Re: GRUB location on Dual-Boot with TWO hard drives
On Sat, Oct 13, 2012 at 1:10 AM, Neal Murphy <neal.p.murphy@alum.wpi.edu> wrote:
> On Saturday, October 13, 2012 12:40:40 AM Wally Lepore wrote:
>> Hi Debain Users,
>>
>> I'm at the final stages of Installing NOT Ubuntu but Debian 'Squeeze'
>> on my dual-boot system. Windows is installed on the 1st hard drive
>> (/dev/sda) and Debian will be installed on the 2nd hard drive
>> (/dev/sdb).
>>
>> The installer is asking me where I want Grub installed. It says:
>>
>>
>> *****BEGIN*****
>> The following other operating systems have been detected on this
>> computer: Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
>>
>> If all of your operating systems are listed above, then it should be
>> safe to install the boot loader to the master boot record of your
>> first hard drive.
>>
>>When your computer boots, you will be able to choose
>> to load one of these operating systems or your new system. Install the
>> GRUB boot loader to the master boot record? No or Yes ?
>> *****END*****
>>
>> This is the make it or break it point! Debian is installed on my 2nd
>> drive (/dev/sdb) NOT the 1st drive (/dev/sda). I also created a
>> partition on the Debian drive (/dev/sdb) called "/boot". GRUB was to
>> be installed at this /boot location and then I would go into BIOS
>> after install and switch the boot order to boot the Debian drive
>> (/dev/sdb). This would then present the menu for which OS I would like
>> to boot (Windows or Debian).
>>
>> If I choose NO to the installer's question as to placing GRUB in the
>> MBR of the 1st drive. What are my choices as to where to install it? I
>> don't want to answer "NO" to the question only to advance the
>> installer to a dead end. I have no idea what may happen next if I
>> answer NO. Any ideas or suggestions please?
>>
>> Thank you
>
> You may have no choice. I had lenny installed on sda. I tried to install
> squeeze on sdb so I could play with KVM and Xen. Grub *insisted* on installing
> itself to sda regardless of what I told it to do. I had to boot lenny's rescue
> disk several times to fix grub before I gave up.
The Debian installer did recognize win2k and it did give me the option
to install GRUB to another location. No problem with that. I installed
to /dev/sdb
> You may have to pull the first drive during the install. And, if you're lucky,
> your BIOS will set the second drive as the 'first' when you tell it to boot
> from it.
>
> If you find no joy, try grub legacy if it's an option. I *know* legacy works;
> I can make a bootable ISO that uses grub, copy the ISO contents to a flash
> drive and make it bootable with a trivial change, and legacy installs where I
> tell it to, not where it decides to because it knows better.
>
> To be clear, my grub2 problems were with v1.97-1.99; I've not tried it since.
> And probably won't until legacy truly dies (i.e., RH's patch set falls into
> disrepair).
>
> In a short phrase, be prepared to stub your toes some more.
I can boot from either OS. I just change the boot order to whatever
drive (OS) I want to use.
Thanks Neal
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