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I have a 1TB external USB HDD. I have partitioned it as follows.

Disk /dev/sdb: 931.5 GiB, 1000204885504 bytes, 1953525167 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 33553920 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 6C3FB5F1-7B50-11E3-BFCD-4C72B91262C0

Device          Start        End   Sectors   Size Type
/dev/sdb1        2048      43007     40960    20M BIOS boot
/dev/sdb2      206848  409806457 409599610 195.3G Linux filesystem
/dev/sdb3   409806848  819406847 409600000 195.3G Linux filesystem
/dev/sdb4   819406848 1229006847 409600000 195.3G Linux filesystem
/dev/sdb5  1229006848 1536206847 307200000 146.5G Microsoft basic data
/dev/sdb6  1536206848 1638606847 102400000  48.8G Linux swap
/dev/sdb7  1638606848 1953523711 314916864 150.2G Linux filesystem
/dev/sdb8       43008     206847    163840    80M Linux filesystem

When I started installing Ubuntu, by picking 'I want to do something else' during the initial setup - to install Ubuntu on external HDD. There I configured the partitions. The first partition /dev/sdb1 is flagged as 'BIOS_GRUB'. (It was recommended by Ubuntu during the installation). Then I configured the 'root' folder for /dev/sdb2 and 'home' folder for /dev/sdb4. I also asked the grub to be installed at /dev/sdb .

The installation went successfully, but after I restarted and tried to boot from the External HDD - it doesn't boot. I have the Ubuntu Live USB through which I am trying to diagnose/fix this.

Questions here are -

  1. What could be possible reasons behind this?
  2. What would be the ways to diagnose this?
  3. If the /dev/sdb1 was flagged as 'GRUB_BIOS' partition, then shouldn't GRUB be installed in this partition, than at the beginning of disk /dev/sdb? (in any case I do not get an option to install GRUB at /dev/sdb1 during the installation).
  4. Some more insights about how-where GRUB is installed and whats' the role of the 'GRUB-BIOS' partition?

Note - This question may look similar to another question on Ubuntu Forum How to Install Ubuntu on Portable External Drive, but it is not. Because I had followed the steps mentioned in that question to install Ubuntu on my External HDD. And the installation is completed successfully. But afterwards my PC doesn't boot, so I suspect this is more to do with GRUB and the various booting possibilities (like MBR, GPT)

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I finally ended up solving my problem, so let me sum up the lessons learned.

  1. I have a Windows-10 PC with UEFI. In that case make sure the Linux installation disk also needs to support UEFI. (check the link for more info )
  2. I had the Linux installation image also with UEFI, but I had activated the compatibility/leagacy BIOS mode on my PC. This was one reason why the image did not work. I rebooted my PC by activating UEFI mode and re-installed Ubuntu, that worked.

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