Dual Boot Windows 7 and Ubuntu using 2 Different Hard Drives
 

Hello,

I just started working with Linux over the weekend. I do have a working dual booting system but it's not configured exactly how I want it to be. Currently Windows 7 Ultimate and Ubuntu are on the same hard drive but different partitions. The Windows boot screen comes up and I can select Windows or Ubuntu fine. Grub comes up when I select Ubuntu and I can successfully select any choice in the menu and it will run properly.

Everything works great now so you may wonder why I even want to keep tinkering, well, it's not working how I want it to. This is what I want it to do. I want Windows 7 on disk 0 and Ubuntu on disk 1. I want each OS to have it's own hard drive. I want Grub to be the only boot loader that comes up with the option to select Ubuntu or Windows. I want to skip the window's OS selection screen all together. I can modify Grub, I've already done some of that on my work computer.

I've been installing from windows. Should I use a CD instead? Would that accomplish my goals without doing anything special? I think this is more a Windows issue than a Linux one but I'm sure someone here has experience with this.

thanks,
Dave

I used to do this when disk drives were smaller. I would install Windows on the first disk that shows up in the motherboard BIOS and Linux on the second disk that shows up in the motherboard BIOS. Then I would tell the BIOS to boot from the second disk if available, otherwise boot from the first disk. (Boot sequence: CDROM, disk 2, disk 1)

Once that is configured you can install Linux from a CD. Tell it to install GRUB on the second disk's MBR.

Once Linux is running you may or may not see Windows in the boot menu. This is because some distributions' installer apparently don't configure it. However it is easy to do this yourself. Instructions differ depending on whether you are using GRUB legacy or GRUB 2.

And there you have it. If the computer never had Linux on it then the Windows boot loader is still going to be available on the MBR of disk 1. If GRUB is installed on the MBR of disk 1 then you could use Windows Recovery Console to run fixmbr. That will restore a Windows MBR boot code onto that disk's MBR. Once the Windows boot code is installed in the MBR of disk 1 you could remove disk 2 and Windows will still boot.

I'll give that a try soon. Those instructions make perfect sense. I burnt a CD while I waited for a reply so I'm good there. I can set up Grub to find Windows if it doesn't on it's own.

Thank you very much. I'll let you know how it goes once I've gotten to it. I'll see if I can work on it today or tomorrow because once Thanks Giving is here I won't have time.

Thanks,
Dave

It worked perfectly!! I'm writing this from my Ubuntu Linux installation. Windows and Linux have their own hard drive, Grub is the boot loader being used and Windows is a choice on the boot loader. Thank you very much. This can be marked solved.

Dave