How to remove GRUB from the wrong SSD?
How to remove GRUB from the wrong SSD?
You have two SSDs, one running Ubuntu with GRUB as the bootloader and another with a different Ubuntu install that uses BIOS. When trying to boot the second SSD, you see a minimal GRUB bash instead of the main menu, which suggests an incomplete or conflicting installation. It might be a remnant from an incorrect setup. Yes, it is possible to remove it by resetting the bootloader settings or reinstalling Ubuntu properly.
Check if the PC uses UEFI or Legacy mode. For UEFI, simply delete, format, or remove the small Fat32 EFI partition at the start of the drive. If it's Legacy, you might not be able to fix it later. Uninstall Grub from the installation process to remove it on a legacy system, but you likely don't have access to the failed setup. It doesn't matter if it exists, just set the boot priority in BIOS and move forward.
Ignore it. Simply run lsblk, locate the tiny F32 partition (usually partition 1 at ~300MB), then execute mkfs.vfat -F32 /dev/whatever1 to erase it.
I just noticed the installation went wrong: the working GRUB menu appears on the drive without Ubuntu, only Windows is visible. The GRUB on the SSD with Ubuntu shows a minimal shell. What does this mean? It seems the setup was incorrect. Can I remove the correct GRUB from the wrong drive and restore the one that displays minimal BASH on the Ubuntu disk? Also, in the second update, I fixed the GRUB on the right drive using insmod and updated the root reference. Now I need to delete the incorrect GRUB—how can I confirm whether the fat32 partition isn’t the Windows bootloader or if it uses a different filesystem?
Windows bootloader resides in the EFI partition, yet you should be capable of mounting it and removing the Ubuntu loader.
If lsblk displays those partitions, it shows the layout of your storage. The 99M and 538M entries likely represent the EFI system partition and its bootable files, while the 499M and 230G are standard data partitions. You can identify which is Windows by checking the label or using a tool to see the partition type. The 99M usually contains the GRUB configuration, so it’s the one you need for booting into Windows.
Efi operates with a single partition that supports several loaders. Sda2 must manage both the Windows Boot Manager and the Ubuntu loader.