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Anonymous
Anonymous asked in Computers & InternetSoftware · 1 decade ago

Booting problem after installing Ubuntu at external hard-drive..?

Since there has to be at least one smart guy in here, I'd like to ask for your help.

recently i installed ubuntu onto a live CD, while i have Win7 on my laptop.

when using the live CD it took at least 15 minutes for the OS to load up, so I thought "why shouldn't i install it on my external hard-drive?" and thats what i did. There is only one problem, the installation progress messed up, and now i can only boot up both Ubuntu and Windows OS when i have my External Hard-drive Plugged in.

when i don't have it plugged in my laptop gives this error:

error: no such device: 2f58cpf5-142f-4c46-b85d-e1ae4fb8f4fb.

[and on the next line]grub rescue>_

[and some space where i can type in commands, but each command i give it doesn't recognize.]

I tried system recovery, balls to that, didn't work.

anyone has any clue what to do?

Update:

i forgot to say, my laptop doesn't , nor does any other computer in my house recognize my external hard drive anymore

2 Answers

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  • 1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    Your external drive is now formated to ext4,, and has your grub configuration file on it.

    Create a small (256MB) ext3 partition on the internal drive after booting from the external hard drive, move everything to it from your /boot folder in the root ubuntu filesystem. Then mount that partition at /boot Then edit the fstab in ubuntu to reflct the change.

    Then install grub again making sure to use the new partition as the root directory.

    sudo grub-install --root-directory=/boot /dev/sda

    (Replace /dev/sda with the name of the interal drive.)

    This way you will have the option to boot Ubuntu if your external drive is plugged in, but still be able to access the win 7 option when it is not.

    If the drive is entirely dead, you need to use a windows install disc, enter recovery mode and /fixmbr.

  • 1 decade ago

    All programs should always be installed on your primary internal disk drive since when it starts up Windows will look for everything that is supposed to be there. Hence the error messages. I suggest you try starting Windows with the external drive plugged in, uninstalling Ubuntu from the external drive, then reinstalling Ubuntu on your primary internal drive.

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