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#1 2012-01-30 02:13:43
- Chocobo
- Member
- Registered: 2006-09-26
- Posts: 26
SSD + HDD, GPT & MBR dual boot.
Hi all,
I ordered my first SSD the other day and it is expected to arrive tomorrow. I current have a 500 GB HD that I dual boot Arch/Win 7. I was wondering the following:
It is possible to to put /boot, /var and my NTFS on the HDD with standard MBR, and install /, /home, and swap on my SSD with GPT? If so how might I go about doing that? If not, I can put /boot on my ssd as I don't believe it gets written to often. If I do that is it possible to dual boot a MBR drive from a GPT drive?
Also I am slightly confused about the UEFI section. I know my motherboard is "UEFI" but I don't know how to tell if it is in BIOS mode, or UEFI mode. Basially this is my first new computer if 5 years and a ton has changed 
Any tips would be greatly appreciated, thanks.
Sam
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#2 2012-01-30 02:23:30
- cfr
- Member
- From: Cymru
- Registered: 2011-11-27
- Posts: 7,152
Re: SSD + HDD, GPT & MBR dual boot.
There may be a setting in the bios setup for bios vs. uefi vs. both. If you installed Arch from the standard image (not archboot) and didn't do anything special, you are not booting in UEFI mode. But the computer may be set to boot in both by default. (Mine was set to boot both with a preference for UEFI.)
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#3 2012-01-30 14:20:37
- Chocobo
- Member
- Registered: 2006-09-26
- Posts: 26
Re: SSD + HDD, GPT & MBR dual boot.
Hmm, interesting. I don't seem to have any bios options for controlling uefi. I downloaded both ubuntu (latest) and archboot (latest) and flashed them usb slash drives. Hitting F8 while booting brings up the "select boot device" menu. With the ubuntu installer one of the choices is "UEFI SanDisk". When using the archboot installer I get no such option. Do I need to modify the archboot installer in any way?
Using uefi is not a huge priority for me I guess. I don't really understand the benefits from my point of view. I would however like to use gpt (for alignment reasons). If I install gptmbr.bin (syslinux) in the mbr of a non-gpt drive (my windows drive) so that I can boot arch on my SSD, is it still possible to configure syslinux to boot windows on the mbr drive? If not I suppose I could try to reinstall windows with gpt+uefi, but I use windows so infrequently it seems like a waste of time.
Thanks for the help,
Sam
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#4 2012-01-30 15:45:20
- the.ridikulus.rat
- Member
- From: Indiana, USA
- Registered: 2011-10-04
- Posts: 765
Re: SSD + HDD, GPT & MBR dual boot.
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#5 2012-01-30 18:58:51
- Chocobo
- Member
- Registered: 2006-09-26
- Posts: 26
Re: SSD + HDD, GPT & MBR dual boot.
Thanks for the links.
In reference to https://gitorious.org/tianocore_uefi_du … I_boot_USB:
mkfs.vfat -F32 /dev/[USB_DEVICE] should read: mkfs.vfat -F32 /dev/[USB_FAT32_PART] correct? Just staying with convention of the rest of the wiki entry? It wouldn't make sense to format the device as FAT32, only the partition correct?
Also, I am not sure step 4.2 or 4.3 are needed when for archboot seeing all the files already seem to be there.
Hmm, I am not sure what I am doing wrong but I keep getting an "Operating system not found" error. I will have to keep playing with this, and see if I can figure it out.
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#6 2012-01-31 06:12:09
- the.ridikulus.rat
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- From: Indiana, USA
- Registered: 2011-10-04
- Posts: 765
Re: SSD + HDD, GPT & MBR dual boot.
@Chocobo: Thanks for the info. Fixed in my local copy, will push it later.
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#7 2012-01-31 07:58:55
- the.ridikulus.rat
- Member
- From: Indiana, USA
- Registered: 2011-10-04
- Posts: 765
Re: SSD + HDD, GPT & MBR dual boot.
Thanks for the links.
In reference to https://gitorious.org/tianocore_uefi_du … I_boot_USB:
mkfs.vfat -F32 /dev/[USB_DEVICE] should read: mkfs.vfat -F32 /dev/[USB_FAT32_PART] correct? Just staying with convention of the rest of the wiki entry? It wouldn't make sense to format the device as FAT32, only the partition correct?
Minor issue.
Also, I am not sure step 4.2 or 4.3 are needed when for archboot seeing all the files already seem to be there.
ldlinux.sys version (installed by extlinux) should match the c32 and other syslinux modules in (USB)/boot/syslinux, otherwise syslinux will refuse to boot.
Hmm, I am not sure what I am doing wrong but I keep getting an "Operating system not found" error. I will have to keep playing with this, and see if I can figure it out.
May be due to the above reason, but not sure, since "Operating system not found" error is mostly from the BIOS (atleast in systems I have used), not from syslinux.
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