Dual boot on portable drive

Asked by Susan Anderson

Please see Question #87048. My problem is exactly the same as his, except that I'm using Windows XP instead of Windows Vista. I'll restate what he said, with my own information substituted:

I have Windows XP installed on my desktop PC's internal hard disk. I have Ubuntu installed on a portable external hard disk. During booting a boot screen appears to select the operating systems I want to boot. So far it's okay. But the problem is that when I try to boot my computer without my external hard disk attached, a black screen appears and shows me "error: no such device: 6afff52c-"etc., and the "grub rescue>" prompt. How can I boot my desktop computer in XP without my external hard disk attached? (Because sometimes I'll want to remove the external hard disk from my desktop PC and attach it to my laptop instead, while someone else is using the desktop PC.)

Claudio Arseni replied to #87048 that the answer could be found in GrubHowto. I read that 44-page document and couldn't find the answer. Surely there should be a way to tell Grub that, if he can't find one of the operating systems (like Linux), he should just go ahead and boot-up the default operating system, which I've specified is XP?

THANK YOU.

Question information

Language:
English Edit question
Status:
Solved
For:
Ubuntu grub2 Edit question
Assignee:
No assignee Edit question
Solved by:
Susan Anderson
Solved:
Last query:
Last reply:
Revision history for this message
Shahar Or (mightyiam) said :
#1

You need to reinstall the windows boot loader on the MBR. This is possible with a tool called ms-sys.

Revision history for this message
Susan Anderson (mmsusanmm) said :
#2

Shahar,

What an incredibly quick reply! Thank you. I'll look into it. (I hadn't heard of ms-sys before.) Thank you so much.

Susan

> To: <email address hidden>
> From: <email address hidden>
> Subject: Re: [Question #189154]: Dual boot on portable drive
> Date: Wed, 29 Feb 2012 00:30:59 +0000
>
> Your question #189154 on grub2 in Ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub2/+question/189154
>
> Status: Open => Answered
>
> Shahar Or proposed the following answer:
> You need to reinstall the windows boot loader on the MBR. This is
> possible with a tool called ms-sys.
>
> --
> If this answers your question, please go to the following page to let us
> know that it is solved:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub2/+question/189154/+confirm?answer_id=0
>
> If you still need help, you can reply to this email or go to the
> following page to enter your feedback:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub2/+question/189154
>
> You received this question notification because you asked the question.

Revision history for this message
Susan Anderson (mmsusanmm) said :
#3

I'm still looking into this, trying to solve my problem. In a book called "Hacking Windows XP" by Steve Sinchak, it says on page 184: "What are the benefits of changing the boot order of your system devices? If you modify the order of the boot devices so that the hard disk is placed at the top of the list, the system does not have to waste time checking other devices for boot records."

Currently my Grub menu shows six choices, with Windows XP as the bottom one (and as the default). Maybe the above advice means that if I move Windows XP up to be the first OS in that list, then the system won't bother to check on whether Ubuntu (which is installed on a portable external disk) is present or not. Now I just have to get straight on how to do that now. Am looking into it.

Revision history for this message
Susan Anderson (mmsusanmm) said :
#4

Thank you. My problem is solved. Its eventual solution is actually under problem# 190471.