Dual boot on SSD and HDD (Windows 10 and Ubuntu)

Question

I have an Acer Aspire S3 (20GB SSD and ~500GB HDD) and I want to install Windows 10 on the SSD while creating a ~400GB partion on the HDD for windows. I would use the other 100GB on the HDD to install Ubuntu (I wont be using Ubuntu very often). This is what I did:

1. Format the SSD and the HDD
2. Install Windows 10 on the SSD
3. Use diskpart to create a partition of 400GB in the HDD
4. Configure windows
5. Install Ubuntu
   • Create partitions for swap, / and /home in the 100GB of the HDD
   • Tell Ubuntu to install the boot loader on the SSD

But now, the computer start's always with windows instead of loading grub. I took a look at the Bios boot order then, but I couldnt find the SSD (I thought that was the reason why grub wasnt loading (?)). This was the boot order:

1. USB HDD:
2. HDD: Hitachi HTS54...
3. USB FDD:
4. Network Boot:
5. USB CDROM:

(Hitachi HTS54 ... Is my HDD)

Is there anyway to repair this or any steps to do it correctly ? Thanks

Answer 1

If the SSD partition doesn't appear at BIOS boot, then it may have lost its boot flag. You can check it by starting to ubuntu and then running gparted (you may need to install it via terminal with sudo apt-get install gparted). Run it and then at the top right corner of the gparted window select your SSD disk, and then check if any of the partitions have enabled boot flag. If not, right click it, select Manage flags and check boot. Restart and check if that solved the problem.

Other solution you can try if this does not work, is using boot-repair

Answer 2

The problem you're experiencing is likely due to the bootloader not being correctly set up. Here's how you can potentially fix this using Boot Repair Using a Live USB:

• Boot from the Ubuntu Live USB.

• Once in the live session, you can install and run Boot Repair. Open a terminal and execute the following commands:

  1. To add the PPA, open the terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run the command:

     sudo add-apt-repository ppa:yannubuntu/boot-repair

  2. Then update and install boot-repair:

     sudo apt-get update
     sudo apt-get install boot-repair
     

• Once installed, launch Boot Repair.

• Use the "Recommended repair" option.

• The Boot Repair tool should automatically fix any GRUB issues and reinstall GRUB to your SSD.

• After the process, restart your computer without the Live USB.

Upon reboot, you should be greeted with the GRUB menu, allowing you to choose between Ubuntu and Windows 10. If GRUB doesn't appear, you might need to recheck the BIOS settings to ensure the correct boot order.

Manipulating boot loaders and partitions can be risky, so ensure that you have backups of your important data before proceeding with these steps.