How to move EFI from booting primary HDD to internal SSD
I had a machine with Windows 10 on an HDD. I installed a smaller internal SSD and installed Ubuntu 18.04. During the installation process it automatically (with my approval) set up the machine to boot using the EFI partition on the HDD while still booting to the SSD so that it could dual boot into Windows. Now I want to get rid of the HDD, but I am unsure of how to fix the boot loader so it still boots properly. Eventually I am going to replace the HDD with a second SSD, but it will be for data only.
What the quickest way to accomplish this? I found something called "grub customizer" and it comes up and I can modify the items on the boot list to remove everything Windows related, but it's unclear to me what happens after this. I thought maybe I would simply install it to the MBR on my internal flash drive (/dev/sdc). But when I tried, it wouldn't let me anyway, with the error
cannot find EFI directory
Is there some way to re-run the installer and have it just change where the boot loader is installed? When I try I only see options for trying or installing Ubuntu, and neither is what I really want. What also confuses me a bit is that when I go into the BIOS it lists both "ubuntu" as well as Windows Boot Manager as possible items in the boot order. How does the BIOS know about "ubuntu" and "Windows" as devices when it also lists HDD1, HDD2, USB, etc. which I would expect it to try?
Update: After a bit more research, it appears that the issue is that there needs to be a separate EFI partition (100-250MB (!)) in size which is not present on the SSD. So I would have to create this new partition at the start of the drive with some utility that could move the existing data out of the way. I have looked at utilities like gparted but it is unclear to me if they can move a partition that already has a filesystem on it without losing data - I am aware in the past of extending or shrinking at the end but this would require moving the start. Is this possible or am I resigned to the hassle of a full reinstall to accomplish this?
ubuntu hard-drive boot ssd grub2
asked Dec 11 at 2:30
Michael
1,43351536
add a comment |
I had a machine with Windows 10 on an HDD. I installed a smaller internal SSD and installed Ubuntu 18.04. During the installation process it automatically (with my approval) set up the machine to boot using the EFI partition on the HDD while still booting to the SSD so that it could dual boot into Windows. Now I want to get rid of the HDD, but I am unsure of how to fix the boot loader so it still boots properly. Eventually I am going to replace the HDD with a second SSD, but it will be for data only.
What the quickest way to accomplish this? I found something called "grub customizer" and it comes up and I can modify the items on the boot list to remove everything Windows related, but it's unclear to me what happens after this. I thought maybe I would simply install it to the MBR on my internal flash drive (/dev/sdc). But when I tried, it wouldn't let me anyway, with the error
cannot find EFI directory
Is there some way to re-run the installer and have it just change where the boot loader is installed? When I try I only see options for trying or installing Ubuntu, and neither is what I really want. What also confuses me a bit is that when I go into the BIOS it lists both "ubuntu" as well as Windows Boot Manager as possible items in the boot order. How does the BIOS know about "ubuntu" and "Windows" as devices when it also lists HDD1, HDD2, USB, etc. which I would expect it to try?
Update: After a bit more research, it appears that the issue is that there needs to be a separate EFI partition (100-250MB (!)) in size which is not present on the SSD. So I would have to create this new partition at the start of the drive with some utility that could move the existing data out of the way. I have looked at utilities like gparted but it is unclear to me if they can move a partition that already has a filesystem on it without losing data - I am aware in the past of extending or shrinking at the end but this would require moving the start. Is this possible or am I resigned to the hassle of a full reinstall to accomplish this?
ubuntu hard-drive boot ssd grub2
asked Dec 11 at 2:30
Michael
1,43351536
You're likely going to need to boot to grub, then copy the EFI files from the HDD to the SSD
– JW0914
Dec 11 at 19:06
add a comment |
I had a machine with Windows 10 on an HDD. I installed a smaller internal SSD and installed Ubuntu 18.04. During the installation process it automatically (with my approval) set up the machine to boot using the EFI partition on the HDD while still booting to the SSD so that it could dual boot into Windows. Now I want to get rid of the HDD, but I am unsure of how to fix the boot loader so it still boots properly. Eventually I am going to replace the HDD with a second SSD, but it will be for data only.
