ubuntu and widows8 hard drive selector

[lxsqsme]

dell inspiron 660 I5. I have two 1tb hard drives and a orico power switch that will let me select which hard drive functions. I have installed ubuntu on the 2nd drive with the windows drive not selected (no power) all goes well with install, I am able to reboot, works fine. Then I power off use the switch to turn of ubuntu and turn on windows 8 all goes well boots to windows fine. Now the trouble begins when I power off the desktop and use the selector switch to go back to ubuntu the hard drive is not found. "No boot device available" I thought this would be the perfect way of having a multi boot system ( Power switch will let you select 6 different devices) Help Please

 

[skittle]

You are doing this the hard way.

Keep both drives powered and plugged in.
Set Ubuntu to the first boot device.
Add windows to Ubuntu bootloader, "GRUB".
This will allow you to choose what OS you want to boot from. No need to select power switch...

 

[lxsqsme]

Would really like the ability to keep both OS seperate. I have read several threads where people had to remove power leads to install both OS out of nessicity in order to dual boot, they however wanted grub to work I would love to have the problem they were having which required them to remove/install the power plug from the hard drive they wanted booted. Thanks for reading and the reply R

 

[skittle]

Would really like the ability to keep both OS seperate.

Both OS are still separate. GRUB simply has a listing that points to the Windows Bootloader on the other Hard Drive.

have read several threads where people had to remove power leads to install both OS out of [necessity] in order to dual boot

No, not out of necessity. Sometimes people unplug a HDD during installation as to not accidentally install to the wrong HDD but this is certainly not required. Especially not required for just for selecting a boot device.

If you do this you are a masochist. Just use GRUB, that's its entire purpose! GRand Unifying Bootloader.

 

[lxsqsme]

Well I already have the "switch" would like to use it, just not sure why it will not work. Install Ubuntu with win8 drive turned off. Install goes well I reboot check everything out restart check everything out all is well, power off deselect ubuntu select win 8 power on boots to windows perfect just what i want power down desect win8 select ubutnu power on that is where I get No boot device enable....... Had similar set up for years with xp/ubuntu/haiku never had a problem....This should work and yes there are thread that some user were having to unpug power from the hard drives to boot to the os that they wanted since grub was not working for them. I would love to have that problem. Yes I should give in and just go with grub but I am not quite there yet. Thanks again for reading and posting R

 

[skittle]

Does Ubuntu boot without using the switch? DOes BIOS detect disk powered on? No boot device found is as the error suggests: The BIOS cannot find a boot device to boot from!

Yes I should give in and just go with grub

Yes already you see the switch causing you pain but you continue on and not use the simpler method.

 

[lxsqsme]

Switch taken out..... Fresh install of Ubuntu with windows 8 unpluged... everything works power off unplug ubuntu plug window everything works power off..unplug plug ubuntu back in that is when I get the message of "NO boot device available"...Looks like bios sees the HD but will not boot to it

 

[skittle]

Well now you have to do basic trouble shooting. 2 possibilities to investigate:
1) your BIOS may be misconfigured somehow to not boot from Ubuntu HDD. [check BIOS settings!]
2) MBR is corrupted and not booting GRUB. [boot a ubuntu livecd and use the boot-repair tool to try to fix]

 

[lxsqsme]

i dont think that it is MBR I have tried many flavors of linux today all with the same result. Installs fine with the windows drive unplugged con boot and restart over and over power down and power on works fine but the minute that I Power off and unplug ubuntu and plu in windows is when the problems start. after plugging in windows and unplugging widows and plugging back in ubuntu that is where it will not boot. I think in bios but I have tried many combinations and can never get it to boot to ubuntu after running windows.......................Thanks again

 

[Ijack]

It sounds to me as if changing the hard disks in this way is causing the BIOS to lose track of the available boot devices, which really isn't surprising. If you insist on using this unconventional arrangement then you are going to have to go into the BIOS each time to change the boot device (in which case you don't need to bother with the power switch or GRUB!).

Skittle is 100% correct. You are making life difficult for yourself for no good reason. I've been using multi-boot setups for many years with up to 7 OSs on 4 hard disks and have never had any problems. Just use GRUB.

 

[lxsqsme]

Even going back to the bios to let me select which hd to boot does not work. Will only boot into windows.

 

[Ijack]

Even going back to the bios to let me select which hd to boot does not work. Will only boot into windows.

Well, it seems that your only option is to do what everyone else does and use a boot manager. Computers do funny things if you add and remove hard disks.