Merging dual hard drive/dual OS

Hi William,

It's not clear to me what is the actual scenario and which is the scenario you want to achieve. However If you want to migrate windows and ubuntu form older computers to a new one. You should take in to account three major aspects:

1) Ubuntu:

   As for ubuntu you wont have any problem. It will detect your new hardware and everything should go fine and probably without your intervention.

2) Windows:

   The windows XP side is what will give you many headaches. If it will boot at all (not sure even if that could be possible) you'll get two major problems:

  * The license (you cannot or you shouldn't use your current license in a new hardware; that might give you problems)
  * The drivers for the new hardware. You need them to make everything work again (if you pass the first point).

3) The boot loader.

We will help you in the Ubuntu part of the problem and with issues with the boot loader, however for the hard part you should look for advice in windows forums.

If I were you I'll start with the weird stuff at first. The windows XP migration. Once done, the ubuntu part will be very simple: create enough free space on the disk for the ubuntu partitions, clone them into the free space. Boot with a live CD and edit the fstab of your cloned ubuntu to reflect the new partition schema. Finally chroot into it and run grub (the bootloader) in order to identify both windows and ubuntu root partitions. Then you'll done.

HTH

OFCOURSE, before attempting any risky disk operation with valuable data in it you MUST perform a full BACKUP of anything you don't want to loose

1. I don't want to merge the Windows OS with Ubuntu on the same hard drive- I want to install both hard drives with their existing OSes in one computer.
2. Is there any way to install my CAD programs on Ubuntu? If so, there is no need to install two OSes.
                                                                                                             Bill

On 01/18/2011 12:23 PM, delance wrote:
> Your question #141676 on grub2 in ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub2/+question/141676
>
> Status: Open => Answered
>
> delance proposed the following answer:
> Are you able to set Windows disk after Ubuntu disk in BIOS boot order. ?
> In this case, install both disk, boot on Ubuntu and run command "sudo update-grub".
> The Windows disk will be untouched.
>
> Another solution is to install a virtual machine in Ubuntu. I use
> Virtual Box, but you can use VmWare or Kvm. Then install XP on virtual
> machine and after your CAD programs. You will have some loss of
> performances, specially if your CAD software is 3D intensive.
>
DELANCE-
     I'LL HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL THE WEEKEND TO TRY OUT YOUR FIRST
PROPOSITION, BUT IT SOUNDS POSSIBLE. I MIGHT NEED HELP WITH THE GRUB
UPDATE. WILL GET BACK LATER...

                                                     BILL

in this case, post the result of command:
   sudo fdisk -l
where "-l" is lower case "-L".

On 01/18/2011 12:23 PM, delance wrote:
> Your question #141676 on grub2 in ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub2/+question/141676
>
> Status: Open => Answered
>
> delance proposed the following answer:
> Are you able to set Windows disk after Ubuntu disk in BIOS boot order. ?
> In this case, install both disk, boot on Ubuntu and run command "sudo update-grub".
> The Windows disk will be untouched.
>
> Another solution is to install a virtual machine in Ubuntu. I use
> Virtual Box, but you can use VmWare or Kvm. Then install XP on virtual
> machine and after your CAD programs. You will have some loss of
> performances, specially if your CAD software is 3D intensive.
>
Delance-
     I had partial success yet still have a question-
     Yes, I was able to achieve the boot order you suggested via my
bios. I had to repair my XP installation using the CD, but all the
existing files on the drive transferred in working order. My XP drive is
fully functional.
     My Ubuntu drive is functional, too, but the only way I can reliably
switch between the two drives/OS systems is through the bios. My XP
drive shows up in Ubuntu "Places", but I can't access the XP drive while
in Ubuntu.
     Thoughts, everyone?

                                                         Bill

Hi William Naumuk,

see my "3" point in my former message: The bootloader

HTH

--
hmontoliu <at> ubuntu.com
http://hmontoliu.blogspot.com

On 01/23/2011 11:59 AM, Hilario J. Montoliu (hjmf) wrote:
> Your question #141676 on grub2 in ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub2/+question/141676
>
> Status: Open => Answered
>
> Hilario J. Montoliu (hjmf) proposed the following answer:
> Hi William Naumuk,
>
> see my "3" point in my former message: The bootloader
>
> HTH
>
I changed the grub. My question is, how do I switch between drives?

Could you paste last lines of /etc/fstab (avoiding dozens of comment)
You can have a look at:
   https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Mount
   https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MountingWindowsPartitions

On 01/23/2011 02:28 PM, delance wrote:
> Your question #141676 on grub2 in ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub2/+question/141676
>
> Status: Open => Answered
>
> delance proposed the following answer:
> Could you paste last lines of /etc/fstab (avoiding dozens of comment)
> You can have a look at:
> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Mount
> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MountingWindowsPartitions
>
I changed OSes using the BIOS once again without changing anything in
terminal and a terminal screen came up with a half dozen Ubuntu choices
and XP. It took a couple of crashes before I found the correct Ubuntu
choice. I'm totally at a loss as to what's going on- I'll just cold boot
a couple of more times and see if things stabilize.

Things stabilized! I can reliably change between Ubuntu and XP using the "new" terminal screen. The only reason I can think of for the problems I experienced is that my original Ubuntu installation was corrupted by a bad CD or CD drive. Bottom line is, set Ubuntu first in the hard drive order, then enter sudo-update grub in terminal.
Thanks, Delance, and best of luck to you all.
                                                                             Bill

Thanks delance, that solved my question.