garmanma Posted April 23, 2007 Report Share Posted April 23, 2007 So I'm giving up on the other machine for now, but I'm still determined to give it a shot. I took my wife's spare ntfs- formatted empty drive and put it in my computer. My first idea was to hook it up by itself as master, load ubuntu, reset it as slave, and use my BIOS to decide which drive to boot to. After some reading I know this is not the thing to do, but the more I read the more confused I get. Exactly how should I go about doing this? I don't care which OS is default. Does my XP drive have to remain connected while installing Ubuntu, for it to be detected? I really don't want to risk losing anything. The version I have is 6.06.1 LTSMark Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jimras Posted April 23, 2007 Report Share Posted April 23, 2007 Hi MarkI have installed Ubuntu onto a second hard drive and the installation wentsmooth as silk. When you start the install of Ubuntu ( or any Linux OS) part of the procedure is the program checking for drives and space on these drives. It will show both HD's -- The master ( C: ) will be shown as HD 0and the slave drive will be HD 1. The install should suggest partitionson the drive and then go thru the install.It will also install the Grub loader and that will give you the choice on Boot Upof which OS you want to boot to. Just remember that if you ever remove the Linux OS from your computer, you have to go and repair the Master Boot Record on the C: because it willbe looking for the grub loader and that goes away with the Linux OS. Not a big deal to fix the MBR -- I've done this a few times and it goes easilyand quickly using the XP install disc and choosing Repair.jim Quote Link to post Share on other sites
shanenin Posted April 23, 2007 Report Share Posted April 23, 2007 Does my XP drive have to remain connected while installing Ubuntu, for it to be detected? I really don't want to risk losing anything.It does, If you want it to set up the dual boot automatically. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
garmanma Posted April 23, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 23, 2007 Thanks guys. I'll give it a try tonight if I get a chance. We had to take my daughter to the hospital, again. Looks like my grandson wants out no matter what the doctor has to say about it. Just eating a quick lunch and back to the hospitalMark Quote Link to post Share on other sites
garmanma Posted April 24, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 24, 2007 Which drive should I have set to master when loading Ubuntu, XP or the empty one?Mark Quote Link to post Share on other sites
shanenin Posted April 24, 2007 Report Share Posted April 24, 2007 You could probably do it either way, but XP will not want to boot properly if it is set to slave. You should have XP set to master. Ubuntu is happy to install itself to the slave drive. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
garmanma Posted April 24, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 24, 2007 Thanks guys. I'm using it as we speak. I'll definitly be postiong back with questions.. First thing is to adjust the screen resolution so I can see the damn thing. Hopfully I can get my trackball to work properly. I don't know if I should have downloaded all of the pdates but I just did. Hope they aren't as buggy as MS have been recentlyMark Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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