Hi,
So I thought I'd a share an experience and hope that it helps someone else out.
I have done 2 Kali encrypted usb flash drive installs so far.
The first one was uneventful, working nearly perfectly, following the how-to on the website.
I then needed to redo this install to the same key, and ran into a problem with the guided GUI install for an encrypted usb drive.
The issue came up towards the end of the process with the decision about where to put the grub boot loader.
I recall in the first install that I had been offered the detected laptop system drive, or "/dev/sda”, and had chosen "/dev/sdb" for install to the key.
This time around, with one factor being perhaps that it was late at night, and another being the fact that I had successfully installed Centos and its grub to a Dell Windows Desktop for dual boot capability with Win 7, I chose to go to the internal system drive, /dev/sda. I'm sure I was thinking that the Kali install would merge grub boot loader somehow with the Windows boot loader, much the same way as CentOs install, providing a dual boot menu option at power up.
Alas, THIS BROKE WINDOWS boot loader. SMASHED IT to oblivion.
Apparently the install took for granted that the grub boot loader was going to evict anything else.
This part of the install program is not up to par, in my opinion, in terms of either clarity of what it will do and what could result, or in functionality, i.e. - facilitating a dual boot option.
For example, 1) why is it presenting anything else BUT the flash drive for grub boot loader install and 2) even if that is what the user intends, why is it not MERGING by default, the 2 boot loaders into an option menu, like CentOS did?
I was out of the country at the time, so I had to find and download a Win 7 home premium ISO for my laptop to repair the Windows bootmgr, BCD, etc.
I installed the ISO to flash drive ( mount the iso file with mount -o loop /root/*iso /mnt; copy that directory to flash drive, etc.).
I spent hours, trying to get the flash drive version of Win 7 to repair the damaged files. Opened a command prompt and ran all sorts of commands documented in a most disjointed fashion on the web. Tried the automatic startup repair and it would always fail, etc.
When I got home from the trip I inserted an older Win 7 Home premium 64bit upgraded DVD rom, just on the chance that it would be able to do an effective startup repair.
IT DID!!
So, a couple of things learned.
1) If you should inadvertently break your pre-existing system's Windows installation as an unwanted artifact of a Kali install- USE ONLY a DVD/CD rom version of same Windows version to repair the damage.
2) Unless you intend to do a legitimate dual boot install, take extra time and be very aware and cautious about where the grub boot loader is going. It will more than likely default to the wrong drive- the system internal. MAKE a note somewhere earlier on of how that USB FLASH drive is enumerated- /dev/sdb, /dev/sdc etc. and INSTALL IT THERE.
Cheers,
Brian
