Ubuntu/Widnows 7 dual boot gone wrong

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Ubuntu/Windows 7 dual boot gone wrong

Hey guys :)

So last night I decided to give Ubuntu a try for the first time.

This is the case:
> One harddrive, 2 partitions. One was Windows 7, and the other Windows 8.
> I formatted the Windows 8 partition, and merged it with the primary windows 7 partition.
> So then I had one harddrive, 1 partition running Windows 7.
*I din't reboot into Windows 7 to see if it actually boots, went directly to Ubuntu installation from stick.

This is what I did:
> Booted from USB stick with Ubuntu 12.10 on it. Went through steps, until I came to the option of installing alongside Windows.
> It asked me if I wanted to install alongside Windows 8, although Windows 8 didn't exist anymore. That's what I chose, I know that wasn't very smart.
> Ubuntu installed fine and worked, but Grub only gave me the option to boot to Ubuntu or Windows 8, no Windows 7.
> I presume this is because the bootloader that was used before Ubuntu was installed, was the Windows 8 boot loader.

When I tried booting to the non-existant Windows 8, it hangs and make a line of multicolor pixels at the top of the screen right after post.

This is what I tried to fix it:
> Removed grub, now I can't even get into Ubuntu (only way to use this PC is booting from the stick to Ubuntu live).
> Tried restoring the MBR using the terminal, which doesn't help because it seems to restore the Windows 8 crap, but still same problem.
>Tried using Boot-repair app in Ubuntu to restore Windows 7 MBR, but there is only a Windows 8 and Ubuntu option at the MBR options screen.

Sorry for the long post...

Please help me, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!
 
Last edited:
ZAFluffyBunny said:
What are the chances that you have a Windows 7 recovery CD? That is the easiest way I have found to fix this problem. Boot from Windows 7 Recovery, go to a command window and type: bootrec /fixmbr

Alternatively I have used LiLo in to the past, but I honestly have not done it enough to quote off hand what to do

EDIT:
Got this from a quick google
http://thameera.wordpress.com/2011/04/24/restoring-the-windows-mbr-using-a-ubuntu-live-cd-or-usb/
Click to expand...

Thanx for the repsonse. Have Windows ISO, but no disk or stick (only sitck I have is running Ubuntu). I'm now going to make one of my camera cards bootable and boot Windows 7 insaller from there and fix mbr. :D

Thanx for Lilo suggestion, fogot to mention that Lilo was one of my first attempts at fixing this. It does the same as boot-repair, restores Windows 8 bootloader, not Windows 7,,,,
 
Just from reading this, I have decided to give my Ubuntu attempt it's own hard drive... Don't want to screw things up.
 
I had a serious issue with the mbr when I deleted my Linux partition and no amount of fixmbr commands was working. Until I came across these simple commands:

Bcdedit /export C:\BCD_Backup
ren c:\boot\bcd bcd.old
Bootrec /rebuildbcd

Typed each line in the cmd and rebooted - and voila! Worked a dream...
 
I've played around with Ubuntu + Windows on one hard drive for a few years.
It was easier when they used GRUB1.
When they switched to using GRUB2, I noticed the following:

You can dual boot, but the partition containing GRUB must be at the beginning of the drive.
Linux will correctly detect any existing windows partitions during installation, and create boot menu entries for them,
Windows will wipe out any non Windows OS it finds during installation, instead of adding it to the Windows boot menu.

To get it working properly, I had to first prepare the partitions in the right order, so using a Linux live CD,
I used GParted to create a partition at the start of the disk for Linux, a swap partition for Linux, then a partition for Windows.

After that I installed Windows first, then installed Linux, and had a working dual boot from a single drive.
This worked out well for me because I tend to install different Linux distros to try them out more often that I reinstall Windows.
 
Mouse said:
You can dual boot, but the partition containing GRUB must be at the beginning of the drive.
Click to expand...

Nah, never did that, I've always had windows on my first partition followed by /, /home & swap. Never had a issue. Grub can be anywhere on the drive with bootloader installed to the MBR.
 
Thanx for all the responses guys, much appreciated!!

To be honest, I have tried everything now... After much struggling I realized my Windows 7 ISO is broken. So I decided, screw this sh#t, Windows 8 it will be... I've only used it a bit (consumer preview), but the change is inevitable. Cap has to go somewhere in anyway =D

Once again, thanx for clearing things up!! :)
 
this sounds like you deleted your win7 partition and expanded your win8.

or if you did what you said you have, you didn't apply it properly.

hence why when you do such a major operation, it is always best to reboot to see what the final outcome is.

linux will not miracously revive a partition that is meant to have been deleted.
 
ponder said:
Nah, never did that, I've always had windows on my first partition followed by /, /home & swap. Never had a issue. Grub can be anywhere on the drive with bootloader installed to the MBR.
Click to expand...

I'll have to look into what's causing my issue then
 
Try using Windows bootmgr to boot Linux, *nix or BSD. Has worked for me since 2K and XP prior to bootmgr with ntldr and boot.ini.

See the blog howto relevant to Windows 7 / 8 and your flavour of Linux or BSD at http://blogs.technet.com/b/port25/a...3a00-a-conversation-with-the-author-aspx.aspx

I have had corrupted MBR with Linux boot loaders, both lilo and grub. Never happened with ntldr or bootmgr from 2K, XP, Vista, 7 and 8.

Purists will poo poo using Microsoft to boot Ubuntu, but I find it strangely comforting ;)
 
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