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I want to dual boot Ubuntu with my Windows installation. Problem is that the SSD that my Windows is on is only big enough for Windows.

I have 2 other drives in my system, one for games with 2TB and one for programs with 1TB. Both are set up with Windows partitions, so Windows can access them. I cleared away 200GB on the 1TB drive so I could install Ubuntu there.

I tried installing Ubuntu manually by setting up:

  • swap: 512MB
  • /: 30GB
  • /home: rest of the 200GB

After that I set the bootloader to install on my SSD, alongside Windows.

The installation goes well, until it tries to install the bootloader, which fails to be installed. Is there anything I'm doing wrong? should the SSD also have some free space to be able to install the bootloader, or how should I proceed?

Zanna
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Tomas0206
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  • UEFI or BIOS install? If Windows is UEFI sda drive will have ESP - efi system partition and grub will install into that without issue. But if you install in BIOS boot mode from MBR drive, it will want to install to sda's MBR. Gpt drives have a protective MBR. But then grub2 will not install without a bios_grub partition to gpt drive. You want to install in UEFI boot mode. Or if you really want BIOS install grub to same drive's MBR. But best to have all drives gpt if UEFI system. – oldfred Jan 21 '18 at 14:47

1 Answers1

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I'm not sure if this is the exact answer, but I have a desktop setup with 2 HDDs, one for Windows, one for Ubuntu. I have it default to Ubuntu, but need to press the boot menu key if I want to boot into Windows to select that particular drive. This may be because GRUB isn't seeing the Windows MBR on the other hard drive or if it's just incompatible. My advice, install both onto the same SSD so it's more likely that GRUB installs and sees both. You could format part of the other HDDs to ext4 later so Windows won't continually see it.

Joel Solomon
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