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Chris avatar Ubuntu

Installing Ubuntu on seprate physical drive without disabling/unplugging all other drives

fr flag
Chris

I want to install Ubuntu on a third, seperate drive:
On physical drive 1 is Windows 10 and physical drive 2 is just one big partition for storage. (Windows disk manager view, drive 3 not visible as it is currently not connected yet)

Now I read many times that I should disable or unplug all other drives before installing as there is a possibilty things get a bit broken with the bootup behavior when installing with other drives connected.

The problem is: I can't disable SATA drives seperately in the BIOS.
The manaul says so but I don't have the option in the actual BIOS only to disable all SATA ports which would make it impossible to install Linux on drive 3 as it is a 2,5" SATA SSD.
Also drive 2 is a M2 drive and positioned in a way that I would have to:
Take out my GPU, then remove a protective hardcover and remove the SSD, then put back the GPU, install Linux, remove GPU, install M2, install protective cover and install GPU again.
I am fully capable of doing this myself but I don't want to if it's not absolutely necessary.

Fortunately drive 1, which contains the Windows 10 install, is a 2,5" SSD and I can easily unplug the SATA cable.
Would this be enough to be safe as drive 2 is simply a storage drive which shouldnt even have a MBR or anything concerning boot. Is this enough to safely install Ubuntu on drive 3?

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oldfred avatar
cn flag
oldfred
Ubuntu's Ubiquity installer only wants to install to first drive. Only with BIOS installs can you select during install. With UEFI/gpt, the selection is there, but does not work. You must partition in advance and use a work around. Several here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubiquity/+bug/1396379 Second drive https://askubuntu.com/questions/1296065/dual-booting-w10-ubuntu-with-2-separate-ssds-in-uefi-mode/1296153#1296153 & https://askubuntu.com/questions/16988/how-do-i-install-ubuntu-to-a-usb-key-without-using-startup-disk-creator/1056079#1056079 Be sure to use gpt & UEFI.
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Chris avatar
fr flag
Chris
@oldfred the bug reads "Installer uses **first EFI system partition found** even when directed otherwise ", if I physically disconnect drive 1 which contains the only EFI partition (as can be seen on the screenshot) there would be no other EFI partition as drive 2 has no MBR or ESP just one big parition and no sapce for any further partitions. Should that be OK then? Of course I will be using gpt/UEFI.
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Chris avatar
fr flag
Chris
I could additionally prepare drive 3 with GParted, then there would an ESP on drive 3. While drive 2 has all its space already partitioned. Would that work?
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oldfred avatar
cn flag
oldfred
I have not removed ESP boot flag that others report works. But that would be what you have. As long as you have ESP on drive, you can always install grub using live installer, if you get a grub install error or have other issues. https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFI
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