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My PC is set up to dual boot as follows:

  • Ubuntu 18.04 on one 128GB SSD
  • Windows 10 on another 256GB SSD (installed into system first)

I previously had Ubuntu and Windows installed at different partitions on the same disk, and after separating them I used grub boot-repair to fix the grub configuration.

Recently Ubuntu started having strange issues. It would boot to a blank purple screen with no response - Ctrl+Alt+T did not work, and I had to use the REISUB method to restart it. After booting into Ubuntu again I would get the 'Unexpected Inconsistency' error, however it appeared to be having errors with the Microsoft Reserved Partition on the Windows disk. If I unplugged the SATA cable for the Windows SSD, Ubuntu would then boot fine, even if it previously gave filesystem errors on boot (I assume Windows would not boot with its disk unplugged).

I've tried running fsck as the error message says, but I cannot get Ubuntu to boot as long as the Windows SSD is plugged in. How should I fix this?

(I might try swapping the ports that the SATA cables are plugged into on the motherboard.)

Thanks.

Liftyee
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  • Lets see details, use ppa version with your live installer (2nd option) or any working install, not Boot-Repair ISO: Please copy & paste the pastebin link to the Boot-info summary report ( do not post report), do not run the auto fix till reviewed. https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair Microsoft Reserved always shows as an error as it is unformatted space. It has valid GUID, so should not really be an error. – oldfred Jan 10 '21 at 20:07
  • @oldfred I think I used the grub boot-repair utility https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair, it was not an ISO. Do you mean the pastebin link of the Boot-Repair utility? I will post details soon. – Liftyee Jan 11 '21 at 22:02
  • Oh I understand now: I will run the live USB and use Boot-Repair on that, but only get the report and not run auto fix. Got it - paste URL: http://paste.ubuntu.com/p/C7JRnXZKXn – Liftyee Jan 11 '21 at 22:09
  • You have UEFI system with UEFI installs, but have old BIOS boot loaders in gpt's protective MBR. Your sdc is older MBR(msdos) partitioned. The mount of the ESP in fstab is for ESP in sda, and ubuntu entry in UEFI is booting from ESP in sda. You also have ESP with Ubuntu files in sdb. Ubuntu's Ubiquity installer only installs grub to first drive usually sda. You can in Boot-Repair install grub to any drive. But if you want all of Ubuntu on sdb, you need to edit fstab to use UUID of ESP on sdb & then only use Boot-Repair's advanced mode to choose install & choose drive. – oldfred Jan 12 '21 at 03:39
  • How should I use boot repair to do that? I want Ubuntu to stay on sda and Windows on sdb. Could you please link a tutorial/website with more details? Thanks. – Liftyee Jan 31 '21 at 21:25
  • You have used Boot-Repair, just go into its advanced options and choose an install and drive. You must have an ESP on sdb drive. If you do not use gparted first to add one. You can shrink any partition within first 2TB of the drive and create a 300 to 500MB partition formatted FAT32 with (right click) esp, boot flags. Then Boot-Repair should install using that ESP if you specify sdb (not a partition). You need to boot in UEFI mode. https://sourceforge.net/p/boot-repair/home/Home/ – oldfred Jan 31 '21 at 21:46
  • So the problem is the lack of an ESP on sdb drive? – Liftyee Jan 31 '21 at 21:57
  • Are the installs UEFI? https://askubuntu.com/questions/1296065/dual-booting-w10-ubuntu-with-2-separate-ssds-in-uefi-mode/1296153#1296153 – oldfred Jan 31 '21 at 22:11

0 Answers0