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First Time Linux(Ubuntu) user, Installing

 
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# 1  
Old 06-06-2010
First Time Linux(Ubuntu) user, Installing
I want to install ubuntu on a seperate hard drive. I have two 500gb sata drives with XP on sata 0,0 and like to install ubuntu on the other sata 1,1.


A few questions:

Will this work?

Can I unplug the XP drive and boot up with ubuntu to 1,1?

If that works, how can I boot to each operating systems without editing my BIOS first?

Thank you in advance
# 2  
Old 06-07-2010
Hello, and welcome!

Yes, you could physically switch around your disks every time you want to switch the OS, but that's rather cumbersome. It's much easier to
  1. Boot into the Ubuntu installation
  2. Tell it to install onto the second disk
  3. and let it install the boot manager.
The boot manager (GRUB) can go either into the MBR (Master Boot Record) or the boot record of the second disk. The first option will let you boot either OS without any changes, but you'll have to do some work if you don't want that anymore. The second option will require you to tell the BIOS which disk to boot off every time (for recent BIOS versions there's a hotkey for that, usually the escape key).
# 3  
Old 06-07-2010
Pludi is correct. I've used both options on two disks and on the same disk split into partitions. GRUB works wonderfully, and as Pludi mentioned, it will be installed during setup. If installed on the first disk (0), you will have it forever until you reformat. If you install it on the second disk (1), it will require a little more intervention during boot (telling it what disk to boot from rather than just the OS you want) but will be easier to remove if you ever decide you don't want it anymore.
# 4  
Old 06-07-2010
Quote:
Originally Posted by dday
[...]If installed on the first disk (0), you will have it forever until you reformat.[...]
Not quite true. If it's a recent enough version of Windows, and you've got a proven good backup, it's possible to restore the Windows boot record using fixmbr.
# 5  
Old 06-07-2010
Good to know. I've never gotten it to work right on Xp. Smilie
# 6  
Old 06-07-2010
Pludi:

Do I have to unplug the first drive to do the ubuntu install? Can I specify which drive to install Linux?
# 7  
Old 06-08-2010
No, you don't have to disconnect it. Contrary to what most people are used to (thanks to Redmond and Cupertino) software can actually be pretty flexible and serve the users needs.

When installing, just tell it the correct disk to use. sda would be the first SATA drive, sdb the second, sdc the third, ...
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