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I have a computer running Debian 7.1. What I want to do is to add another hard drive to it and install windows on the new drive, so I can run photoshop, some games and other software not available in linux on it.

I want to be able to boot to Debian and Windows from the same GRUB menu, but I have no idea about how to do that (From previous experiences I am assuming simply installing windows on that drive and then plugging it in would be a bad idea) and the only related things I have found (Including in this site) are about booting another linux distribution from an external drive and installing grub on another external drive, which is not what I am looking for (I can't simply add one of those microSD cards with grub in it in a USB adapter since my computer can't boot from a USB port).

Can this be done? Is is a reasonable approach to my problem?

As an alternative, and if what I am looking for is not possible, I could install Windows on another partition of my drive if I could resize the LVM in which my debian system is installed, but I'd rather put windows on another drive to avoid problems.

Update: Following Mark Lopez's advice I installed windows on the hard drive (No problems there), but I have been struggling to boot to linux with the actual drive attached. If I connect both drives the bios won't load. If I boot with only one of them I can't access the other drive for obvious reasons. fdisk -l in debian with the win drive attached returns nothing (I can't see the drive on the list) and I'm out of ideas.

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  • Something is wrong with your computer (hardware) if the BIOS wont start with both drives connected. Do you mean BIOS or bootloader? And what messages do you see with both drives connected?
    – Mark Lopez
    Dec 15, 2013 at 2:21
  • I mean bios. If I turn the computer on with both drives connected I just get a black screen.
    – user275766
    Dec 15, 2013 at 12:13
  • Is the computer giving any feedback (e.g fans running, hard drives spinning, status lights blinking, caps/num lock blinking)?
    – Mark Lopez
    Dec 15, 2013 at 20:19
  • Yeah, fans and drives are spinning, I don't get any beeping and everything looks normal (Except that the keyboard lights don't blink as usual, which is what made me suspect it was a bios issue). I'm totally stumped at this. I've managed to switch OSs plugging and unplugging drives, but well, it's not exactly efficient or handy.
    – user275766
    Dec 15, 2013 at 21:16
  • I'm stumped as well. My only thoughts are BIOS firmware (update?) or hardware (different computer?).
    – Mark Lopez
    Dec 16, 2013 at 19:27

1 Answer 1

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I have no idea why what you propose would not work. This is what I would try.

First install Windows (make should Windows is the primary and only drive - to prevent data loss).

Then reconnect your Linux drive as primary and attach Windows as secondary. Boot up into Linux.

On Linux run sudo update-grub. This will update GRUB's boot list by probing for Windows on the second drive. If all goes, well Windows will be seen in the GRUB menu on reboot.

Notes:

  • Windows cannot boot from an external drive (without hacks). Make sure Windows is on an internal drive.
  • Alternatively you can tell GRUB to just boot from the second drive.
  • Don't try to install Windows on the same drive as Linux. Windows will override GRUB.
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  • Well the internal/external thing was confusing to write. It's connected to the motherboard, but I keep it out of the case in an external hard drive enclosure... I was not sure how to write it ^^" Thanks for the info, I will try that.
    – user275766
    Dec 14, 2013 at 21:12
  • I updated the question with my progress, do you have any tip to boot the computer with both drives connected? I haven't been able to do it so far.
    – user275766
    Dec 15, 2013 at 2:12

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