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In my current rig, I have two 1TB hard drives. The first has Windows 7, and the other is empty. If I install Ubuntu to the empty one, will it prompt me to select which OS I would like to use on start up?

Alaa Ali
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user176210
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    First, this is the first time I have been to the ask page and am not very familiar with this process. Second, I don't do this sort of thing very often. Therefore, I am rather clueless about this subject. Sorry if I come off rude. Not my intention. – user176210 Jul 18 '13 at 06:53
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    Oh not offended at all ;) Just wondering about your thought process :-D I myself would have assumed it would and not even bother to ask (but that attitude got me into trouble a few times ;-) ) – Rinzwind Jul 18 '13 at 06:56
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    I feel as though I have to question all angles of something to gain a better grasp of the subject at hand. – user176210 Jul 18 '13 at 06:58

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It will depend on where you put the Ubuntu bootloader, if you install the Ubuntu bootloader to the same hard drive as windows 7 (eg sda) then yes you will be prompted to pick between the 2, however if you install the bootloader to the second hard drive (eg Sdb), then you won't be prompted, your computer will just boot right into windows 7, unless you change the boot order in your bios, in which case it will boot right into Ubuntu.

Sincerely, tapthoseshoesandwish

tapthoseshoesandwish
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  • Thank you very much for answering my question. Very helpful. – user176210 Jul 18 '13 at 06:57
  • Not exact. GRUB will detect Windows 7 installation and prompt to which system perform boot every time it will be called. Other parts are correct. – Danatela Jul 18 '13 at 07:05
  • So, it will prompt me if it's on a separate hard drive? And will the Windows Installer exe do the job, or should I use a thumb drive instead? – user176210 Jul 18 '13 at 07:08
  • Okay. I installed it to the empty hard drive and it booted up fine. After I restarted and tried to get into Ubuntu again, it won't let me past this pink screen. No log in screen or even the "Ubuntu" screen with the dots under it. Any help would be greatly appreciated. – user176210 Jul 18 '13 at 08:36
  • Take a look at this question: My computer boots to a black screen, what options do I have to fix it? However, that's another issue. Since your question was about "will it prompt you to select an OS", and if your computer actually did so, you should accept an answer to mark this question as solved. If you followed the steps in the linked question and couldn't solve your second issue, you can ask a new question stating what you've tried. – Alaa Ali Jul 18 '13 at 09:21