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How to dual-boot Linux Mint 10 or Ubuntu 10.10 and Windows 7 on a computer with two hard drives

ebcd5

On the Add New Entry tab, click on the Linux/BSD tab in the Operating Systems section. Knowing that Mint 10 (and Ubuntu 10.10) uses GRUB 2, not GRUB Legacy, Select GRUB 2 from the dropdown menu.
ebcd1

This just shows the window with the correct option selected. Click once on the Add Entry button, then on the View Settings button to view the entries in the new boot menu.
ebcd2

This shows the boot menu with the Linux entry just added. The Windows 7 entry is the default. If you want to modify the boot order and rename the Linux label, click on the Edit Boot Menu button.
ebcd3

This is the default boot order. To make the Linux entry the default, select it and click on the Up button. To change the label from NeoSmart Linux to Linux Mint 10 (or Ubuntu 10.10), select it and click on the Rename button.
ebcd4

This is the final result. Click on Save Settings, reboot the computer and you will see a Windows 7 boot menu similar to the one here.
ebcd5

Hope this has helped. If you need help with a configuration different from the one presented here, join Mint forum or Ubuntu forum, ask your question and I will do my best to get you the appropriate answer. You can have quality articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader or inbox by subscribing via RSS or email.

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Sean
Sean
12 years ago

I followed the guide strictly on every detail, Ubuntu works fine but when I try to load Windows it shows the loading splash screen but then goes black and the HD light keeps blinking but nothing happens except my fans start going crazy like its over heating, HALP!

Sean
Sean
Reply to  finid
12 years ago

sorry not sure what exactly you are asking. initially, i did a fresh install of windows 7 and ran all the updates, then i ran Ubuntu from the CD and installed it as per the guide on the second hard drive. i rebooted and windows loaded up automatically, then i installed/ran EasyBCD to add the Ubuntu entry and set GRUB2, then when I rebooted after that I can run Ubuntu fine but Windows hangs on the black screen just after you see the initial splash Windows 7 loading screen. I can get into Windows Safe mode as well.

Sean
Sean
Reply to  Sean
12 years ago

hold the presses, it appears that the black screen of death was caused by an updated nvidia driver in Windows 7, everything appears to work once I restored to a point before the drivers were updated.

mark80
mark80
12 years ago

I followed the directions and everything went smooth. But when I try to boot up ubuntu I get sent to a grub prompt. Do you have any ideas on what is going wrong?

mark80
mark80
Reply to  finid
12 years ago

Windows will boot up fine and I believe I installed GRUB in /dev/sdb. Would it make a difference that I’m installing ubuntu on a external hdd? I will try to reinstall like you suggested and see if that helps.

mark80
mark80
12 years ago

I tried this install method and everything went ok. But when I try to boot up Ubuntu a grub command line comes up. Any ideas what I did wrong?

Sendy
Sendy
13 years ago

I have 2 sata hard disks. On one I have windows 7. While installing linux on the other, i didn’t use the manual partitioning method but the ‘use entire disk’ one. Will it still work if I use BCD program to modify the Windows Boot Manager?

Dah
Dah
13 years ago

Thank you very much for the guide.
It is a simple & well tailored tutorial.
Brilliant. Everything was such a breeze.

One issue though i faced was the boot loader.
After installation of Mint, neither operating system was booting.

A disk read error has occurred message would pop out.
Figured my way out though!
Now all is in good shape and running well!

Thanks again

DJ
DJ
13 years ago

I tried this method with one small difference. I installed windows on the second disk and ubuntu on the first disk. Everything worked fine with the exception of one thing. Anything I installed on linux was not saved to /home. I kept getting errors saying that / and /boot were full. Did I do something wrong?

DJ
DJ
Reply to  finid
13 years ago

Thanks, I reset my smaller hd as sata1 and am redoing everything. Hope it all works out. Thanks for the quick response

Raj
Raj
13 years ago

I did the dual boot but when i start my laptop it only starts with ubuntu, i want the option which comes before starting to choose the os to start, but it did not come and only laptop starts with ubuntu and i cant start my laptop with windows 7

George
George
13 years ago

SOLVED – I’m posting for every one having the problem. Before altering the windows bootloader with easyBCD you have to assign a drive letter to the windows hidden system partition. Then you can the entry for mint. After reboot everything works sweetly.!! If you do not want the drive to appear in my computer, you can exclude it by altering a group policy using gpedit.exe in cmd.

George
George
13 years ago

Done that already after setting up easyBCD and didn’t work. Do you recon I have to do it before setting up easyBCD? I was also thinking if there is a way to change the drive scan order (If I’m putting correctly) in grub2 so that ntfs partitions are omitted during mint’s start up. Could this solve the problem and if so how can i easily do it?
Thnx..

George
George
13 years ago

Followed the guide step by step. Upon restarting, after selecting Linux Mint 10″ on win bootloader, I get the Ttry (HD0,0): NTFS5: No ang0″ message. It stays on screen for about 30sec (maybe more) and after that linux starts normally. How can I make that disappear so that Mint loads faster?

George
George
Reply to  finid
13 years ago

Sorry for accidentally posting the answer under my own question..

Followed the guide step by step. Upon restarting, after selecting Linux Mint 10″ on win bootloader, I get the Ttry (HD0,0): NTFS5: No ang0″ message. It stays on screen for about 30sec (maybe more) and after that linux starts normally. How can I make that disappear so that Mint loads faster?

George
George
Reply to  George
13 years ago

JESUS what a mess…
@finid – my reply is this..finally..
Done that already after setting up easyBCD and didn’t work. Do you recon I have to do it before setting up easyBCD? I was also thinking if there is a way to change the drive scan order (If I’m putting correctly) in grub2 so that ntfs partitions are omitted during mint’s start up. Could this solve the problem and if so how can i easily do it?
Thnx..

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