Double Booting With External HardDrive

B

bob202

Member
So i installed Ubuntu onto an external hard drive, I have the grub file there, but I can't use EasyBCD to load it up. It works if i select boot from USB hard drive in my BIOS but not with EasyBCD. I get a screen saying uable to load boot disc (I think) please insert system disc and press any key to continue. So I just press any key and return to the previous screen and load up Vista no problem. I checked my EasyBCD settings and I have this:


Name: Ubuntu
BCD ID: {d68288fa-d9a8-11dd-8629-0050b64496bc}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \NST\nst_grub.mbr

But it should be the drive name of the external hard drive, does this mean I can't use Easy, or is there something I need to do?

Thanks
(sorry for the long winded post)
 
Hi Bob, wecome to NST
Have you followed the instructions in the wiki ?
(EasyBCD is pointing to the Linux boot files, not to the Linux system. The boot files say where Ubuntu OS is located)
 
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OK. You've reached the extent of my Linux expertise. (Not a user myself).
Hang around till one of the Linux users visits.
(from the hundreds of these posts I've seen, it'll be a misunderstanding of the Linux partition/disk numbering system at the core of your problem, but I won't attempt to advise on that other than to point you here, if you've not seen it.)
 
Are you using NeoGrub, or the standard boot entry created under the Linux tab in EasyBCD for Ubuntu?

I just recently managed to tri-boot my computer with Vista, XP, and Ubuntu 8.10...so maybe i could help. :wink:

Cheers! :smile:

-Coolname007
 
The reason for this is because the drive association with the external drive can change every boot. Being a external device it might not be recognized by the drive association you have saved this time as to when you reboot next time.
 
Lately it seems everyone is trying to load an OS from removable media, flash drives, and external hard drives as well to run into the exact same problems time and again. External drives are intended to storage even while they still appear in the bios as an option to set as the default boot device. Anything setup there has to be considered temporary since each startup can easily see a different configuration depending on how the drive is detected.

For any long term dual or multiple booting of OSs the solid results are seen with internal drives not usb or firewire setups. The only external setup would be raid with a separate controller or eSata where the drive goes through an addon card or eSata port direct to a sata port on the board itself and remains plugged in at all times.
 
PC eye said:
For any long term dual or multiple booting of OSs the solid results are seen with internal drives not usb or firewire setups.
Click to expand...

Do you know of any machines that support boot from firewire? I haven't seen any as of yet. Most people are still grasping onto the concept of usb and dvd boot thanks to the size an OS is gettings these days.
 
kairozamorro said:
Do you know of any machines that support boot from firewire? I haven't seen any as of yet. Most people are still grasping onto the concept of usb and dvd boot thanks to the size an OS is gettings these days.
Click to expand...

OS X does. You can even boot from another physical machine by just attaching the two with a firewire cable in between!
 
Thats some pretty aswesome stuff there (Makes me want to work on getting a macbook sooner now :smile:)

Imagine when they adopt usb 3.0 boot. 10 seconds or less to boot an OS :smile:
 
You won't see an OS like Windows or Mac load in under 10 seconds any time soon. For consumer application 3.0 won't be seen this year anyways. The initial phases will be for corporate application and hardware development.
 
I can boot Vista on my desktop/laptop within 15 seconds as it is, so usb 3 could be great things. Mainly for transfer at the moment, but I have no doubt that that could be achieved. Its 5g/bits, a heck a lot faster than firewire 800 from what I've heard.
 
It would certainly improve access time and transfer rates for things like external hard drives and larger capacity flash drives now being seen. But none of that will prevent the problems seen with any long term plans for an OS on one there.
 
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