Moving SSD from laptop to desktop and preserving install?

[Frank616]

I bought a bigger SSD for my 11" laptop, and I want to move the 256 GB drive from the laptop to my desktop machine, and use it as a system drive. I have it all plugged in and working, but the laptop only had one drive, and the desktop has three. When I boot the desktop machine with the SSD drive taken from the laptop, it boots Windows rather than Linux. I know that it is booting from the SSD, as I selected it as the boot drive in the BIOS. GRUB on the SSD is then finding Windows on the mechanical drive, and booting that.

Does the order in which drives are plugged into the SATA controller make a difference? ie, does the boot device have to be SATA1? The SSD was in SATA3, the Windows drive in SATA1, the CD-ROM in SATA2 and the Linux mechanical 1.5 TB data drive is in SATA4. I tried replugging them so that the SSD is in SATA1, the CD-ROM in SATA2, and the Windows drive in SATA3.

GRUB obviously has to be updated, and I assume that this will be pretty much all that is needed. However, I cannot boot into Linux on the desktop machine at the moment so that I can update GRUB.

I am assuming that there is probably some way that I can boot the desktop machine from a USB stick, and modify GRUB on the 256 GB SSD, but I don't know how to do that.

One final issue that may be affecting this is the the laptop was a Win8 machine, so has UEFI. However, while secure boot is disabled on that machine, the SSD does show an efi partition, IIRC. It is out of the laptop now, so I can't check it.

Yeah, a mess, I know. But I'm willing to learn.

Suggestions?

Frank.

[claydoh]

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Re...tallingWindows

this is one of a few ways to repair/update your grub to see your new setup.

[Frank616]

Claydoh:

Thought I was home free. Not.

I ran boot-repair from a thumb drive, and got the following message:

GPT detected. Please create a BIOS-Boot partition (>1MB, unformatted filesystem, bios_grub flag). This can be performed via tools such as Gparted. Then try again.
Alternatively, you can retry after activating the [Separate /boot/efi partition:] option.

I assume that the partition is to be created on the 250 GB SSD, and not on the flash drive?

I don't understand the GPT requirement. This is an old i3 machine with Win7 on it originally. The SSD I installed myself in a Notebook machine that came with a mechanical Win8 disk. I removed the mechanical disk, and installed the SSD, and secure boot was turned off when I installed the SSD.

Does it matter where on the SSD I create the >1MB unformatted partition? (Assuming that is the correct place for it)

Thanks.

Frank.

[Qqmike]

Hard telling what's going on. A good guess would be: The old i3 desktop is booting by the old BIOS method (versus the newer UEFI method probably used by your laptop since you saw an EFI partition on it). Boot Repair sees that the 250 GB drive (taken from the laptop) is a GPT drive (versus the older MBR scheme). Thus, your Desktop is using the older BIOS method to boot the newer type GPT disk (the 250 GB disk), and thus it needs a BIOS boot partition. I'm only guessing. We get into this "mixture" of things in situations like this; can be a mess.

From one of my how-to's:

GPT works with both the BIOS firmware interface and the UEFI firmware interface ...

BIOS Boot Partition

When using GPT with BIOS, Stage 1 of GRUB 2, called boot.img will fit into the first 446 bytes of the protective MBR, but you need room for the second stage of GRUB 2, the core.img. With the GPT layout, there is no gap, no room, for core.img (in GPT, the Partition Table Header starts immediately after the 512-byte MBR). Thus, you need a BIOS Boot Partition for the core.img of GRUB 2.

Flag: Using the graphical GParted, create the BIOS Boot Partition, and set the flag on it as: bios_grub; using gdisk, it is of type EF02.

Size: Minimum size is 32 KiB, but most people are using 1 MiB (which also serves certain optimum partition-alignment goals--which, btw, these goals are also served by modern partitioning tools since about 2010).

Note that the BIOS Boot Partition does not have a filesystem on it; it only holds raw binary code (the core.img stage of GRUB 2).

GPT, UEFI -- Study Guide

https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...l=1#post346604

I'm guessing that you already have the "protective MBR" on the 250 GB GPT drive (that you took out of the laptop). Thus, yes, it does appear you only need a BIOS Boot Partition, placed anywhere (but try to put it near the front, if possible) you have a spare 1 MiB on the 250 GB disk (that came out of the laptop), and in GParted place the bios-grub flag on this 1 MB partition; no formatting is needed (no FAT32, no ext4, nothing -- it holds raw binary code of core.img of GRUB2).

WTH, try it, it might work. I don't see that you can do any harm. Let's hope Boot Repair has this figured right.


Note

If you have some GPT disk, say it is seen as sdx from a live DVD/CD/USB, you can run this command on it to see what it sees on sdx:

sudo gdisk -l /dev/sdx

gdisk should be installed on the live CD/DVD/USB you are using (like a live Kubuntu DVD/USB); if gdisk is not installed, install it in the live session, then run it.


(Also, the command
lsblk
shows your disks, partitions, and other information.)

fyi,
my how-to on UEFI for Kubuntu, the quicker version:
https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...l=1#post379977

[Frank616]

All:

I gave up.... I have wasted a whole day trying to save an install on a system disk because I hate setting up a new system disk to my taste. I could have set the blasted thing up 3 times during the time wasted trying to save this one.

FWIW, it appears that the 250 GB SSD does have a GPT partition as I can see a 1 MB partition 'unassigned' at the beginning of the disk. However, the old desktop I am putting it in does not seem to understand it, and therefore goes down the boot order list until it finds the Windows drive.

I have the 250 GB SSD in the desktop machine, and I'm reinstalling from scratch now.

Thanks for all your help.

Frank.

[Qqmike]

FWIW, it appears that the 250 GB SSD does have a GPT partition as I can see a 1 MB partition 'unassigned' at the beginning of the disk. However, the old desktop I am putting it in does not seem to understand it,

That's why you need the BIOS Boot Partition, assuming the old Desktop will boot it using its older BIOS and booting GRUB on a GPT.

[jlittle]

I have the 250 GB SSD in the desktop machine, and I'm reinstalling from scratch now.

Taking an install from one machine to another is inherently dodgy IMO, I think you would have been lucky if it had worked without problems. Sound, video, Ethernet, wireless...
What we really want is to be able to export and import settings. QtCurve used to do part of that...

Regards, John Little

[Frank616]

John:

I've moved installs before. Generally Linux reconfigures itself when it goes through the hardware detection on booting. It is one of the things I love about it.

However, this time it was not to be. I have the desktop up an running again, and mostly configured. The 11" notebook has an installation that works, but now I need to set it up the way I usually use it. Did both machines in about 3 hours. I'm sure I spent more than that just waiting for Windows 7 to download updates on shutdown, then configure them on bootup. That is such an annoyance, and enough of itself to keep me away from Windows.

Frank.

[Qqmike]

So it sounds like you got the Desktop going without enabling a BIOS Boot Partition.

[Frank616]

So it sounds like you got the Desktop going without enabling a BIOS Boot Partition.

Not sure. I wiped it and did a clean install. Then went through the grunt work of setting it all up again....

Frank.

[Frank616]

Teunis:

Haven't had the misfortune of using Windows since Win98. I have done virtual installs of XP and Win7 in VMWare Player. Not that bad. However, I never customize them. They are only for compatibility reasons. ROM flashing software, for instance, is pretty much Windows only.

Frank.