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I have 2 hard drives so they are sda and sdb. Win7 is installed on the sdb and the sda drive is simply storage as the sda drive was added later. In this case would I install the bootloader on the windows drive (sdb) or the storage drive (sda) - where the installer wants to install the bootloader by default?

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  • You install bootloader on the drive you are going to boot from.
    – Pilot6
    Jul 29, 2016 at 16:41
  • @Zanna - He needs help installing GRUB. Jul 29, 2016 at 16:46
  • The Setup should handle this automatically, however you will not be able to boot directly into windows without your disk that contains GRUB. Jul 29, 2016 at 17:20

2 Answers 2

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You should install it to the drive with Windows 7. (/dev/sdb)

The reason is because that way the installer will replace the Windows bootloader with GRUB. Otherwise, each drive would have a bootloader, with wouldn't be optimal. It could be confusing later on. Although, do take note both configs will work.

If you were to install GRUB to your data drive, you would have to mess with the boot order whenever you wanted to boot Ubuntu.

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  • Why? Can you explain?
    – Pilot6
    Jul 29, 2016 at 16:40
  • @Pilot6 - Edited. Jul 29, 2016 at 16:44
  • It is OK to have bootloaders on both drives. This way it is possible to switch OS in BIOS or in boot menu.
    – Pilot6
    Jul 29, 2016 at 16:45
  • @Pilot6 - It wouldn't be optimal for me (As I said in my answer). Feel free to create your own answer :) Jul 29, 2016 at 16:46
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It does not matter much where you install grub.

The point is to install it to the drive you plan to boot Ubuntu from.

If you install grub to sdb and boot from it, you will have an option in grub menu to boot into Windows or Ubuntu.

If you install grub to sda and boot from sdb, you will boot into Windows.

If you install grub to sda and boot from sda you will have a choice between Windows and Ubuntu. That menu can also be hidden, if you like to choose OS from BIOS or its boot menu.

So both choices are good enough.

And also you can always move grub from one drive to another later.

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