Making a dual boot from two single boots

Question

I have a laptop which I have two different HDs (SATA-II 2.5"), one for Vista (i know) and the for Ubuntu 14.04.

Ordinarily, I actually swap over the drives in the laptop's internal bay when I want switch systems. It was a way of giving me guaranteed integrity of the Vista system.

I now have a caddy that meanns I could - if it were possible - run them as a dual boot.

My question: Is it possible to make a dual boot from this configuration? And, can I put either into the internal bay, or is it going to have to be vista?

Thanks in advance.

possible duplicate of How can I repair grub? (How to get Ubuntu back after installing Windows?) — David Foerster, Oct 04 '14 at 10:17
I'm sorry, but that question is not the same. I have never attempted them to dual-boot, so it can't be a question of repairing grub. I can see that the answer, is possibly pertinent to my issue but not entirely. — garrilla, Oct 04 '14 at 10:29
As far as I can tell your problem is closely related to the one in the duplicated question and their resolution is the same. — David Foerster, Oct 04 '14 at 10:31

Kaz Wolfe · Accepted Answer · 2014-10-05T09:35:08.280

0

But of course! You will need some special tweaking, though.

If you have a uEFI system, simply install something like rEFInd. It will allow you to choose whether to boot into vista or Ubuntu. Don't hotswap drives, though. Keep one in the caddy, and make sure it stays there.

If you have Legacy BIOS, it gets a bit trickier. You need to go into your BIOS settings and figure out how to select a one-time boot device. Once you have found that, place the Vista hard drive in your PC, and the Ubuntu drive in the caddy. Use BIOS to select the specific drive, and voila!

The reason I had you stay away from GRUB is because it'll not find what it wants (Linux) if the Windows drive is internal. Conversely, Windows won't work too well if it's not internal. It's very picky about hardware...

edited Oct 05 '14 at 09:35

answered Oct 04 '14 at 09:53

Kaz Wolfe

34,122
21
114
172

I think I have uEFI, but how do I confim this? Also, if I uEFI does that mean I could have Ubuntu in the internal bay? – garrilla Oct 04 '14 at 09:57
I note that my machine has uEFI capability but it is not enabled. I guess that enabling it may cause problems with my vista install... – garrilla Oct 04 '14 at 10:33
Keep uEFI off then. Follow the Legacy steps. – Kaz Wolfe Oct 04 '14 at 18:17

Making a dual boot from two single boots

1 Answers1