I have a 1TB external SSD that I want to boot linux from, and use the internal 6TB HDD for large storage (the internal HDD was being used as my linux server OS drive). I figured running the OS from an SSD would be much faster (and quieter!), so I'm giving it a shot. Here's the problem I run in to, and what I've tried:
Equipment:
- ASUS VM42 Computer
- 6TB WD Red Plus internal HDD (current ubuntu OS)
- 1TB Samsung T5 USB SSD (new ubuntu OS)
- USB flash drive with the ubuntu installer burned onto it via balenaEtcher from my Mac
I have the same USB flash drive I used for my first install of Linux, and so I plugged that in with the USB SSD attatched as well, and ran the Ubuntu installation. I was afraid of re-formatting my internal HDD and losing all my data, so I just took it out to do the installation and it went smoothly. It rebooted to the new Linux OS I just installed (Ubuntu 20.04 Server) and it worked great.
I then decided to plug my internal HDD back into the computer (internally - not via USB), making sure to first shut down the computer. I turned it on and pressed Del repeatedly to get into the BIOS menu, and made sure that the T5 SSD was selected for the boot option. This was the first confusion I had - there were 3 options for the SSD: Samsung T5 - abc123, ubuntu Samsung T5 - abc123, and UEFI Samsung T5 - abc123 (where abc123 is a long string of numbers and letters, presumably the serial #?). The problem was that no matter which variation or order I selected these in, the computer would still boot from the internal HDD instead of the external SSD. (Another issue with the BIOS - every time I'd update the boot options, when I'd hit "Save & Quit", it would warn me that no changes were made to the BIOS settings.)
I tried removing the internal HDD again to make sure that the SSD had a working Linux OS on it, and sure enough when I remove the internal HDD the computer boots up just fine from the SSD, even showing in the BIOS that the ubuntu was selected for Boot option #1 and the normal Samsung T5 was selected for Boot option #2.
Again, I shut down, insert the internal HDD, boot to the BIOS, make sure the Samsung SSD is selected, and it still boots from the internal HDD.
Nearly every tutorial and blog post and YouTube video I've found while searching for a resolution is from people who are showing how to dual-boot Windows and Linux, and using Rufus. That's not what I'm looking for, and I couldn't even follow along since I'm currently on a Mac. I want to start fresh from the SSD with Ubuntu, then mount the internal HDD as a storage option that will still have all my old files from before the transfer. This is assuming (and correct me if I'm wrong) that I can just mount the internal HDD with the simple mount command to a directory, then go through and just delete all the old linux system files and just keep the personal files that I want. i.e. I would move all my files to a top-level folder, then delete everything else (bin, boot, data, dev, etc, root, srv, var, etc.). Would this even work in the first place?
One post I found on StackExchange had someone mention to boot up and do a sudo update-grub, which I tried when I booted from the SSD without the HDD attached. This didn't change anything, however.
Can anyone help?
Edit: The BIOS being used on the Asus machine is the UEFI BIOS Utility.
Edit 2: I booted from the SSD with the HDD disconnected, then connected it while the computer was on and running. A lsblk doesn't show the internal HDD that I just connected. I hear the whirring from the drive, so I know it's on. Not sure if this is useful information in any way.
