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DISCLAIMER: I am very new to UBUNTU and Linux in general!

I have installed UBUNTU on my external HDD. My computer has Win 8.1 on its HDD. What I want is to get the GRUB screen at bootup asking for UBUNTU or Windows Boot Manager. After installing UBUNTU on my external, I got that screen ONCE! I selected Windows Boot Manager (At least I think that's what it's called), and I have never gotten that screen again!

I have my computer set to boot from USB first, then the windows boot manager, so I know it's looking to the external ... but for some reason, it always boots strait in to Win 8.1. I have gone in to my UEFI and turned off Secure Boot, and that made no difference. Is there any way to boot UBUNTU from a USB drive with a native HDD running 8.1?

P.S. Not sure why this matters, but I see people asking, so I will answer: I installed UBUNTU from WUBI.

Thanks in advance!!!

BrianH
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  • there are major problems with wubi, I would advise against using it with windows 8 – Mateo Jul 05 '15 at 01:15
  • Boot your Ubuntu installer in its "try before installing" mode, run the Boot Info Script, post the RESULTS.txt file that it creates to [a pastebin site.,(http://paste.ubuntu.com/) and post the URL to your document here. Without the information produced by that script (or manually in equivalent but more tedious ways), any answer will be a guess based on assumptions, and so might send you down a path to making things even worse. – Rod Smith Jul 05 '15 at 02:01
  • @Mateo I don't know any other way to install ubuntu. That was what the installer said to click on. If there is another way I should be using then please inform me. – BrianH Jul 05 '15 at 02:28
  • @RodSmith I am unable to boot my ubuntu installer in "try before installing" mode. I wasn't able to boot the installer at all on this Win8 PC. I actually used another computer to install Ubuntu on the external HDD. That is one of the problems :( – BrianH Jul 05 '15 at 02:30
  • Just as a thought, when you uninstall wubi (if that is something you plan to do), instead of installing it to your harddrive as a dual boot. If you hit what is typicaly known as the windows key, and type in the search bar in ubuntu, "disks" and make a partition on your external (advisable to back up data on the external hdd or anything you partition)then go to the search bar again and type "disk creator" You can install ubuntu as a persistent install on that particular device. After that, the motherboard should boot ubuntu from the usb device. – Miphix Jul 05 '15 at 06:15

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I have my computer set to boot from USB first, then the windows boot manager, so I know it's looking to the external ... but for some reason, it always boots strait in to Win 8.1.

I am unable to boot my ubuntu installer in "try before installing" mode. I wasn't able to boot the installer at all on this Win8 PC.

Sounds like you installed Ubuntu in MBR mode on the other computer instead of getting it to boot properly on your UEFI computer in the first place.

Add an ESP to an existing installation with MBR may be what you are looking for.

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LiveWireBT
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