Can't select a OS to boot.

I installed Zorin OS successfully, but I am not being allowed to select a boot for it. It auto boots to windows right away.

I installed it on a fresh new 500GB HDD so that it wouldn't interupt my already set up 1TB drive I have for Windows, that's split in to a 100GB for windows and 900GB for my gaming (which is nearly all taken up anyway)

It installed successfully, but it's not allowing me to boot to the 500GB drive which has Zorin OS installed on it.

Any more information you require I can get ASAP for you.

Hi,

go here:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1895

create a disk and you can keep it for emergencies.

You can also try booting the live Zorin CD and open a terminal and type:

sudo update-grub

are you sure that you installed the boot manager (Grub) to MBR?????.

Regards Wolfman

It seems that Zorin and GRUB2 (Linux boot manager) are installed on 500GB HDD , and Windows on 1TB HDD, and system is, via BIOS, configured to boot FIRST from your 1TB disk; actually I think your boot order (BIOS boot menu) is :
1. DVD-rom
2. 1TB HDD
3. 500GB HDD
4. other (USB device, network, etc)

There are few options to easy fix this out. You can, immediately on computer boot, press some key which is assigned to bring you "bios boot menu" which will then let you choose to boot from 500GB HDD, and after that, You will see GRUB2 (linux boot manager) menu with all of its menu options.
Keyboard key assigned to enter computer/bios boot menu depends on manufacturer, it is different on different computers, but, usually one of F9 to F12. That key is displayed on very first moments when computer starts, and is displayed for very short time.

The best way to solve your problem (on my opinion) will be to enter BIOS, and change bios boot order to be:
1. DVD-rom (optical disk device)
2. 500GB HDD
3. 1 TB HDD
4.. other

On this way, if you ever remove any of HDDs, system will work without additional configuring, and (most important) you preserve MBR of windows HDD, so if you remove or re-format yout 500GB HDD, that will not erase windows MBR.

Next option is, once you manage to boot into Zorin via first option displayed in this post, you can re-install GRUB2 to MBR of your 1GB HDD, and problem will be solved without making bios changes of boot order. On this way, GRUB2 will overwrite windows boot manager, so if you ever remove (from computer) or reformat your 500GB HDD, you will not be able to boot into windows without fixing windows MBR, which is another story.
Maybe you can use something from post next to the last HERE.

I hope this helps.

The 500GB HDD is not bootable or at least the BIOS doesn't recognise it as a bootable HDD.

I'm guessing right there is my problem, I must have it set to slave instead of master on the back.

Hi,

your settings for your drives should be: Master (1st HDD), Slave (2nd HDD) and never use "Cable Select"!!.

Regards Wolfman

Windows doesn't go out of it's way to look for other operating systems and it absolutely hogs the boot sector of the first disk no matter where you install it. You could download a windows based bootloader like EasyBCD ( freeware ) from neosmart.net and install it. Doesn't take long. Use the 'add entry' button to tell it about Zorin. Reboot and select Zorin from the new bootloader screen. It will load Zorin regardless of where you put grub.
Word of warning though is that EasyBCD can get confused if you have more than one linux installation.