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Multiboot 2 x SSD (Zorin 1st, Win10 2nd) dell support 1st

Chefboyct

Mon Apr 03, 2017 7:59:32 pm

Hi Zorin peeps,

It is ME again and sorry to bother. But I can really get your help right now (I generally find what I am looking for after a few hours or a day or two but now I am frustrated).

So for quick understanding, please see the points below -

1) Dell Inspiron Laptop woth legacy mode (no EFI)
2) Dell BIOS only accept one HDD / SDD and cannot boot into Caddy (2nd SSD running SATA)
3) I have 2 SDD installed on the laptop
4) I cloned from smaller SSD to new SSD as 1st drive with Zorin 12.1 (everything works)
5) 2nd SSD has Windows 10 on it
6) Load into live USB and run the following (see attached) with recommended mode
7) Install Grub only on primary Zorin OS SSD (sda)
8) Reboot and Grub menu display but cannot load into Windows 10 but Zorin works.

So my questions are -

1) Seeing if I choose Windows 10, and it should boot into Windows (sdb) and somehow it failed. Does it mean Grub's limitation is rather hardware BIOS dependent? It would not be able to direct from sda to sdb for booting?
2) I have also gone into windows 10 recovery and repair, it says cannot locate windows data / partition. However running from terminal, I can access sdb (2 x partitions). Why is that?
3) if I install Grub on sda and sdb while in LIVE MODE, would that fix the issue? (Not yet tried as I don't wish to risk losing my Windows boot loader)

Your suggestion and recommendation is highly appreciated,

Kindest regards,

Swarfendor437

Mon Apr 03, 2017 9:52:51 pm

Whenever a dual-boot is to be installed, Windows first (sda) then GNU/Linux (sdb) - that goes for SSD (Windows) and HDD (GNU/Linux) configs as well. I know very little about SSD's and avoid like the plague! ;) :D

Chefboyct

Mon Apr 03, 2017 10:48:00 pm

Swarfendor437 wrote:Whenever a dual-boot is to be installed, Windows first (sda) then GNU/Linux (sdb) - that goes for SSD (Windows) and HDD (GNU/Linux) configs as well. I know very little about SSD's and avoid like the plague! ;) :D


the issue I have is that both Windows 10 (already on a drive) and then Zorin 12.1 (also cloned to the new SSD). So when I run Grub via live USB, it will then put the boot loader on as multiboot option, However I can not boot into Windows 10 if it is on the SDD Caddy option (cannot be boot via BIOS). Anyways, I am also goijgn to take out the Windows drive tomorrow and access it on the External casing and see if there is something wrong with the Windows Boot loader.

Swarfendor437

Tue Apr 04, 2017 9:07:42 pm

Hi, Had been thinking about your situation after posting - even if on a separate drive I would use the Matthew Moore's method of dual booting which leaves Windows mbr intact:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlTgaWs9BD0

Chefboyct

Tue Apr 25, 2017 2:56:03 pm

Swarfendor437 wrote:Hi, Had been thinking about your situation after posting - even if on a separate drive I would use the Matthew Moore's method of dual booting which leaves Windows mbr intact:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlTgaWs9BD0

Thanks mate, got a reply from Zorin support but it is too late. I have already used alternative solution :) one always got to consider alternatives when it doesnt work! :)