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So I am buying a new 250 GB SSD drive and caddy to replace my CD Drive with. The laptop that I am installing this on currently has only Windows 7 on it. I plan on keeping the current hard drive in it just for Windows 7 and then using the SSD just for Ubuntu (I'm trying to install Ubuntu on the SSD). Note that I am trying to also have the option to boot either Ubuntu or Windows at startup, so only one or the other.

Would I have to install the SSD under Windows first? Or would I have to create a partition for Ubuntu in my current hard drive and then use Ubuntu to install the SSD, then reinstall Ubuntu onto the SSD? Is it possible to simply replace my CD drive with the SSD without doing anything with software (will my computer recognize it for use right away?) so that I can boot Ubuntu directly from a USB flash drive onto the SSD? I'm very confused about how to go about this process, answers are very appreciated!

Nathan
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The Ubuntu installer will recognize the drive as long as it's properly connected. You can build the necessary partitions to run Ubuntu fully on the SSD. So you don't have to do anything in Windows as long as it's properly connected.

I have a similar setup but on a tower PC.

Be aware that you have to create some 4 different partitions on that SSD for the EFI boot loader, root partition, home partition and swap partition.

Look around for some Ubuntu manual installation tutorials.

Antonio
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There's nothing special about an installation to a secondary drive. No need to fiddle with Windows or install to the primary drive first. I have Windows on a hard disk drive and Ubuntu on a solid state drive as you intend.

  1. Perform a regular installation of Ubuntu,

  2. choose the option ”Something Else”,

  3. select the new drive and partition and format it to your liking and assign the necessary/desired mount points to those partitions,

  4. pay attention to the boot loader location (also selectable from the partition manager during installation), which needs to be on the drive that your BIOS is configured to look at for a boot loader (see section below),

  5. proceed with the installation as normally.

Repairing a botched/misconfigured boot loader

If you run into an issue in step 4, fret not. The worst thing, that can happen, is, that the BIOS only finds Microsoft's boot loader on the old drive and only boots Windows. You can change both the boot order in the BIOS and the location of Ubuntu's boot loader Grub after the installation, if you select the wrong drive or change your mind.

Some recommended resources to resolve boot loader issues with Grub:

If none of these lead to a (satisfying) solution, open a new question and include a link to the info log created by Boot-Repair.

David Foerster
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  • I appreciate the step by step answer, so thank you. So for step 4 you're saying I'll still need to create a small partition in my original hard drive for Ubuntu since my BIOS is probably configured to look at that drive for the bootloader, otherwise I won't be able to have the option to boot Ubuntu at start up, right? – Nathan Apr 07 '15 at 07:12
  • No, the boot loader can be on either drive. For Legacy BIOS, it's placed in the few block between the partition table and the first partition. For UEFI BIOS, it's a separate partition. In both cases you can configure the BIOS to find it on any drive. – David Foerster Apr 07 '15 at 10:00
  • Thanks again, I'll see how the process goes when my SSD card comes and I go through the process! – Nathan Apr 07 '15 at 20:14
  • So I successfully installed Ubuntu to my new SSD, I created three partitions in the new SSD, the root partition ("/"), swap partition, and the /home partition all only on the SSD. But the issue you mentioned earlier came up: I can not boot to Ubuntu. The SSD shows up in my bios settings and under my main hard drive but when it comes to changing the boot order, under HDD/SSD it will only show my old hard drive name and booting to ODD will not work at all (I was thinking it would because I replaced the ODD with the SSD). So I'm stuck only being able to boot to windows. – Nathan Apr 09 '15 at 21:34
  • Does this mean I have to make another partition on my original hard drive to boot Ubuntu? Should I have created a 4th partition on the SSD for the EFI boot loader as Antonio mentioned? Otherwise, how do I change this issue so that I can choose between booting Windows 7 or Ubuntu at start up? – Nathan Apr 09 '15 at 21:35
  • See the section about boot loaders, that I added to my answer. – David Foerster Apr 09 '15 at 23:14
  • Thank you, my installation went smoothly and everything works great now! – Nathan Apr 11 '15 at 01:10