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I have 3 NVME drives. I want to install Ubuntu 20.04 on two of them, and Windows on the 3rd. So far I have Ubuntu on disk 1, and Windows 11 on disk 3. I am able to select which OS to boot from during startup.

I need both Ubuntu installs to have full disk encryption. So far when installing Ubuntu onto the 2nd drive, it ends up doing something to the 1st drive that makes it unbootable. If I then retry installing Ubuntu on the 1st drive, it will mess up the 2nd drive. i.e. I cannot select it from the OS list during boot.

ubfan1
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carter
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    Ubuntu puts part of the GRUB bootloader in the EFI System Partition (ESP). Normally you have one ESP in a computer irrespective of the number of physical SSDs. In your case you want the second installation of Ubuntu to have its own ESP in its own SSD. See this question and answer for how to go about doing it. If this works I will convert this comment to a full answer for you to accept. – user68186 Mar 30 '22 at 23:07
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    What you can do is remove disk 1 and 3 and install Ubuntu 20.04. That way it cannot disrupt anything. – Joepie Es Mar 31 '22 at 15:46
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    I ended up removing disk 1 and 3, doing fresh install of ubuntu on disk 2, then reinstalled drives 1 and 3. Now I have triple boot! I didn't try the work-around that was linked as I didn't want to risk losing drives 1 or 3 again. Thanks for the help! Can you turn comment into answer and I'll close this? – carter Mar 31 '22 at 17:43

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From the comments:

1 ESP to 2 ESPs

Ubuntu puts part of the GRUB bootloader in the EFI System Partition (ESP). Normally you have one ESP in a computer irrespective of the number of physical SSDs. When you install the second Ubuntu in the the second SSD, the installation process overwrites the part of the GRUB in the ESP of the first SSD, put in place by the first Ubuntu. That's why the first Ubuntu does not boot after installing the second Ubuntu.

In your case you want the second installation of Ubuntu to have its own ESP in its own SSD.

There is a bug (bug number: 1396379) in the Ubuntu installer that installs the GRUB bootloader on the first ESP it finds. See https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2182302 for discussions on this. There are three ways to get around this bug:

  1. One way to get around it is to physically disconnect the the other two SSDs in your computer so that the only SSD connected is the one where you want to install the second Ubuntu.

  2. Sometimes it is not possible to physically disconnect the SSDs. You may look into the UEFI settings in your computer and see if there is a setting to disable a specific SSD there. If so, you may disable the two SSDs you don't want during the second Ubuntu installation.

  3. There is also a Gparted based workaround if none of the above options work for you. See this answer: Installing Ubuntu in a external hard drive and NOT placing GRUB of my C: hard drive for the full description of the Gparted based workaround.

Hope this helps

user68186
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