Arch Linux

solarwind

Member

From: Toronto

Registered: 2008-03-18

Posts: 546

Moving GRUB

Hey all. My two hard drives are as follows:

Disk /dev/sda: 163.9 GB, 163927522816 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19929 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xa05fa05f

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1        9965    80043831    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2            9966       19929    80035830    7  HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdb: 163.9 GB, 163928604672 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19929 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x4573b67c

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1   *           6       15305   122897250   83  Linux
/dev/sdb2           15306       19781    35953470   83  Linux
/dev/sdb3           19782       19929     1188810   82  Linux swap / Solaris

Currently, GRUB is installed on /dev/sdb1 and boots off of the MBA on /dev/sda. However, I want to be able to remove and reformat /dev/sdb1. My Arch Linux installation is on /dev/sdb2. Is there a way to make GRUB read off of the installation on /dev/sdb2?

vogt

Member

From: Toronto, Canada

Registered: 2006-11-25

Posts: 389

Re: Moving GRUB

Sure there is.

Firstly, the contents of (sdb1) have to be copied to /boot on sdb2. As root:

umount /boot
mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt
cp -r /mnt/* /boot

Then grub needs to be reinstalled to the correct disk: with grub-install /path/to/disk/with/mbr/booted/by/bios, with the new files in /boot available.

Make sure that grub-install succeeds, otherwise don't format /dev/sdb1 your original boot partition, since you want to keep your system bootable.

Lastly, you need to update /etc/fstab, commenting out the like that mounts /dev/sdb1 on /boot.

solarwind

Member

From: Toronto

Registered: 2008-03-18

Posts: 546

Re: Moving GRUB

Thanks. I got it working by copying over my old grub folder and doing a grub install. I also edited the device map since the old one belonged to Ubuntu.