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Old Zorin Forum archive → Installation

Install on Secondary Drive

chuck333

Fri Apr 22, 2016 4:55:47 pm

I have a slave/secondary drive F: that I would like to install Zorin to and run Zorin from. I have Windows 7 on my C: drive. Effectively I would have 2 computers, one running Windows 7 and the other one Zorin. Is this possible?
Please walk me through the process for this

Swarfendor437

Sat Apr 23, 2016 7:26:46 pm

Hi, First off, boot Zorin in 'live' mode, open 'GParted' partition editor, make a note of all the 'sdX' hard drives and partitions - you should recognise your 'F:' drive by its partition size - make a note of what it is named as - possibly 'sdb1'?

Then take a look at my dual-boot method the non-conventional way:

https://vimeo.com/110085401

The video was made looking at dual-boot on one drive - you just need to refer to 'sdb' '/' partition when setting up 'Easy BCD' - again once you have formatted as per video it should fall into place. ;) :D

chuck333

Tue Apr 26, 2016 12:52:10 pm

I did all of that and at the end I got a fatal error....can not install boot loader...or something like that.

Swarfendor437

Tue Apr 26, 2016 10:44:34 pm

Try creating a '/boot' partition of 512 Mb at the beginning of the second drive and point GRUB (Bootloader) to install to that. ;) :D

chuck333

Wed Apr 27, 2016 7:45:06 pm

Still get the same error. I created /boot and it was sdb6 and tried to install boot grub to that no luck. So i noticed that you had said "at the beginning" so I started again and created /boot before /.., /swap, and /home and install again, this time /boot was sdb5 still no luck installing to any partition.

Swarfendor437

Thu Apr 28, 2016 10:39:45 pm

OK, disconnect the Windows Drive and install Zorin on the second drive, then reboot with the Windwos Drive in, install Easy BCD and pick up the '/' partition on the second drive to add to Windows bootloader. ;) :D

svx-biker

Wed Jun 29, 2016 10:10:01 am

If you have two physical drives you can usually set the boot disk in right after the start. Try to press F12, F2 or escape when the initial Power-On-Screen appears.

I've installed Windows and one Linux on drive a and other Linux Distros together with GRUB on drive b. When I want to start a Linux from drive b I press F12 and select the second drive. After this I get the GRUB menu from drive b.

All you have to make sure is where to install GRUB when installing a distro from USB or DVD.