[LBo] Setup grub to boot off external harddisk

[Anita Lewis]

On 09/04/2007 04:39 AM David Roseman wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Thanks for all your comments - I think i need to do some more reading on how
> grub works though.
> 
> In answer to Anitas question on why I want to do this, the reason is that my
> windows install is sitting on my smaller 80Gb HDD internal and I have a
> 160Gb external.  I would like to shift windows to that and utilise the 80Gb
> for another linux distro for experiment.
> 
> I would have removed it entirely, but the OU course I have just started has
> materials which only work on windows.., oh and MS FlightSim X, if only
> flightgear could begin to approach it, that would be fantastic.
> 
> Dave
> 

That makes good sense.  I'd say, try installing Windows on the external,
but leave it also on the primary drive.  Go to the Linux distro on the
secondary drive.

cd /boot/grub
sudo cp menu.lst bu-menu.lst
sudo update-grub

less menu.lst

Look at that to see if there are now two Windows sections. If so, it
means that update-grub found your install on the external drive.  In
that case try to reboot to it.

This way you will not lose your windows install in case it doesn't work.
 You can fiddle with it to see if you can make it work and when you do
get it working, save that grub menu.lst.  Then do your new install on
the primary.

Anita

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