
- #HOW TO PARTITION SECOND HARD DRIVE FOR DUAL BOOT INSTALL#
- #HOW TO PARTITION SECOND HARD DRIVE FOR DUAL BOOT WINDOWS#
I installed linux onto the second disk, but using the first disk for the bootloader, and now I can't boot anything! I installed linux onto the first disk and now I can't boot windows, or Not all installers are created equal, however, and if this gets screwed up and you are left with problems such as: Hopefully, you can just go ahead and use a live CD or whatever and get this done using the GUI installer.

There is a way to trick it, however, if you prefer or need it the other way around.
#HOW TO PARTITION SECOND HARD DRIVE FOR DUAL BOOT WINDOWS#
The reason I recommend linux on the second drive is because GRUB must "chainload" the Windows native bootloader, and the windows bootloader always assumes it is on the first drive. An added advantage of this is that you can then use the BIOS/UEFI boot order to select the windows drive and bypass grub if you want.
#HOW TO PARTITION SECOND HARD DRIVE FOR DUAL BOOT INSTALL#
The ideal way to get what you want is to install linux onto the second drive in terms of drive order and then select it first in terms of boot order using the UEFI set-up. We are going to use UUIDs in configuring the boot loader to try and avoid issues such as this (contemporary linux installers also do this). Also, if you unplug the first drive, the second drive will likely become the first one. Drive order should not be configurable or affected by boot order, since that would be a very OS unfriendly thing to do (but in theory an obtuse BIOS could). This is not necessarily the same as the drive order, and is usually configurable via the BIOS set-up screen. Boot order refers to the sequence in which the BIOS checks for a bootable drive. Drive order refers to the order in which the drives are physically connected to the bus on the motherboard (first drive, second drive, etc.) this information is reported by the BIOS. GRUB (actually, GRUB 2 - this is often used ambiguously) is the bootloader installed by linux and used to dual boot Windows.įirst, a word about drive order and boot order.

I'm going use the term BIOS below when referring to concepts that are the same for both newer UEFI systems and traditional BIOS systems, since while this is a UEFI oriented question, talking about the "BIOS" jibes better with, e.g., GRUB documentation, and "BIOS/UEFI" is too clunky.
