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Will my booting files be modified?

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javierdlm001

Technical User
Jun 28, 2008
264
CA
Scenario:
Dual booting with Win8 & Ubuntu 13.10 in an older computer without uefi.
Each OS is installed on a different HD drive.
There's 3 HD drives.
If I were to unplug the small HD where Ubuntu is installed, to then install Ubuntu 14 on the medium HD, would my Win8 booting files be modified?

Thanks guys

JDL
 
I don't know anything about Dual booting Ubunto with Windows but it is a safe bet that the booting files will be changed to accommodate the new Ubuntu.


Boot-Repair



This site might be worth looking around too.

Upgrade Ubuntu 13.04 to 13.10 when dual booting Windows 8

Install Ubuntu Linux Alongside Windows 8 in 10 easy steps






 
Ubuntu will recognise a pre-existing Windows installation and chainload the Windows bootloader to the Linux GRUB bootloader in most cases, unlike the other way around, where Windows will invariably ignore non-windows bootloaders, and overwrite the existing boot record with their own. Windows 8 does not natively recognize file systems that Linux often uses, only Microsoft's own FATxx and NTFS file systems, and a new one called ReFS.

The Windows 8 bootloader menu is becoming more flexible, being able to natively boot into Windows Image (.WIM) files and Virtual Hard Disks (.vhd) as well as bootable volumes and optical media.

There are different versions of the GRUB bootloader, which work slightly differently. The GRUB menus are editable text files, but require accurate syntax, and like many things in Linux, they may require some obscure knowledge to know how to work them to your best advantage, but there are many knowledgeable people online willing to offer help.

The safest way to install a new OS is to disconnect any other hard drives during the installation of the new OS. Afterwards, the other hard drive can be reconnected.

If the bios allows the user to choose which drive to boot from, this can be selected at boot time, usually by selecting one of the Function keys like F12 to bring up a menu, or if not, a free 3rd party boot manager can be installed on the first hard disk, such as the PLOP boot manager which will allow almost any storage medium to become bootable, including USB flash memory and disk images such as .iso files on disk, even if the BIOS does not natively support it, offering a menu to boot from each attached drive.
 
Thank you so much for your valuable replies. I know I can always count on you guys :)
Fortunately this time around it was super smooth! All I did was to click Ok to the prompt from 13.10 to upgrade. Contrary to the nightmare it was setting up the dual boot before with Win8 and U. 13.10

JDL
 
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