How do you install Ubuntu? (Windows on SSD / Ubuntu on HDD)

Zyre · January 8, 2014

Hello,

First of the topic title may sound strange and you might be wondering ''Google it'' well it isn't exaclly like that so let me explain!

About 2 weeks ago i split my SSD which had Windows on it trough the middle so i should install Ubuntu on the other part. Everything went well until i removed ubuntu leaving me stuck with Windows unable to boot so i had to re-install EVERYTHING. The reason that this happened was because i just partitioned the Ubuntu and then expanded the Windows volume again trough Disk Management.

Well what i would like to ask is how i can prevent any issues like Ubuntu interfering with Windows (Aka: 100% separate) and how exactly can i install Ubuntu on my 320gb Hard Drive?

My PC is as followed. I have Windows installed on my 120gb 840 SSD and a 1TB HDD for games, files, storage. I would then like to use my 320gb HDD which isn't in use at all for Ubuntu.

I'm no Ubuntu expert but i'm not talking about ''Installing besides Windows'' i think.

So well hopefully someone understands my story and can help me out!

Zyre · January 8, 2014

You didn't have to completely reinstall Windows as you could have easily repaired the boot manager with Microsoft DaRT or one of these. Why do you want to install Ubuntu onto a hard drive instead of a virtual machine?

I like to run Ubuntu without having Windows around

DaftBehemoth · January 8, 2014

You should be able to boot from an Ubuntu disk and when it asks where to install, select your HDD. (it has been a few months since I last installed Ubuntu, so hopefully I'm not misleading your lol)

lutzee · January 8, 2014

Okay, the thing with windows is it still likes to install onto a disk using the Master Boot record style partition tabling scheme, which includes a small area of the disk for the bootloader. When you install ubuntu, it will want to install GRUB, a linux bootloader onto the Master Boot Record, due to the partition table format. This will overwrite the windows bootloader currently stored there.

If you have two drives you can have one with windows on, running its own bootloader, and linux on another drive using the GPT partition tabling scheme, which lets you have the bootloader in the same partition as the main OS. You can then set up grub to be able to boot windows from the other drive, and have the linux drive set as the primary boot drive.