Re: help getting grub to see Windows 7 on second drive
On Wed, 8 Dec 2010 14:36:38 +0000
Michael Fothergill <michael.fothergill@googlemail.com> wrote:
>
> I tried installing the Windows on the new disk but it wouldn't install
> with the first drive present. It said it couldn't create or locate an
> existing partition or something..... The cure here according to
> Windows folks seemed to be to disconnect the other drive (with the
> Linux on it) from the motherboard and then reboot and install the
> Windows.
>
> This worked a treat. It couldn't see the other drive with the funny
> primary logical partition and swap space (to Windows but not to Linux
> folks) because it wasn't there..... It just saw one lonely
> unformatted unallocated unused SATA drive and installed itself on it.
> It was simple enough that it went for it without grumbling.
>
> After I finished the installation, I then rebooted the machine after
> reconnecting the other hard drive with Debian on it to the
> motherboard. I then rebooted the PC to find out what on earth would
> happen then........ (brave eh?!! maybe just foolhardy.....)
>
> Then the PC rebooted and Grub fired up and only saw the first drive
> (sda) and Debian booted up just fine. I didn't look like grub had
> seen the new drive with the Windows on it. (I had actually run the
> Debian installer the other day just to see if it could detect the new
> drive and it did do - so grub should have no problem booting it
> providing I can encourage it to notice it a little bit but I'm not
> quite sure how to get it do that just yet).
>
> I have a feeling that if it could see the other drive it might end up
> being known as /dev/sdb etc.....
>
> But it needs a bit of a stage prompt here..... Can anyone suggest a
> way to get grub to see the new drive and the Windows? I could try
> mounting the Windows drive onto the Linux file tree..... Would that
> encourage grub to see it on a reboot and allow me the option of
> booting the Windows OS itself?
>
I believe what you need to do is to boot into Linux and run update-grub.
That should regenerate the grub configuration file(s) without the need
for manual tweaking. Make sure you have os-prober installed first,
though it should be there already.
By the way, be prepared for Windows not to boot. It will be aware of
the change in disc configuration, whether it admits the fact or not.
I've never tried this with Vista or Win7 so I've no idea what will
happen. You may need to revert to one drive and reconfigure the Windows
bootloader. That's not as simple as it was with NT/XP but it's still
possible. You may ultimately find it easier to have the Windows drive
as drive 0, with the Windows bootloader configured to run Linux.
Let us know how you get on.
--
Joe
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