put Linux first and then do some manipulations in GRUB to make Windows believe that yes, yes, it is still on the master disk even though we are actually booting from the disk where Linux is first.
Am I correct or is there an easier way? Is it not simply possible to install Linux on my second SSD, and at startup, regardless of any issues with the SSD containing Windows 10, I can choose which OS to boot (instead of doing GRUB and manipulations to confuse Windows...)? Also, will OS updates not interfere with anything in the future? And practically, how should I proceed exactly?
Thank you in advance and have a good evening :)
EDIT: One solution seems to be to remove the Windows 10 SSD once it is installed, then in its place connect the one where I want to install Linux, and similarly once installed, I remove it and put back the Windows 10 SSD and finally the one with Linux. Because apparently if I leave the first SSD during the installation of Linux on the second one, then the GPT is installed on the Windows 10 one, resulting in the inability to launch Linux if I ever remove the first SSD since there would no longer be a boot order indication due to the absence of the disk where the GPT is stored. Finally, I will change the boot order and then do the GRUB manipulation.
Does that sound correct?
1 réponse
Hi,
Apart from the material difficulties you may encounter, especially depending on the brand and model of your PC, which are common in UEFI, you will face a hurdle with Ubuntu and its derivatives: the installer systematically places GRUB in the first EFI partition it encounters, which is that of the disk where Windows is located.
You indeed have the simplest solution of unplugging a disk to prevent it from being used by GRUB, but there are tricks to workaround the problem:
For your information, I invite you to read this demo (not a tutorial) that explains the problem and gives some tips to solve it. But since it's rather risky (a virtual PC has no BIOS restrictions), I recommend choosing the unplugging solution, which is much safer:
http://ikewdu.free.fr/ubuntu-sur-usb-ou-disque-independant-de-windows-en-uefi/
Apart from the material difficulties you may encounter, especially depending on the brand and model of your PC, which are common in UEFI, you will face a hurdle with Ubuntu and its derivatives: the installer systematically places GRUB in the first EFI partition it encounters, which is that of the disk where Windows is located.
You indeed have the simplest solution of unplugging a disk to prevent it from being used by GRUB, but there are tricks to workaround the problem:
For your information, I invite you to read this demo (not a tutorial) that explains the problem and gives some tips to solve it. But since it's rather risky (a virtual PC has no BIOS restrictions), I recommend choosing the unplugging solution, which is much safer:
http://ikewdu.free.fr/ubuntu-sur-usb-ou-disque-independant-de-windows-en-uefi/
So, to make sure I understood correctly;
1. On my main SSD (W10), I start the procedure part II from your link:
2. Finally, should I leave the 1st SSD connected or not (It doesn’t matter apparently if I understood correctly since the EFI partition is interpreted as fat32 on the 1st SSD, so GRUB won't go there, right?), then connect my 2nd SSD that will host Linux and start the installation by booting from the USB stick.
3. I go back to my 1st SSD (W10) and set the "sda2" flag to "boot, esp":
Is that all correct?
However, with this method (if I already understood everything correctly..), I could unplug my Linux SSD without impacting the boot of the one with W10, right, great. But, will I have the choice, when both are connected (as it will be the case), to boot into W10 or Ubuntu?
:)