[solved] linux dualboot problems

[GuestForeverX]

I used gparted live to partition my 2nd hard drive to start trying out ubuntu. However after I partitioned the 2nd hard then shutdown. I took out the disk as instructed then pressed enter. Then I restarted my PC and Windows 7 Will not boot, even though I did not partition or edit my primary hard drive. After I boot it tells me "select boot device then reboot".

 

[Alabalcho]

Put your Windows DVD, boot off it, and select "Repair" option to restore boot environment.

 

[stillblue]

I used gparted live to partition my 2nd hard drive to start trying out ubuntu. However after I partitioned the 2nd hard then shutdown. I took out the disk as instructed then pressed enter. Then I restarted my PC and Windows 7 Will not boot, even though I did not partition or edit my primary hard drive. After I boot it tells me "select boot device then reboot".

I took out the disk as instructed then pressed enter.

Did you install ubuntu to your second drive? The above quote usually appears after an install is why i ask. If you did then you may need to go into your bios and change the order of your hard drive boots to the Ubuntu one and then install boot-repair. select the default repairs and you should be OK. I'm also guessing that you had disconnected the windows drive prior to working on the Ubuntu one. Correct or no? If you did install Ubuntu and then ran your 7 recovery disk as suggested your Ubuntu won't start in which case you can boot from the live and install/run boot-repair from it.

 

[GuestForeverX]

I didn't install ubuntu I just used a live disk. I used Gparted to partition my 2nd hard drive. After that nothing would boot. Hard drives would not boot, USB drives would not boot. Disk drive was able to boot I ended up having to just re-do windows entirely, someone else had said my bootloader was messed up. I even flashed the Bios Again with no luck. I finally just made a windows install disk, formatted both drives, and am in the process of installing windows 7 again.

Still I have no idea why a partitioning program messed up my primary hard drive when I didn't do anything to it. So it is strange I was just running a live disk so nothing should have been written to the drives other than making a ext4 partition to my 2nd hard drive. I guess the so called Gparted that everyone says is so great isn't so great.

But yes it is now solved.

 

[Ijack]

Was your second hard disk ever the primary one? It sounds as if the Windows boot files were installed on it and that you got rid of them when you repartitioned it.

 

[GuestForeverX]

the 2nd hard drive was a primary one on my old PC but I had reformatted it when I built my new gaming PC and had a 930GiB seagate as my primary. but the only thing the 230GiB(2nd hdd) held for the last 2 months were some backed up game files.


Extra:
I got linux running on my 2nd hard drive. However I don't see a prompt to choose an OS when I reset my PC. I can boot if I tell my UEFI Bios to do a manual Boot Override to the 2nd hard drive(250GiB) I'm assuming to dual boot with a grub or windows loader I would have to have them on the same hdd?

 

[stillblue]

the 2nd hard drive was a primary one on my old PC but I had reformatted it when I built my new gaming PC and had a 930GiB seagate as my primary. but the only thing the 230GiB(2nd hdd) held for the last 2 months were some backed up game files.


Extra:
I got linux running on my 2nd hard drive. However I don't see a prompt to choose an OS when I reset my PC. I can boot if I tell my UEFI Bios to do a manual Boot Override to the 2nd hard drive(250GiB) I'm assuming to dual boot with a grub or windows loader I would have to have them on the same hdd?

No, they don't need to be.
The tool I mentioned earlier, boot-repair, will take care of it. Boot to Ubuntu and run boot-repair,it will find the windows loader on the other drive and add it to grub.It may take two or three reboots but it'll show up.

 

[Ijack]

It'll show up only if it's there. If it was on the second hard drive then it's gone and I suspect the easiest, if not the only, option is to reinstall Windows from scratch. Then you will need to do what Stillblue suggests to set up grub properly. It is not often understood that it is possible to have a Windows installation on one drive whilst the Windows boot loader is on another drive.

GParted is, indeed a great program but tools that mess with partitions rely upon the user knowing exactly what they are doing.

 

[GuestForeverX]

I got linux mint and windows 7 working again both are on separate hard drives.

So Win 7 Pro SP1 is on my Primary Hard Drive(930GiB)
and Linux Mint 13 Cinnamon is on my Secondary Hard Drive(230GiB)
It works fine for now, but if I power on my PC there is no option to choose an OS. If I go into the bios I can boot Linux Mint if I do a boot override or change the boot order.

I'll try the boot repair soon to see if it can set up the grub boot loader.

 

[stillblue]

If you installed windows after mint then windows wrote over the mint launcher grub. Boot-repair will fix that.

 

[Edir]

On 12.04 Ubuntu, (and possibly others) , boot-repair does not come with the install. I found you could get it by searching boot repair In the software centre.