What the quickest way to accomplish this? I found something called "grub customizer" and it comes up and I can modify the items on the boot list to remove everything Windows related, but it's unclear to me what happens after this. I thought maybe I would simply install it to the MBR on my internal flash drive (/dev/sdc). But when I tried, it wouldn't let me anyway, with the error
cannot find EFI directory
Is there some way to re-run the installer and have it just change where the boot loader is installed? When I try I only see options for trying or installing Ubuntu, and neither is what I really want. What also confuses me a bit is that when I go into the BIOS it lists both "ubuntu" as well as Windows Boot Manager as possible items in the boot order. How does the BIOS know about "ubuntu" and "Windows" as devices when it also lists HDD1, HDD2, USB, etc. which I would expect it to try?
Update: After a bit more research, it appears that the issue is that there needs to be a separate EFI partition (100-250MB (!)) in size which is not present on the SSD. So I would have to create this new partition at the start of the drive with some utility that could move the existing data out of the way. I have looked at utilities like gparted but it is unclear to me if they can move a partition that already has a filesystem on it without losing data - I am aware in the past of extending or shrinking at the end but this would require moving the start. Is this possible or am I resigned to the hassle of a full reinstall to accomplish this?
ubuntu hard-drive boot ssd grub2
asked Dec 11 at 2:30
Michael
1,43351536
I had a machine with Windows 10 on an HDD. I installed a smaller internal SSD and installed Ubuntu 18.04. During the installation process it automatically (with my approval) set up the machine to boot using the EFI partition on the HDD while still booting to the SSD so that it could dual boot into Windows. Now I want to get rid of the HDD, but I am unsure of how to fix the boot loader so it still boots properly. Eventually I am going to replace the HDD with a second SSD, but it will be for data only.
What the quickest way to accomplish this? I found something called "grub customizer" and it comes up and I can modify the items on the boot list to remove everything Windows related, but it's unclear to me what happens after this. I thought maybe I would simply install it to the MBR on my internal flash drive (/dev/sdc). But when I tried, it wouldn't let me anyway, with the error
cannot find EFI directory
Is there some way to re-run the installer and have it just change where the boot loader is installed? When I try I only see options for trying or installing Ubuntu, and neither is what I really want. What also confuses me a bit is that when I go into the BIOS it lists both "ubuntu" as well as Windows Boot Manager as possible items in the boot order. How does the BIOS know about "ubuntu" and "Windows" as devices when it also lists HDD1, HDD2, USB, etc. which I would expect it to try?
Update: After a bit more research, it appears that the issue is that there needs to be a separate EFI partition (100-250MB (!)) in size which is not present on the SSD. So I would have to create this new partition at the start of the drive with some utility that could move the existing data out of the way. I have looked at utilities like gparted but it is unclear to me if they can move a partition that already has a filesystem on it without losing data - I am aware in the past of extending or shrinking at the end but this would require moving the start. Is this possible or am I resigned to the hassle of a full reinstall to accomplish this?
ubuntu hard-drive boot ssd grub2
ubuntu hard-drive boot ssd grub2
asked Dec 11 at 2:30
Michael
1,43351536
asked Dec 11 at 2:30
Michael
1,43351536
edited Dec 11 at 4:43
asked Dec 11 at 2:30
Michael
1,43351536
asked Dec 11 at 2:30
Michael
1,43351536
asked Dec 11 at 2:30
Michael
1,43351536
1,43351536
You're likely going to need to boot to grub, then copy the EFI files from the HDD to the SSD
– JW0914
Dec 11 at 19:06
add a comment |
You're likely going to need to boot to grub, then copy the EFI files from the HDD to the SSD
– JW0914
Dec 11 at 19:06
You're likely going to need to boot to grub, then copy the EFI files from the HDD to the SSD
– JW0914
Dec 11 at 19:06
You're likely going to need to boot to grub, then copy the EFI files from the HDD to the SSD
– JW0914
Dec 11 at 19:06
add a comment |
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You're likely going to need to boot to grub, then copy the EFI files from the HDD to the SSD
– JW0914
Dec 11 at 19:06