Move system files to different hard drive?

[biggyk]

Hey all,

Been testing the waters of linux lately and I dicided to try Kubuntu 11.10. I seem to have a little problem. When choosing the drive to format and install to, I seem to not have paid close attention because what happened was I selected to format the drive I wanted to use but Kubuntu installed onto my Windows 7 drive. Thankfully I can still boot into Windows 7 but I have to select it in the Kubuntu boot option when it boots from that drive. Is there a way I can just transfer all the Kubuntu related system files to the formated drive, or can someone explain how I can get rid of the those files and I can just install a fresh copy of Ubuntu on the new drive? Looking in Drive managers and even in WIndows, I cant seem to find any folders relating to Linux. I also tried to boot from my other drive just to make sure it is indeed formated and it is. So this is why i know its somewhere on my win7 drive

TIA

Biggyk

[DoYouKubuntu]

Re: Move system files to different hard drive?

Hey all,

Hi there, and welcome to KFN.

what happened was I selected to format the drive I wanted to use

Help me out here! Okay, so you formatted the correct drive, i.e., the one you intended for Kubuntu?

but Kubuntu installed onto my Windows 7 drive

It can't do that on its own. If you chose drive X to format and install Kubuntu on, there's no way it could've ended up on drive Y. Also...

Thankfully I can still boot into Windows 7 but I have to select it in the Kubuntu boot option when it boots from that drive.

I'll freely admit that I've never even heard of this happening and, frankly, don't believe it's possible. When you're stepping through the Kubuntu installation process, you're asked where you want to install it and you're presented with various choices, including using the entire drive--which involves its being formatted (which means windoze no longer exists...yay! )--or making partition choices on your own. When you do the latter you have to manually select which partition(s) to use for Kubuntu, and whether you want to format them. Since you said you formatted the intended drive, you seem to have gotten to/through this step. So I'm thoroughly confused.

When you're running Kubuntu, use one of its partition utilities (gParted or KDE Partition Manager, for example), and post a screenshot of your hard drive's breakdown.

[biggyk]

Re: Move system files to different hard drive?

Its really confusing to me whats going on too. When I was back in WIndows I formated my 250 drive again just so I could start from scratch. When I tried to reboot back into Windows it just stuck at loading operating system. Its like its loaded all the system files to the correct destination but the boot files on my 500G drive where my Windows 7 install is. Its screwed up my windows 7 boot and cant seem to repair it. I not upset I have to reinstall windows but just PITA. Here are two screen shots.

500g was windows 7
250g going to be kubuntu
1tb is my media drive
3.2 pen drive running kubuntu live atm.

[de_koraco]

Re: Move system files to different hard drive?

Just install Kubuntu to the 250 Gig drive, install the bootloader in the MBR of the Windows drive, and you'll get the option to boot into either windows or Linux again.

[vinnywright]

Re: Move system files to different hard drive?

you dident show us /sdc ......./sda1 & sda2 are NTFS drives and so is sdb ......so kubuntu is not in them unless you did WUBI install into windows.

the Kubuntu boot loader (grub) wint to sda and is why you see that first when you boot that drive (sda)

boot Kubuntu and post the output of

sudo fdisk -l

as run from a terminal.

VINNY

[biggyk]

Re: Move system files to different hard drive?

Just install Kubuntu to the 250 Gig drive, install the bootloader in the MBR of the Windows drive, and you'll get the option to boot into either windows or Linux again.

Which is what happened the first time. I dont want to have to choose everytime I load my computer up. I want windows as default. I only want to see Kubuntu when I push f12 and select which drive. Heres the fdisk screenshot im still on live os

[dibl]

Re: Move system files to different hard drive?

I only want to see Kubuntu when I push f12 and select which drive.

