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I'm currently running Ubuntu 13.04 on a 50Gb partition of my Hp Elitebook 8560p. As it is a company computer I'm asked frequently to "redump" my HDD with the company fresh new dump. Of course, I loose all my data AND my Ubuntu installation in the process.

I would like to buy a caddy and use a SSD (or HDD if investing in SSD isn't worth it) for my "personal" distrib.


Is it possible to have a HDD and a SSD with plenty of operating systems on both of them? How does it work with GRUB?

Do I select which disk I want to boot on at start and THEN choose which operating system to use?

Would I be able to mount my HDD parts to access them?

I have a Clonezilla Server. Could I use it to transfer my Ubuntu 13.04 from my HDD to my SSD?

PS: Oh, and if you happen to know where I could buy this kind of equipment, this would be great :)!

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I believe you should split your question into multiple questions, with one query each. –  minerz029 Nov 21 '13 at 11:08

1 Answer 1

Grub2 automatically scans all attached drives for operating systems when running update-grub.

So, if you attach an external drive to your laptop with your Ubuntu on it and run update-grub on your company's Ubuntu, the next time you boot your laptop, Grub will have an option to boot your Ubuntu from the external drive.

There is no need for special equipment, a USB drive will do just fine. If your laptop supports it, USB3 would speed up loading times alot.

Update: With a second storage device in your laptop, just install your Ubuntu to that device, install Grub to that device's MBR.

Then, decide on whether you want to use your Grub or the Grub of your company's Ubuntu. Set the corresponding device as boot drive in your BIOS, start your laptop. Once you are logged in, run sudo update-grub, which will pick up on the other Ubuntu on the second storage device and from then on will present both installations while booting.

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I don't want to use an external drive for this. –  Antoninarto Nov 21 '13 at 13:12
Apparently, I misunderstood the question. Do you want to swap the drives to change the OS or does your laptop have two drive bays? –  drc Nov 21 '13 at 13:17
I have in internal drive that my company wipes every month. I'm tired of installing my Ubuntu again and again, so I want to add a bay by removing my optical disk drive and by adding a HDD or a SSD. –  Antoninarto Nov 21 '13 at 15:08

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