Grub2 is the Grub Version2 Make that partition active. If grub is loaded grub is there (but be prepared to boot with an usbkey or dvd to restore the 1st partition as active, in case something goes wrong. Alternatively you can reinstall the windows bootloader with bcdboot. Win bootloader goes always on mbr, so if your grub is installed there, will be overwritten by the win loader. (in that case you have to reinstall grub, manually, in the right place.)
Grub2 is required for GPT disks. It is optional on MBR disks, and GRUB1 works fine. Grub is often called the Linux bootloader. Linux mostly uses grub (Syslinux for non-HD boots), although Grub is independent of Linux. Grub is an excellent idea, unfortunately M$ and the BIOS designers have ignored it. A small boot partition near the start of the disk dates back to the INT13 days, and Grub1. boot had to be contained within the first 8GB of disk. GPT+UEFI does not have this restriction and the 2MB boot record at the start of the disk can directly access any of the GPT partitions. Hence /boot partition is not really necessary, from a Grub/Linux point of view.
got a little bit further but hitting a brick wall with bcdedit on Win 10 Lets see if I can explain. Install Win 10 on one drive Installed Ubuntu on a separate drive Following a guide on the net I have managed to grab the Ubuntu.bin file. ( got it safe ) Pasted this file into C:\ within Win 10. booting into Win 10 and running the cmd as admin I type bcdedit I get a nice display of my current Windows boot menu, identifier etc. I type this bcdedit /create /d “Ubuntu” /application bootsector cls bcdedit I expected to see a new entry called ubunto, where we could go further to manage this entry. I can not see the new Ubuntu entry. I have also used bcdedit /create /d “Ubuntu” /application osloader same result... As said this is all new to me and I can not see where I am going wrong. My gut feeling is Win 10 is acting as Win 10 does and stopping this.. I have not tried this on Win 7 or Win 8.1. I may test this and see what happens. I am thinking too. Now I have grabbed this Ubuntu.bin file I do not need to grab it again. I could do numerous Ubuntu installs and this .bin file would be exactly the same . If in fact this is the correct file to use within Windows. Any thoughts on this ? Any tips on where I am going wrong ? Am I getting there ? Or completely off track ?
Not sure if that limitation still exist. But usually putting the linux bootloader on a drive different than the first one is not a good idea. The bootloaders should be on the MBR of the first drive or in the active partition of the first drive, no matter where the OSes are placed.
Right...OK. Does this explain why I could not make a new entry with BCDedit. So if the Linux bootloader is on the /boot drive is it still this Ubuntu.bin file. Or is it more than one actual file. If that is the case how do I point bcdedit to that file on the Linux partition. Would bcdedit see it ? Cause opening up My PC Windows does not see the Linux structure ? Or Am I missing the point.. bit confused
forgetting about Linux just for now. Not having any luck adding another windows OS with bcdedit. So I decided to use easybcd to add a Win 8.1 entry to win 10 mbr. Worked as it should within Win 10 I then ran bcdedit and sure enough the win 8.1 enrty is there. What I am doing wrong I have not figured out yet. Just gunna connect up Win 10 and Linux and use easybcd
As expected using easybcd I was able to add Linux to the boot menu within Win 10. then checking with bcdedit there it was and I was able to select Linux from the Windows MBR screen. As we all know easybcd is the tool to use. As yet, I do not know why I can not do this manually under Win 8.1 or Win 10.. I have to check if I can do it under Win 7. So onto a 4th hdd I will load Win 7 and see what happens.
Win 7 on one drive Win 10 on another drive For the life in me I can not get bcdedit to add the win 10 entry. I have read loads, watched loads. typed exactly what has been shown. Over and over again. I can not do it.. Anybody know exactly what to do here....
Well with all the messing about I have been doing. I would say that both OS's work as well as they should. It is probably easier to use the Linux Grub2 boot menu to choose your preferred OS, if no third party software is wanted. I had no problem booting into both OS's for the Grub2 menu. If a third party software is chosen I have noticed EasyBCD works really well and is easy to set up.
Why put yourself to all this agro, hot swop on two separate drives, no problems loading, takes seconds to change O/S,s, and you can load any systems you want.
Please check out my initial reply I personal always setup my own mulit boot with each OS on it's own drive. I Currently have Win 8.1 as my default OS. on my Asus Z77 board I just press F8 at boot and select which drive I want. My board does allow HotSwap. It is enabled and I use it all the time. My case has 4 hot swap drive bays at the front behind a nice little door. Easy access. I went through this basically for my own amusement. Was going well but hit a brick wall with bcdedit trying to manually add another OS to the boot menu. That's why I post up the reply I did prior tour you post. I thought that gave the OP the info he wanted in the first place and One again I had gone off on a tangent. I seem to do that a lot.
If you want to learn to swim you have to put your ass in the water, no matter if it feels too cold And no, if you want to learn to swim, the suggestion to use a boat is useless.
Just wanted to add a little bit of info. I kept getting "unuseable" error when partitioning the drive in Linux. I did not know this but a drive can only support 4 Primary partitions.. It had nothing to do with the drive size as I first suspected.
Your trite analogies.? Oh I understand, why not use Abacus beads to perform complex maths instead of a calculator.
I'm not boasting but, I can boot Win10, OSX, Linux, Aros and a whole bunch of Iso's using 3 primary partitions and one extended partition, using a third party app. I could boot the lot from Linux but I don't want to rely on one partition to boot everything. The third party app installs a bootloader to the MBR.