Dual Booting with second hard drive

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Dual Booting with second hard drive

Okay so I just ordered an enclosure to replace my optical drive with my old HDD. I have already put an SSD where the old HDD was and I could really use some more storage space for video projects. Also, I want to dual boot Ubuntu on this machine. I am wondering what the best way to go about that would be for performance. Should I make a scond partition on the SSD or use the HDD that I am putting in the optical drive bay for Ubuntu? And how can I use the extra HDD space to store data from both operating systems? Any help is greatly appreciated.

MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.1), Late 2011 13' MacBook Pro 180gb SSD

Posted on Mar 13, 2014 12:20 PM

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Answer 1

Mar 13, 2014 12:28 PM in response to jmart123

why not create a virtual Ubuntu machine using Virtual Box. Then you can store the virtual machine file where ever you want.

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Answer 2

jmart123 Author

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Mar 13, 2014 5:03 PM in response to Wayne Contello

But if I wanted to dual boot, and use a virtual machine, what would the best way to go about it?

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Answer 3

LowLuster

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Mar 13, 2014 5:09 PM in response to jmart123

The problem comes from Apple has restricted booting any other OS on a Mac computer that came with a built in DVD drive from only that DVD drive. An OS X installer can be booted from a USB port, from the USB thumb drive or DVD drive connected to a USB port but you can't boot Windows or Linux from the USB port.

So the only way to install Ubuntu, or any other OS than OS X. is to reinstalled the DVD drive and put the drive you want the other OS on in the main drive bay. Once it is installed you can move the drive to the optical bay.

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Answer 4

jmart123 Author

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Mar 13, 2014 5:16 PM in response to LowLuster

So I only plan on using Linux for a limited amount of work, so would a good solution be to use my SSD that is currently in my MacBook, parition the SSD and install Ubuntu using the Disk Drive on to the SSD, then install the HDD in the disk drive space for extra storage for OSX? I shouldn't need more than 40gb for the linux partition.

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Answer 5

LowLuster

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Mar 13, 2014 5:32 PM in response to jmart123

That would work.

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Answer 6

jmart123 Author

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Mar 13, 2014 7:35 PM in response to LowLuster

It seems that I have run into a problem. After doing a little more reading, it looks like mavericks will not allow me to dual boot. Also, a clarification to an earlier post I do NOT want to run virtual machine. Could I get around this problem by doing what you, LowLuster, suggested at first. Putting Ubuntu on the second drive by replacing the disk drive and installing that way, then putting bot drives into the machine? Also, the hard drive I am putting in place of the disk drive is 750Gb. I do not need 750Gb of space for Ubuntu. Is there a way to use the rest of that hard drive as storage for Mac OS?

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Answer 7

LowLuster

Level 6

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Mar 14, 2014 2:44 AM in response to jmart123

To boot to any other OS installed on an internal or external drive you hold down the Option key at startup. That brings up the boot selection/manager screen wher you select with drive/OS to boot from. Linux might not show in the System Prerferences Startup Disk section but you should be able to boot from it with the Option key startup.

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