It doesn't work that way.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1195275

[biggyk]

Re: Move system files to different hard drive?

really? you can have the boot files on the same drive? weird

so at the moment, i need to fix my windows MBR

[biggyk]

Re: Move system files to different hard drive?

update:

Well i re installed Kubuntu same way as before, so I am able to boot into windows 7 also. I guess its not a huge deal but Im one of those people who would get up turn on the pc and go make coffee. Dont want to stand waiting for the boot option to pop up. If I ever want to get rid of Kubuntu, is there a simple straight forward method of doing it so I can get the boot part off of my windows partition make everything go back to normal?

Btw, Kubuntu is pretty cool though. I installed it just to try for a possible media center I want to run on a new htpc build.

[DoYouKubuntu]

Re: Move system files to different hard drive?

update:

Well i re installed Kubuntu same way as before, so I am able to boot into windows 7 also. I guess its not a huge deal but Im one of those people who would get up turn on the pc and go make coffee. Dont want to stand waiting for the boot option to pop up.

Someone else will need to tell you how (because I don't allow windoze products on any computer I'm responsible for), but I'm VERY sure there's a way to set a default boot option, either with or without a countdown timer. In other words, during the countdown you can choose which OS you want to boot into, but if you don't do anything by the time it finishes counting down it'll boot up the OS you've chosen as default.

If I ever want to get rid of Kubuntu, is there a simple straight forward method of doing it so I can get the boot part off of my windows partition make everything go back to normal?

Again, I can't help you with that, as it's beyond me why anyone would dump a vastly superior OS for an inferior one, but I'm quite sure it can be done.

Btw, Kubuntu is pretty cool though. I installed it just to try for a possible media center I want to run on a new htpc build.

It's very cool. If you give yourself a chance to explore its myriad of customization options, software, and so on, I can't imagine that you won't be blown away by it. Pop over to the blog post in my sig to see some cool screenshots of a few things you can do--and keep in mind that virtually everything for Linux is free, and Linux doesn't bog down with bloatware, adware, malware, spyware, viruses like M$ does, and it's more stable and inherently more secure.

[dibl]

Re: Move system files to different hard drive?

I only want to see Kubuntu when I push f12 and select which drive.

I assume that "F12" is the boot utility in your BIOS, right? If that's what you really want to do, and you have 2 different hard drives, I think you can set it up to work that way (but not via Grub).

Let's say you want Windows on /dev/sda and you want Kubuntu on /dev/sdb, and I'll assume you have already used a GParted or Parted Magic Live CD and done the disk partitions the way you want them. Disconnect /dev/sdb, and install Windows complete on /dev/sda. Then disconnect /dev/sda, and install Kubuntu complete, and install Grub to the MBR of /dev/sdb (the only drive available). Then you can reconnect /dev/sda, and I would think that, left unattended to boot, it will boot Windows. You might need to go into BIOS and set the drive that has Windows to the highest priority of the hard drives to make sure it boots first.

The only drawback is, if you run updates and get a new Linux kernel, or a new version of Grub, or any other new package that triggers a Grub update, then during updating it will run the os-prober and it will see the Windows OS and update the boot menu (on /dev/sdb) to add the Windows menu item. But I don't think that will affect the booting behavior -- unattended it will still boot Windows and ignore the Kubuntu installation.

[biggyk]

Re: Move system files to different hard drive?

See your right, thats whats I should have done. Disconnect all drives except the one I wanted to install too. See if I try to get rid of Kubuntu my windows mbr will be screwed and I cant even repair it. So im stuck with it installed . Also, no I was trying to partition during the kubuntu install. The install I have now doesnt even have a swap partition. I new to all this. Been windows my whole life.

[dibl]

Re: Move system files to different hard drive?

Do yourself a favor and make a Parted Magic Live CD, or USB stick, from here. As you have found, installing and configuring Linux is already complex enough, without inserting a disk partitioning task in the middle of it.

So, you use your Parted Magic Live CD to get the disk partitions exactly as you want them, including a swap partition, and then you shut down and boot your Kubuntu Alternate Install or Live CD, and you simply choose "manual" when you get to partitioning, and you then select the partitions that you already made, and the mount points, and proceed with no changes to disk partitions. Way less confusing that way, when you have multiple disks involved.