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I'm struggling with the installation of an Ubuntu dual boot alongside Windows in my new computer. (it's taking me days of my free time!). First of all my device specs:

  • HDD: 1TB
  • SSD: 120GB

I wanted to share partitions within the SSD for both Windows 7 and Ubuntu 14.04, and leave the HDD for data storage. All my efforts proved in vain. Windows 7 was installed without problems, but then Ubuntu messed everything up during installation and I couldn't eventually start anything.

This was the configuration:

  /dev/sda
    /dev/sda1   ntfs    104MB (the reserved Windows recovery partition)
    /dev/sda3   ext4    32218MB  (Ubuntu 14.04 root)
    /dev/sda2   ntfs    87707MB (Windows 7)
  /dev/sb
    /dev/sdb5   swap    8180MB
    /dev/sdb2   ext4    102399MB (Ubuntu /home)
    unallocated space   889623MB (a future ntfs partition for data storage)

Next I decided to separate them in different drives: SSD for Ubuntu only, HDD for Windows 7 only. After having Windows 7 installed, there was no way now to enter the Ubuntu installation. I also tried with other distros: Linux Mint and Fedora, without success: the CD kept loading on and on until there was no response. I could only see a black or a gray screen. The same happened when I tried booting a Boot-Repair CD.

I tried to find out and read about something in the BIOS called EFI or UEFI, which I haven't ever heard before. Someone told me this may prevent OSs different from Windows from starting, but I don't know what to check or uncheck. There are many options in this BIOS (it's not even blue screened, but more graphically advanced). I've tried to enable anything called "legacy" and disable anything called "UEFI" or similar, without success. I finally restored the defaults just in case.

So here I am, completely helpless and about to throw in the towel. I've never had any problem installing both Windows and Ubuntu together until now.

1 Answer 1

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Following an install, I had a similar issue where the BIOS would not let me promote the GRUB boot disk as the boot one it insisted on booting the Windows HDD, swapping the SATA connections on the motherboard solved that.

You can boot Win on other disk, by re-mapping the drives, so /etc/grub.d/09_Windows script should look something like :

#!/bin/sh -e
echo "Adding Windows 7 to GRUB 2 menu"
cat << EOF
menuentry "Windows 7" {
set root=(hd1,1)
drivemap -s hd0 hd1
chainloader +1
}
EOF

With install problems, simplify the system by powering off the 2nd disk drive, it's easy enough to add data filesystems later, post installation. If you can boot both OSes when it's drive powered, you know it's purely a configuration problem.

Don't worry about UEFI, trusted boot can be disabled if needs be on PC devices (things like Surfaces however are more locked down), but as distro's are signing the boot loader with cert from MS, trusted boot does not prevent GRUB & Linux from starting.

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  • Thanks a lot for your reply Rob. I don't understand the negative ratings of others. I'm going to try the installation of both SOes with only one drive on: the SSD, but this leads to another question: what can I do later if I want to have /home in the other drive? May 24, 2014 at 8:33
  • Actually, simplest is to install windows on the HDD, then you KNOW it works booting off that drive. Then, switch to booting from the SDD and install Ubuntu on that drive, it SHOULD find Windows on the HDD and create a boot menu for it. If that fails (unlikely) you can power off the HDD and get both OSes working independantly.
    – Rob11311
    May 24, 2014 at 10:29
  • To move /home, onto a different disk you're best following a Howto, in short you create partition, make an fs in that, mount it, copy data over. Then make an entry in /etc/fstab and remount the filesystem so it appears where you want in the hierarchy.
    – Rob11311
    May 24, 2014 at 10:41
  • Think the ratings, are because SO likes simple technical questions. For install support, a Linux user forum is likely more suitable.
    – Rob11311
    May 24, 2014 at 10:58
  • Thanks again Rob! I find your first comment a little confusing. Do I power off the SSD while installing on the HDD? Plus, I would actually prefer having both Windows and Ubuntu in the SSD because of the better performance in speed an SSD provides. Following your advice in your second comment, I've found a tutorial to move /home when Ubuntu is already installed: help.ubuntu.com/community/Partitioning/Home/Moving May 25, 2014 at 18:55

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