#PUTTING GRUB ON USB WINDOWS#
In addition to using testdisk to fix the file system parameters stored in the boot sector, I also had to used "regedit" on the Ultimate Boot CD to edit the Windows registry. But I don't recommend it unless one really has to. I'm the someone and I indeed have successfully resized a Windows partition from the beginning. I'm hoping he might offer his opinion of whether he thinks resizing Windows from the beginning would work for you too.
So I've PMed someone who I know has successfully resized his Windows partition from the beginning and got Windows to boot just fine. What I can add here is, I got the impression that Windows doesn't really care if you alter the number of partitions before its own partition (hence the boot.ini hack works), but it will detect any change in the original offset from the beginning of its own partition to the start of the physical disk, and act accordingly.
YMMV of course, but I'm glad I could make this warning in time.ĮDIT: just saw that caljohnsmith made some additions to his previous post after reading mine above. :frown:įrom my experience, there's no problem whatsoever as to stretching or squeezing the C:\ partition (GParted is a very good tool for this), as long as you move ONLY THE END of the partition and don't mess with its beginning. I DO remember ending up re-installing from scratch however. I can't remember exactly which attempts I've done to restore Windows. The restore was successful from a "content" standpoint, and also from a "boot" standpoint, but not from an "it works" standpoint. In my case, I had taken a partimage backup of the C:\ partition, made way at the beginning of the disk for whatever reason I can't exactly remember, and restored the C:\ partition with partimage further down along the disk. It might ask you (or not) to repair itself - but in any case your chances are high of being mightily screwed up. Windows will think that a) it's a pirated version, or b) it's being unauthorizedly being copied to a 2nd machine. If you'd take an advice from someone who already dared to MOVE THE BEGINNING of a Windows C:\ drive and had to live with the consequences, that is. If you decide to put Ubuntu's boot files in a partition on your Windows drive, I would recommend resizing the Windows partition from the beginning (and not end) to make room, so that you can put the Ubuntu /boot partition at the beginning of the drive. If you resize Windows from the end, you won't have to change the boot.ini file, but there's a possibility you would have to use testdisk to get it booting OK too.ĮDIT: I see sdrubble strongly disagrees with me :), so I've PMed someone who I know has successfully resized his Windows partition from the beginning and got Windows to boot just fine. You will have to change the Windows boot.ini file though since Windows won't be the first partition anymore, and you will most likely have to use testdisk to do a few simple repairs on the Windows partition to get it booting OK. By putting the partition at the front of the Windows drive, you won't have to worry about running into that limitation. And if your BIOS doesn't support booting USB drives, I think there is a fair chance one of those limits could apply to you. The reason is because there are some BIOSes that can't access anything on a HDD past either 8.5 GB or 137 GB, depending on how old your BIOS is. Or, if you can boot from CDs (which I assume you can), you could put all your Ubuntu boot files on a CD and boot the CD to boot Ubuntu. Can you make an extra ~200 MB partition on your internal Windows drive? If so, you could make that Ubuntu's /boot partition, and your problem would most likely be solved. If your computer doesn't support booting from your USB drive, then you'll need to move your Ubuntu's boot files to a drive that will boot. I have the latest BIOS firmware for my mobo too (which is an ASUS A7v8x-x.). However, setting it to any of these doesn't work, and the USB HDD is not listed in my HardDisk boot Priority menu either. I can't get my BIOS to see the USB HDD: boot options are CD-ROM, MO, ZIP, LS210, USB FDD, USB ZIP.
#PUTTING GRUB ON USB INSTALL#
The Linux install goes fine, but it's booting that's my problem.