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I have 2 Harddrives. One of them contains Windows 7. The other has no Operating System. Now I want to install Ubuntu for a Dual Boot. I am just not sure if I should install it on the same drive as Windows, or on the second one.

Also should Ubuntu be installed in a partition or not? I heard that if you just install it in the same partition that Windows is inside you can easily uninstall Ubuntu whenever you want by deleting it like every other Windows software in the control panel. Or I remove the partition if I make one, not sure what way one is better

TrackLab
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  • You do not install in same partition. (back in 2012 there was wubi just for testing, but long discontinued). You can test if your system works using live installer in live mode. Is system UEFI or BIOS? Then is Windows 7 installed in UEFI or BIOS boot mode. Post this from Ubuntu live installer's terminal. Paste above and preserve formatting. sudo parted -l -l is -el, not I (cap i) nor 1(one). Better to copy & paste commands posted as even spaces can be important. Windows only installs in BIOS mode to MBR(msdos) partitioned drives and only to gpt partitioned drive in UEFI boot mode. – oldfred Dec 21 '18 at 21:51
  • Unplug your Windows hard drive and install Ubuntu on the other drive. After replacing the Windows drive, make the Ubuntu drive first HDD in BIOS. Boot Ubuntu and run sudo update-grub. Grub will then give a choice which OS to boot. If you remove Ubuntu, the Windows boot loader will still be working. – C.S.Cameron Dec 22 '18 at 04:17
  • @C.S.Cameron So that means if I do it that way, Ubuntus GRUB might fail at some point or whatever, i remove the drive, or ubuntu, anything, and windows with its boot loader will still be available? – TrackLab Dec 22 '18 at 14:07
  • As long as you put grub on the Ubuntu drive nothing will overwrite your Windows bootloader. This is not much different than booting Ubuntu from a flash drive, as most computers see a flash drive as just another hard drive. – C.S.Cameron Dec 23 '18 at 03:01
  • @C.S.Cameron Well, when I installed Ubuntu I already had a Menu to select what i want to Boot, which I assume is Grub. It looked like the GRUB menu so..yea. But i never installed it on myself, it came with the Installation itself already. And when i removed the Ubuntu Partition (which was on a seperate harddrive) it corruped everything. So that was weird. It kind of destroys the theory of putting ubuntu on a second drive, and it will never affect Windows boot loader. Because it did – TrackLab Dec 23 '18 at 18:03
  • Did you unplug the Windows drive before installing Ubuntu on the other drive? (It is not possible to install grub on a drive that is not plugged in). If you did not disable the Windows drive, it is the likely default target for the boot loader installation, even when installing to a second drive. When installing Ubuntu using "something else" you are given a choice where to install the bootloader. – C.S.Cameron Dec 24 '18 at 04:45
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    Possible duplicate of How do I install Ubuntu alongside a pre-installed Windows with UEFI? – Fabby Dec 24 '18 at 22:06

2 Answers2

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You have to partition your HDD before installing Ubuntu (from what you're writing you are not experienced, don't take it personally).

  • You can't instal Ubuntu on same partition as Windows but if you will have another partitions and Ubuntu on them you can later on remove them and resize your Windows partition to use whole drive
  • You have to partition your hard drive. Create one partition for Windows (install it and on other part of your HDD install Ubuntu (installer will help you with that).

Solution BTW is here:

How to install Ubuntu 18.04 alongside Windows 10

Good luck! Paweł.

felixd
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  • Im not experienced, thats correct. What about my question if i can install Ubuntu on the second drive? Or should Ubuntu and Windows be on the same drive? (partotions of course, but same drive) – TrackLab Dec 21 '18 at 20:56
  • Your choice. You can repartition 1st drive / You can add another HDD. But after finishing Ubuntu installation don't forget to install GRUB (program that selects/runs OS) on HDD that is bootable. – felixd Dec 21 '18 at 20:58
  • Oh i didnt knew about GRUB before. That might would have helped earlier when i did something else with the dual boot...so GRUB needs to go on the drive that Ubuntu is installed too? Since, if i install Ubuntu on a different drive than Windows, i either install it on only the one with ubuntu, or on both? – TrackLab Dec 21 '18 at 21:07
  • @Trackster please carefully read up on link above which explains all ... if you discover new sub-questions update your above original posting - Welcome to askubuntu – Scott Stensland Dec 21 '18 at 22:08
  • @trackster GRUB is a program that is loaded before any OS, Windows or Linux starts. It let you choose which system should be booted (run). GRUB must be installed on HDD that is set in BIOS as bootable. Please read linked tutorial ;) Cheers – felixd Dec 21 '18 at 23:38
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My choice would be to install on second drive. Sometimes Windows does not play nice with other OSs. Read up first and google on installing Ubuntu on second drive so you have an idea what you are doing.

crip659
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  • Creating a separate partition on the Windows drive and then installing Ubuntu into that partition is in fact the same as installing Ubuntu on a separate drive. The new partition is treated by Windows as a completely separate drive with its own drive letter. Also, and again similarly to a separate drive, you can tell Windows to assign no drive letter at all to the Ubuntu partition, rendering it effectively invisible to Windows. – Mike Mounier May 30 '20 at 21:55
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    @Mike Mounier Windows doing a major update/upgrade has been known to mess up grub or Linux partitions maps on same drive. Having it on second drive can reduced problems if you remember to removed it. – crip659 May 30 '20 at 22:14
  • @crip659 What about this setup: Windows and Linux each have its own SSD disk; however they share a HDD disk for files (the HDD that has two separate partitions). Is it safe? Or would it be better to have two HDDs as well? – parsecer Jan 16 '21 at 20:32
  • Would use second HDD for backups, perferibly as an USB type. Never know if a drive will die. Windows can do nasty stuff to Linux, but most times the most that is needed, is to re install grub. The safest is to use two computers, but most people do live happy with having Windows and Linux on one. Read up on the problems so you are prepared if they happen. Usually best to keep things as simple as possible. – crip659 Jan 16 '21 at 21:12