[ale] replacing disk sda

[Michael H. Warfield]

On Wed, 2014-04-23 at 15:34 -0400, Paul Cartwright wrote:
> On 04/23/2014 01:48 PM, Derek Atkins wrote:
> > The only reason you need a 'bootable' partition is because some OSes
> > (like Windows) have the MBR boot the "Boot Sector" off the bootable
> > partition..  So you can change which install of windows gets booted by
> > changing out the bootable partition.
> >
> > Grub may or may not necessarily need this, which is why you don't
> > necessarily need "bootable" partitions on /dev/sdb.  Grub is on /dev/sda.
> >
> > Hope this helps clear up any confusion,

> playing devils advocate here:) I tried to put grub on sdb, but it
> complained.. maybe something about extended partitions.. I was thinking
> originally of making my sdb the new sda and adding the new drive as
> sdb.. but grub wouldn't let me put it on sdb.. so now I basically have
> all my linux partitions on sdb, /home, /, and another linux OS
> partition, and my sda has windows that I never use, and a 1TB spare
> partition. I don't guess it really matters as long as it boots:)

The BIOS can be fussy here.  Many machines will refuse to boot off the
second internal harddrive, even if the first is non-bootable.  You
should be able to installed grub to sda with the boot partition on sdb.
That will work but it's non-trivial to set up.  You're going to get real
intimate with grub-shell to do that and make it work.  You can most
certainly install to sda with /boot on /dev/sda1 and the reset of the
partitions on the other drive.  The later, I've done many times.

That can also occur if the BIOS would have to boot from a cylinder (even
a fake cylinder in LBA mode) greater than 1024.  Your BIOS boot
partition should always be the first or second partition (second if you
are dual booting Windows - Windows can be pissy about stupid things) and
must start and end on cylinders less than 1024.  I think some
grub-installs will refuse to install if those conditions are violated.

OTOH...  EFI and GUID partitions are a whole nuther ball game.

> -- 
> Paul Cartwright
> Registered Linux User #367800 and new counter #561587

Regards,
Mike
-- 
Michael H. Warfield (AI4NB) | (770) 978-7061 |  mhw at WittsEnd.com
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