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Old December 23rd, 2011, 04:34 AM
disintergrator disintergrator is offline
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Join Date: Mar 2004
O/S: Windows XP Pro
Location: south carolina
Age: 45
Posts: 405
Help with bootladder.

At least, I think I need help with my bootladder. Im still a semi-newbie at Linux, but I have been playing with Ubuntu for a couple of years now, and here recently have just started testing other distros out (Red Hat, Mandriva, Fedora, & Mint, mainly).

Anyway, I have a Dell XPS m1330 p.o.s. laptop, and it is dual-booting xp and ubuntu on the current hd. I have another hd, that I had a friend who knows more about Linux than myself, to get it dual-boot xp with ubuntu, but to have xp come on when the power button is pushed, and ubuntu come on when the media direct button is pushed (or either vice versa). That hd is basically reserved as a back up drive, cause I know it is a very pain-staking process to get that to work, and I searched tons of write ups on it, before I gave up and asked him. So I dont use that one often, and keep it in my laptop bag as a back up, should I need it. I also have another spare laptop drive inside an enclosure and use it as an external usb drive. I wanted to get the spare external to dual boot the other distros mentioned above, as well as Mythbuntu and Ubuntu Studio (btw, anyone here have a preference to Myth or Studio & why?--just curious).

Anyway, in the process of installing a couple of those distros, I somehow now got my laptop in a state where it will NOT boot, unless the external drive is plugged in. I think when I was trying to install the new distros to the external, it installed a new bootladder to my internal. However, when I select ANY choice that should be on the new drive, I just get a blank screen. But when I select XP or Ubuntu, They both load up fine.

I have did some searching, but have not found a case EXACTLY like this, so have been afraid to try fixing without help. So if anyone could point me in the right direction, I would be very appreciative. Thank you in advance for your time and concern.

EDIT:
More info:
When I try booting without the external plugged in, it says:
error: no such device: [random numbers & lowercase letters, i.e., adj2kl4mhg6lkiggi9f]

When I attempt to boot one of the Ubuntus on the external, it just goes to a blank screen with a cursor in the upper left corner, and the other one starts to load, but gets stuck in the load screen and never comes out. I think the one that gives the blank screen is Myth, and the other is Studio.

And all I really want to do is to get it to where I can choose the external hd to boot from in BIOS, and it will give me the option to go into the 2 Ubuntus on it, and if I have it set in BIOS to boot from the internal, then it gives the option of XP and Ubuntu that are on the internal, not a bootladder with ALL 4 options on it.

Id also like to know exactly where I went wrong in the installation and setup of the external when I was installing Myth and Studio. Cause I am probably going to end up having to reinstall them back to it, and if so, I do not want to end up in the same situation again.

Last edited by disintergrator; December 23rd, 2011 at 03:41 PM. Reason: more info
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