Will there be issues if grub is installed on sata drive but linux is on nvme?

[LauRoman]

What i am about to describe has worked countless times on mbr sata drives (of all sorts) and a bios motherboard (or a newer one in legacy mode.

 

I usually have a dual boot system like this... Windows installed first on the fastest drive (usually connected to port 0), then repartitioned. After that, i install Linux on th same ssd and i put grub on another drive and set the bios to boot the grub drive first. This is because of a few reasons... One being that Windows does sometimes screw up partitions during upgrades. If grub is on another drive Windows will not usually care. Side note, i remember once that a windows 7 update would not go through when the drive with windows was not the primary boot drive. Another reason is less friction for other people. I usually set grub to boot windows first so my family does not have to deal with it and it cuts down on the steps i have to trubleshoot over the phone (only ever had to do it once when a bios battery died.)

 

Got a hold of an nvme ssd from a friend and i am planning to move to it as it is significantly faster than my old sata hyper x and is not as worn out...

To reiterate what i did with sata drives and bios (or set to legacy mode) motherboards:

1. I install windows to fastest sata drive connected to port 0 (usually ssd)

2. Repartition it to fit linux

3. Install linux in free space, except

4. Install grub to another drive (usually connected to port 1)

5. Set bios to boot from port 1

6. Profit!

Things will be changing.

The dual boot drive will be nvme, because speed and responsiveness. The drive will be gpt and not mbr formatted, because nvme.

Will it work if the grub drive is mbr formatted? Are there issues i should keep an eye out for?

[adrynalyne]

It should work fine. Just make sure that the grub entries are mapped to the correct drives and partitions.

[LauRoman]

I just hope there are no detection or mounting issues with grub on mbr booting partitions on a gpt nvme, because i really dread moving 2tb worth of data back and forth.

When this is done, it will be the first time i willingly boot uefi all the time.

LE: As of writing this i m not sure that i can boot grub from an mbr drive if bios is in efi mode...

Edited December 10, 2018 by LauRoman

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

As long as you are booting off the SATA drive (setting in BIOS) and have the right credential, like Adryn said, you should be fine.

 

Any reason you can't boot off the NVME?

[LauRoman]

The windows bootloader will be there and i do not want grub to touch it, only detect it...

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

Oh, that's a reason then...

 

Yeah, as long as you are pointing to the correct device, It should run without destroying the Windows bootloader.

 

AKA, If you remove the Linux disk, it should boot Windows just fine.

[atleeit]

1 hour ago, LauRoman said:

The windows bootloader will be there and i do not want grub to touch it, only detect it...

Be care if you ever re-install / wipe windows to uplug your extra drives, Windows has a good habit of wiping the wrong partition / drive, updating the wrong drive with the boot code when you have way too many plugged in, Doesn't do it all the time but it has happened to myself many times in the past, Not only Win10, Win 8 etc.

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

I always do remember to disconnect all my HDD/SSDs from the computer except the Install disk and the drive to install on.

[LauRoman]

13 hours ago, Mindovermaster said:

AKA, If you remove the Linux disk, it should boot Windows just fine.

Exactly, just in case i ever need to. Better safe than sorry.

 

12 hours ago, Mindovermaster said:

I always do remember to disconnect all my HDD/SSDs from the computer except the Install disk and the drive to install on.

I sometimes do that, but only with Windows and with weird bios/motherboard/drive combos that sometimes have odd behaviour. For Linux, i never do that, as it is nkt that distructive withe regard to partitions and bootloaders...

 

I remember an old foxconn x38 based motherboard that would put the bootloader on the ide drive if i had one connected to it, even if i chose to install on the sata drive. This would only happen in ahci mode. In ide mode all looked fine. It also swapped sata 1 and 2 boot order if set to ahci, but sata 0 would stay the same...

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

2 minutes ago, LauRoman said:

Exactly, just in case i ever need to. Better safe than sorry.

 

I sometimes do that, but only with Windows and with weird bios/motherboard/drive combos that sometimes have odd behaviour. For Linux, i never do that, as it is nkt that distructive withe regard to partitions and bootloaders...

 

I remember an old foxconn x38 based motherboard that would put the bootloader on the ide drive if i had one connected to it, even if i chose to install on the sata drive. This would only happen in ahci mode. In ide mode all looked fine. It also swapped sata 1 and 2 boot order if set to ahci, but sata 0 would stay the same...

Yeah, that was back with the XP days. We've progressed from then.