How to list boot to Windows and Ubuntu, Can't boot to Windows after installing Ubuntu on external drive

Question

I installed Ubuntu on an external SSD hard Drive and the main HDD has Windows installed on it.

When I installed Ubuntu on the SSD, it should give me a choice to boot to Ubuntu or to Windows, but the PC boots to Ubuntu directly without giving me any choices to boot to Windows or to Ubuntu...

How can I change that?

by the way I used Ubuntu and saved important data on it and don't want to lose it or lose the Windows data

Any Suggestions?

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited Oct 02 '18 at 09:56

Just install rEFInd boot manager package:

sudo apt install refind

and automatically install the boot manager on the ESP/EFI partition:

sudo refind-install

or custom (like on a USB stick partition):

sudo refind-install --usedefault "/dev/sdX1" # X1 = example: /dev/sdb1

and reboot and it boots up auto-discovering all bootable partitions on all drives.

Another tip is to press F12 during startup to open up a bootmenu.

Troubleshoot? Boot a live stick like Ubuntu 18.04. Download and write to a USB stick:

dd if=Downloads/ubuntu-18.04.1-desktop-amd64.iso of=/dev/sdx
bs=$((1024**2)) /dev/sdx

/dev/sdx being your destination drive like /dev/sdb or /dev/sdc.

Use gnome-disks to open up all your ESP/EFI partitions and check the subdir structure type in terminal:

find \`mount | grep vfat | sort | head -1 | awk '{ print $3 }'\`

which could/should look something like:

