dual boot with 2 drives

[NoOp]

On 09/15/2010 01:18 PM, Derek Maciel wrote:
> On 15 September 2010 15:00, Norman Silverstone <norman at littletank.org> wrote:
>>
>>> > I have a working drive with Ubuntu 9.10 and all my files and I have
>>> > other hard drives that I can use for the XP Pro installation so, please,
>>> > can someone tell me the best way to proceed. I accept there are
>>> > alternatives but at least I would then have a choice.
>>>
>>> Have a look here:
>>> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WindowsDualBoot
>>> and let us know if you still have questions afterwards.
>>
>> I have looked at the reference given and, unless I have misunderstood
>> totally, the item deals with Ubuntu and Windows on the same HDD. What I
>> am proposing is to leave the Ubuntu HDD untouched and to load XP Pro
>> onto another HDD and then, in some way modify Grub so that on start up,
>> pressing Esc will bring up a list including the words 'XP Pro' for
>> example. Selecting 'XP Pro' will boot up from the HDD containing
>> Windows. If, at start up, Esc is not pressed then the machine boots up
>> from the Ubuntu HDD. This is how it used to work.
>>
>> Norman
> 
> Right, however, like Liam said, if you were to take your original
> Ubuntu hard drive (Let's call it "Ubuntu Drive") and just put it in
> the computer with your Windows Drive, then GRUB would not be installed
> (in other words, you would have your Ubuntu drive in your computer but
> it won't be "installed". Your computer will "ask" your Windows drive
> what to boot into, and since GRUB wasn't installed, Windows will think
> it's by itself and just boot into Windows as if Ubuntu isn't there.

Umm... if Ununtu has been installed to a drive, and it is the only OS on
that drive, grub(1 or 2) is installed to _that_ drive. You only need to
tell bios which drive to boot from.

Drive1: Ubuntu (grub installed).
Bios points to boot from Drive1

Power down and temporarily disconnect Drive1.

Now add Drive2 and install WinXP. Boot & make sure it's working properly.

Power down and add Drive1 back. Boot to bios and tell bios to boot to
Drive1. Continue to boot to Drive1 and do 'sudo update-grub' and grub
will find Drive2 and add it to the grub menu.

Reboot to test; at the grub boot menu you should/will have boot options
for both Ubuntu and WinXP. Boot to XP and see if that is still working
properly, then boot to Ubuntu. I have 6 dual boot test cages with Ubuntu
on one drive, WinXP on the other drive installed on each that I swap in
and out of my test machines on a regular basis. This is one of them:
====
$ cat /boot/grub/grub.cfg
...snips...

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-25-generic' --class ubuntu --class
gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
	recordfail
	insmod ext2
	set root='(hd1,1)'
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set c606c2a7-1fb1-403f-9b90-52f5f150340b
	linux	/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-25-generic root=UUID=snipped ro   quiet splash
	initrd	/boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-25-generic
}
...snips...

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
menuentry "Microsoft Windows XP Professional (on /dev/sda1)" {
	insmod ntfs
	set root='(hd0,1)'
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set snipped
	drivemap -s (hd0) ${root}
	chainloader +1
}
### END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
...snipped...
====


and a grub1 grub.cfg from the same machine prior to converting to gru2 &
while it was still at grub1:
====
## ## End Default Options ##

title		Ubuntu 9.10, kernel 2.6.31-16-generic
root		(hd0,0)
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-16-generic root=UUID=snipped ro quiet
splash vga=773
initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-16-generic
quiet
...snips...

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

# This is a divider, added to separate the menu items below from the
Debian ones
title		Other operating systems:
root

# Non-linux OS on /dev/sdb1
title              Windows XP
root               (hd1,0)
savedefault
makeactive
map                (hd0) (hd1)
map                (hd1) (hd0)
chainloader        +1
====

...