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I've just got an SSD for my laptop (windows 10) and I am planning to put the 1TB HDD that was in there as a second drive (using the optical drive caddy system). I thought that while I was at it I might put a 100GB Linux partition on the HDD.

However I am enjoying the absurdly fast boot times with the SSD and don't want a slow bootloader (e.g GRUB) asking me to choose which OS to boot into

QUESTION: Is there a way to install ubuntu on this second drive in a way that does not affect windows 10 booting from the SSD. I.E. a way so that it only boots into Ubuntu if I hold down a button (e.g. F9 for one time boot order)

Is it as simple as installing ubuntu and its GRUB on the HHD, and putting the SSD above the HDD in the boot order, and then holding F9 down and selecting the HDD when I want Ubuntu?

P.S my laptop uses UEFI. I am nervous about messing up the boot manager for the millionth time in my life.

3 Answers 3

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You can install Ubuntu to the HDD drive without having a negative effect on Windows booting.
And you have to install the GRUB boot loader to same drive where the EFI partition is installed.
But it is recommended to install all operating systems on the same drive - in your case the SSD.

So I recommend to install Ubuntu alongside Windows 10 on the SSD.
You should use the HDD for storing your personal data and backups.
Don't forget to disable fast boot and hibernation in Windows before.

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  • For space reasons and avoiding the use of the GRUB bootloader on the SSD I would rather not use that method. Could I use the method I suggested above?
    – Harvs
    Dec 18, 2015 at 17:25
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    @Harvs : No this is not possible ... all boot loaders have to be installed to the EFI partition on UEFI based computers with GPT partition table, otherwise Ubuntu will not boot. GRUB really does not take away too much space, the EFI partition already exists with the installed Windows boot loader and the size does not have to be changed when only GRUB will be added. You can install Ubuntu on the HDD but you have to install GRUB to the EFI partition in the SSD. :)
    – cl-netbox
    Dec 18, 2015 at 17:49
  • Thats a shame, so you are sure the answer I just put below wont work? :( I was keen to avoid using GRUB except when booting into Ubuntu.
    – Harvs
    Dec 18, 2015 at 17:52
  • @Harvs : Unfortunately yes, it does not work on UEFI based machines - what you have pointed to is an installation setup in legacy BIOS (MBR) mode, but that really is no problem at all ... it is the other way around, it is an advantage : Windows uses the Windows boot loader and Ubuntu uses the GRUB boot loader. :)
    – cl-netbox
    Dec 18, 2015 at 18:05
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I think following this post: https://askubuntu.com/a/274405/385706 and stopping where it says "Once done, reboot and you will be booted to windows 7." Should do the trick.

As such when turning on the laptop it will load into windows buy default, and if I want Ubuntu I can hold F9 down and select the HHD, I will then be taken to GRUB and where I can choose between Ubuntu and Windows.

Can anybody confirm that this will/should work?

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  • IMNSHO the above answer is a more reliable way to boot: you've got the 2HD anyway and grub's resource usage is minimal (few 100KB) and that is how I used to dual-boot Windows and Ubuntu before I got rid of Windows.... ;-)
    – Fabby
    Dec 20, 2015 at 11:31
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QUESTION: Is there a way to install ubuntu on this second drive in a way that does not affect windows 10 booting from the SSD. I.E. a way so that it only boots into Ubuntu if I hold down a button (e.g. F9 for one time boot order)

This is what I do on my T530, mSATA SSD with the latest Ubuntu, HDD1 with Windows, HDD2 with Ubuntu LTS and Fedora. I have the SSD/Ubuntu latest set as the first boot entry, but you could set it to Windows in your case. Contradictory to cl-netbox's answer my 15.10 detects all installed OSes and can boot them through GRUB (and I also have an ESP for each, I can generate a custom grub image with grub-mkimage or install other bootloaders and build a funny chain of bootloaders probably jumping around on all ESPs on some machines), not actually related to your question, but I wanted to mention it. If your UEFI firmware plays nice, almost everything is possible, we've just seen and expect bad firmware.

Is it as simple as installing ubuntu and its GRUB on the HHD, and putting the SSD above the HDD in the boot order, and then holding F9 down and selecting the HDD when I want Ubuntu?

Yes, as already mentioned, if your firmware plays nice I don't see any issues at all, but you might want to opt for more conservative settings and avoid options that almost hardwire booting to Windows if they exist. On some of my (headless) desktops it's almost too fast.

If you have problems with setting the bootorder in the UEFI setup screen, then check if efibootmgr works and has effect on the actual boot order of your machine (some report to efibootmgr that changes were applied just to discard them on next boot).

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