/media/ron/DB9A-B328/ /media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/ubuntu /media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/ubuntu/fw
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/ubuntu/fwupx64.efi
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/ubuntu/grubx64.efi
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/ubuntu/grub.cfg
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/ubuntu/shimx64.efi
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/ubuntu/mmx64.efi
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/ubuntu/BOOTX64.CSV
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/fbx64.efi
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/drivers_x64
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/drivers_x64/ext4_x64.efi
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/README
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/arrow_left.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/arrow_right.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/boot_linux.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/boot_win.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/func_about.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/func_csr_rotate.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/func_exit.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/func_firmware.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/func_hidden.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/func_reset.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/func_shutdown.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/mouse.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/os_arch.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/os_centos.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/os_chakra.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/os_chrome.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/os_clover.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/os_crunchbang.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/os_debian.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/os_devuan.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/os_elementary.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/os_fedora.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/os_freebsd.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/os_frugalware.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/os_gentoo.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/os_gummiboot.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/os_haiku.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/os_hwtest.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/os_kubuntu.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/os_legacy.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/os_linux.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/os_linuxmint.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/os_lubuntu.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/os_mac.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/os_mageia.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/os_mandriva.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/os_netbsd.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/os_network.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/os_opensuse.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/os_redhat.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/os_refind.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/os_refit.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/os_slackware.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/os_suse.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/os_trusty.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/os_ubuntu.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/os_unknown.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/os_win.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/os_win8.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/os_xenial.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/os_xubuntu.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/os_zesty.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/tool_apple_rescue.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/tool_fwupdate.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/tool_memtest.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/tool_mok_tool.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/tool_netboot.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/tool_part.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/tool_rescue.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/tool_shell.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/tool_windows_rescue.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/transparent.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/vol_external.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/vol_internal.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/vol_net.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/icons/vol_optical.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/keys
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/keys/altlinux.cer
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/keys/canonical-uefi-ca.der
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/keys/centos.cer
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/keys/fedora-ca.cer
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/keys/microsoft-kekca-public.der
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/keys/microsoft-pca-public.der
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/keys/microsoft-uefica-public.der
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/keys/openSUSE-UEFI-CA-Certificate-4096.cer
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/keys/openSUSE-UEFI-CA-Certificate.cer
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/keys/refind.cer
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/keys/refind_local.cer
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/keys/SLES-UEFI-CA-Certificate.cer
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/refind.conf
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/BOOT/BOOT.CSV /media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/refind_x64.efi
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/drivers_x64
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/drivers_x64/ext4_x64.efi
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/keys
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/keys/refind_local.cer
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/keys/refind_local.crt
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/keys/altlinux.cer
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/keys/canonical-uefi-ca.der
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/keys/centos.cer
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/keys/fedora-ca.cer
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/keys/microsoft-kekca-public.der
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/keys/microsoft-pca-public.der
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/keys/microsoft-uefica-public.der
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/keys/openSUSE-UEFI-CA-Certificate-4096.cer
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/keys/openSUSE-UEFI-CA-Certificate.cer
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/keys/refind.cer
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/keys/SLES-UEFI-CA-Certificate.cer
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/README
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/arrow_left.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/arrow_right.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/boot_linux.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/boot_win.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/func_about.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/func_csr_rotate.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/func_exit.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/func_firmware.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/func_hidden.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/func_reset.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/func_shutdown.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/mouse.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/os_arch.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/os_centos.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/os_chakra.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/os_chrome.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/os_clover.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/os_crunchbang.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/os_debian.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/os_devuan.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/os_elementary.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/os_fedora.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/os_freebsd.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/os_frugalware.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/os_gentoo.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/os_gummiboot.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/os_haiku.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/os_hwtest.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/os_kubuntu.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/os_legacy.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/os_linux.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/os_linuxmint.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/os_lubuntu.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/os_mac.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/os_mageia.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/os_mandriva.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/os_netbsd.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/os_network.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/os_opensuse.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/os_redhat.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/os_refind.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/os_refit.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/os_slackware.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/os_suse.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/os_trusty.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/os_ubuntu.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/os_unknown.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/os_win.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/os_win8.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/os_xenial.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/os_xubuntu.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/os_zesty.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/tool_apple_rescue.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/tool_fwupdate.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/tool_memtest.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/tool_mok_tool.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/tool_netboot.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/tool_part.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/tool_rescue.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/tool_shell.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/tool_windows_rescue.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/transparent.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/vol_external.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/vol_internal.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/vol_net.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons/vol_optical.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/refind.conf
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/BOOT.CSV
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/README
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/arrow_left.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/arrow_right.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/boot_linux.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/boot_win.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/func_about.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/func_csr_rotate.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/func_exit.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/func_firmware.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/func_hidden.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/func_reset.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/func_shutdown.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/mouse.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/os_arch.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/os_centos.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/os_chakra.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/os_chrome.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/os_clover.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/os_crunchbang.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/os_debian.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/os_devuan.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/os_elementary.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/os_fedora.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/os_freebsd.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/os_frugalware.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/os_gentoo.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/os_gummiboot.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/os_haiku.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/os_hwtest.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/os_kubuntu.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/os_legacy.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/os_linux.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/os_linuxmint.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/os_lubuntu.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/os_mac.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/os_mageia.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/os_mandriva.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/os_netbsd.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/os_network.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/os_opensuse.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/os_redhat.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/os_refind.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/os_refit.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/os_slackware.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/os_suse.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/os_trusty.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/os_ubuntu.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/os_unknown.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/os_win.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/os_win8.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/os_xenial.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/os_xubuntu.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/os_zesty.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/tool_apple_rescue.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/tool_fwupdate.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/tool_memtest.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/tool_mok_tool.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/tool_netboot.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/tool_part.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/tool_rescue.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/tool_shell.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/tool_windows_rescue.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/transparent.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/vol_external.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/vol_internal.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/vol_net.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/icons-backup/vol_optical.png
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/refind/refind.conf-sample
/media/ron/DB9A-B328/EFI/tools

The above refind subdir structure is because I installed rEFInd.

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 01 '18 at 21:38

What boots first depends on your BIOS/UEFI boot settings and the configuration of your MBRs.

The BIOS/UEFI lets you choose which drive will boot at first.

If you choose USB, the external USB-SSD will be chosen to boot the OS. If the SSD does not have a boot-sector with a bootloader which lets you choose which drive to boot, it will go straight through and boot the OS on the drive (in this case the SSD) and the internal HDD will be ignored.
If you choose HDD, the internal HDD will be chosen to boot the OS and the external SSD will probably be ignored.

The best solution would be to install a software/bootloader like grub on both drives, the internal HDD and the external SSD, which both should have an option to reference to each other. This way you could always choose which drive (and therefore OS) you want to boot.

This is not easy, but probably well explained in other answers on AskUbuntu answering bootloader problems.

How to list boot to Windows and Ubuntu, Can't boot to Windows after installing Ubuntu on external drive

2 Answers2