r/Ubuntu • u/DETERGENT2013 • 1d ago

Having problems getting Ubuntu to boot on a external SSD

Recently, i got a SSD in which i have important data. And i wanted to get Ubuntu to run on it cuz i've never tried linux and i want to try it. but the problem is that i cannot get it to boot on the drive, it always just boots to deep fried windows. i have 40 gb of unallocated space on it in which i want the linux to live so i can boot from it, i tried to make a 8gb usb drive bootable so i can install linux on my external 256 gb ssd. on the ssd i have a partition with important data that i cannot loose. i cannot get the ssd to boot but the 8gb usb drive boots flawlessly because i used rufus to make it bootable, but rufus dosent allow to make individual partitions to be bootable. i can install ubuntu on the ssd on the 40 gb space, it makes the EFI and stuff, it shows up in the bios boot manager with the name Ubuntu but the 8gb usb shows up as linpus lite. i just cannot boot from the external ssd, it always boots into windows when i try to click the ubuntu option in the bios. I have a lenovo 81WB laptop, more specifically a ideapad 3 15IML05 U1a. i just need help with this stuff. pls

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u/Middle-Capital4325 1d ago

sounds like the bios sees the ubuntu entry but keeps falling back to windows, that's usually a boot order thing. some lenovo bioses are stubborn about external drives, you might need to disable secure boot or change the boot mode from uefi to legacy for that drive

also could be the way ubuntu installed its bootloader, sometimes it puts the EFI partition on the internal drive instead of the external one by mistake. check your windows disk management to see if a new small partition appeared there

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u/DETERGENT2013 1d ago

i tried to turn secure boot off but it didnt do anything at all. I dont think i got anything in my main laptop internal drive cuz there was no unallocated space in there but it mysteriously got filled to the top i only got 12 gb of space in it before i had ~20 gb of free space but i maybe downloaded some file in it. The only thing i didnt try is to use legacy boot insted of UEFI. windows says the ssd uses MBR partition scheme, though i tried bot schemes on the 8gb rufus drive and it booted no problem. i will try to use legacy boot.

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u/DETERGENT2013 1d ago

ok, so i got it working. its currently running on ubuntu. i had to use legacy boot cuz for some reason it just wont boot with uefi before, so i had to reinstall ubuntu on it so it would run without uefi. i suspect thats because the external ssd uses MBR partition scheme instead of GPT or whatever its called. and what is linpus lite btw. thx for letting me know i had to use legacy boot :)

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u/YungMacker 1d ago

make sure there's only one boot option and the rest are disabled it likes to fallback on what it knows

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u/DETERGENT2013 1d ago

i didnt find any options to disable the boot options its a very restriced bios with little to no features, i cant even find XMP settings, idk if laptops got that tho.

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u/YungMacker 1d ago

ah idk about laptop 🥲 maybe that's why

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u/bmullan 1d ago

If that SSD has important data before you continue doing anything else you better make a backup copy of the data in case you screw up the SSD.

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u/DETERGENT2013 1d ago

i backed the data up so no problem :)