Set up second SATA SSD as Linux boot drive?

I have a 10-year-old HP H8-1070t PC (BIOS AMI 7.09 7/2/2011) running Windows 10 Pro v. 2004 build 19041.985. It has two SATA SSD's, SATA1 assigned as C: (Windows boot drive), and SATA0 as D: (data). System info says the BIOS is in UEFI mode. The BIOS's boot page lists the following:

UEFI boot sources
Windows boot manager

Legacy boot sources
ATAPI CD/DVD drive
SATA2

Hard drive
SATA0
SATA1

If I try to select SATA1 (or SATA0) to boot from, it throws an error. It boots ok if the Windows boot manager is selected.

I haven't been using the D: drive, so I'd like to install Ubuntu Linux on it and boot from Linux by hitting F9 for the boot menu and selecting that SATA drive during startup.

Will that work? Or are there complications between UEFI vs legacy boot drives?

Your boot drive is a UEFI-GPT

On UEFI-GPT, BIOS take the sequence to a EFI Fart32 partition where you have the Boot managers, like the Windows boot manager.
On a Legacy-MBR, BIOS take the sequence to a drive MBR that will take you to a boot loader on an partition.
Your drives on SATA 0 or SATA 1 aren't boot able as Legacy-MBR, that is why you can't boot from them.

To install Linux on D: (SATA 1?) you don't need all the drive space.
- With Disk Manager shrink the D: partition in 40G and leave the space as unallocated.
- Shutdown, open the case side panel and detach the power cable from drive 0 (that has win 10).
- Boot from the Linux USB drive and install on the unallocated space created.
- Shutdown, attach the power cable from drive 0 (that has win 10).
Use the Boot Menu to choose to boot from the Linux OS.

Megahertz said:

To install Linux on D: (SATA 1?) ...

Thanks for the advice, that really helps.

I too would have assumed that SATA 0 would be the C: drive, but it appears from Windows' Disk Management screen that it boots C: from SATA 1 -- whereas SATA 0 is the D: drive (see screenshot below).

One question. I want to make sure I understand what you mean by:

With Disk Manager shrink the D: partition in 40G and leave the space as unallocated.

By 40G do you mean to shrink the D: partition so it ends up as 40 GB in size? Is that much size required for the boot partition, or could I go smaller?

- Yes, SATA 1 is the boot able drive.
- With Disk Manager shrink the D: partition in 40G and leave the space as unallocated. In other words, create 40G unallocated space.

- Shutdown, open the case side panel and detach the power cable from drive 1 (that has win 10).
- Boot from the Linux USB drive and install on the unallocated space created.
- Shutdown, attach the power cable on drive 1 (that has win 10).
Use the Boot Menu to choose to boot from the Linux OS.

AddRAM said:

C is showing up as Disk 1 because you don`t have it connected to sata port 0/1 on the motherboard. All you have to do is switch the cables Data cables on the hard drives. Changing them is totally up to you

That's what I figured. My preference was to change the D: disk to being 100% Linux, so I did the following:

Used Windows Disk Manager to delete the partition on D:, removed the disk, did a backup of C:, moved C: disk to SATA0, checked to make sure it booted ok, removed power from C: disk, installed old D: disk to SATA1, used a USB stick to install Ubuntu on the old D: disk, restored power to the C: disk, checked to make sure they would both boot based on BIOS boot page selection.

It looks as though UEFI is remembering which OS was the last one booted. If I use Windows, shut it down, then start back up, it boots to Windows. If I use Ubuntu, shut it down, then start back up, it boots back to Ubuntu. Switching OS is via the BIOS boot page. (Maybe, though, I was lucky, and this doesn't necessarily work with all UEFI versions?)

Thanks again to all for the help.

Instead of enter BIOS to change boot priority drive, try to launch the boot menu during POST.
The generic HP boot menu keys are Esc and F9. The key to access HP laptop boot menu on most models is Esc (HP Pavilion boot menu is no exception)

Megahertz said:

Instead of enter BIOS to change boot priority drive, try to launch the boot menu during POST.
The generic HP boot menu keys are Esc and F9. The key to access HP laptop boot menu on most models is Esc (HP Pavilion boot menu is no exception)

I might have used the wrong phrase to describe what I was doing. As soon as I see the first startup screen appear on the monitor after power-up, I hit F9 and it goes directly to the boot menu. Esc and then F9 gets there as well.

Good. Please mark this thread as Solved.