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I have an SSD in which I already have Ubuntu 19.10 and I also have a HDD in which I want to install Windows 10.

I read all the available relevant questions about this in here, most of which where confusing at best, but I thought to give it a shot and just do the normal procedure of the installation without giving it much more thought.

After the installation of Windows 10 was complete it worked but I had the problem of Windows boot loader being on the SSD alongside Ubuntu. I want the two drives to be as separate as possible so that was not an option for me.

I formatted the HDD and deleted the Windows boot loader from the SSD so I want to do this procedure again but maintaining the two OSes separate.

So how can I do this correctly? I don't particularly care about GRUB as I am perfectly happy to get into BIOS and pick the drive I want to boot from. I also read the answer of a similar question in here suggesting that unplugging the one drive during the installation and then plugging it back in was a bad idea because the OS in the unplugged drive may not be recognized after that. So want to avoid that.

Adam
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    BIOS or UEFI. Safest is to disconnect Ubuntu drive when installing Windows. But both systems should be installed in same boot mode, both UEFI or both BIOS. Windows installs its boot files into the drive UEFI/BIOS sees as default boot drive. That may be why it installed boot to Ubuntu drive. Grub will only boot working Windows, so best to have separate way to boot Windows as then it may be possible to direclty boot from UEFI/BIOS. – oldfred Nov 27 '19 at 00:38
  • @oldfred That was what I intended but according to this questions answer https://askubuntu.com/questions/913716/dual-boot-on-separate-drives-best-configuration it is a bad choice. – Adam Nov 27 '19 at 00:40
  • @Nmath Couldn't tag you along oldfred so I tag you here. – Adam Nov 27 '19 at 00:41
  • the method I recommended should be fine if you install as BIOS -- I personally think the best path is to just use GRUB because it can boot all of your operating systems -- you can also edit the default order of GRUB, in case you wanted Windows to boot automatically. See: https://askubuntu.com/questions/100232/how-do-i-change-the-grub-boot-order/110738#110738 – Nmath Nov 27 '19 at 00:49
  • @Nmath Then how can I keep the Windows boot loader in its own hard drive? – Adam Nov 27 '19 at 00:52
  • the Windows bootloader should be installed to the drive where windows is installed -- if that's not happening, you might want to also ask this question on SuperUser – Nmath Nov 27 '19 at 00:55
  • @Nmath It definitely wasn't installed on that drive. Ok thanks. – Adam Nov 27 '19 at 00:56
  • Some have said Windows installs its boot loader to the drive that BIOS sees as default boot drive. So if booting Ubuntu from sda, that would be default. Best then to change UEFI/BIOS to boot sdb first before installing. In some cases Windows has installed its boot partition into a Linux drive and just overwrote whatever was there, as it does not see, or ignores Linux type partitions. – oldfred Nov 27 '19 at 04:32

1 Answers1

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I have just moved Ubuntu and Windows 10 to their own hard drives.

To start with, both OS were on one drive that booted grub via BIOS.

This hard drive eventually became too small.

I disabled the hard drive and Installed Ubuntu on it's own drive.

Then I switched to the Windows drive, removed the Ubuntu partition and restored the Windows 10 bootloader.

Plugged the Ubuntu drive back in and ran Sudo update-grub.

I can now boot both systems using the grub menu or boot Windows via Windows bootloader by pressing f12.

If the Windows drive is set as first hard drive the Windows bootloader will be default and I can boot Ubuntu by pressing f12 and selecting it from the grub menu.

I moved Windows Documents and Downloads to a partition on the Ubuntu drive as it has the most room.

C.S.Cameron
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  • This procedure is completely different from what I want to do. I for one have no interest in removing Ubuntu. Also I have no interest in configuring GRUB, I want my PC to boot directly in Ubuntu and when I want to game I will go to BIOS and choose the booting order. The reason for all these is that I want both operating systems to have no overlap. – Adam Nov 28 '19 at 17:22
  • @Adam : Not sure I understand. I have Windows on one hard drive and Ubuntu on another. Grub will boot either without the need to open BIOS. If you don't want BIOS to boot Windows don't update grub. Windows has It's own bootloader on it's own hard drive. However I don't think you can hide the Windows Bootloader when you eventually update grub. Grub will add Windows to it's menu unless you unplug the Windows drive during update. Grub will not alter the Windows disk. – C.S.Cameron Nov 29 '19 at 02:40