LinuxQuestions.org - Can't get Dual Boot to work on Windows 7 Home Edition????

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Can't get Dual Boot to work on Windows 7 Home Edition????

I have created dual boot systems at work with Windows 7 Pro and Scientific Linux 6 without any problems.

At home I am trying to do the exact same procedure on my Windows7 Home Edition Laptop for training/practice. After install/reboot it comes to a blank screen with either Scientific Linux or Red Hat.

I shrunk 100GB off of the C: drive.
Restart and boot with SLinux 6.2 DVD
Create the needed drives ( /boot, /, /home, swap)
Install the software
Leave bootloader at default MBR/sda (sda2)

If I put the bootloader in sda5 where the Linux /boot partition is, when I reboot after install it just goes to Windows 7 Home Edition and I can't get to the SLinux system.

As I said above, when I put the bootloader in sda2 (Windows 7 ntfs) I get a blank screen and nothing boots. I then have to recover my Windows boot partition to just start again, and again....... :banghead:

I am guessing I need Windows 7 Pro, but would rather not if possible.

Can anyone help me with this.

O.k so what is the hardware in your laptop? is the video card and video ship the same as your desktop at work?

Did you check that your laptop model is supported by Scientific Linux. Doing a search on the web of your laptop model and Linux should point out to other users with similar experience and solutions.

Good luck to you

for win 7 dual boot i have found that ...
I let win 7 have the MBR -- this just makes my life easier ,and less hassles with MS
And i put sl6.3's grub on the first linux partition
sl6 ,during install , will auto detect win 7 and list it in grub as "other" ( you can change that at any time )
then tell the bios to boot from the grub partition
or
using a gparted live-cd
remove the boot flag from the MBR and put it on the grub partition
then the bios will see the grub partition as the one to boot from

now laptops are a bit different from a desktop so you might have to reset the laptops bios

Code:

  Device Boot      Start        End      Blocks  Id  System

/dev/sda1  *          63  152039159    76019548+  7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT --- win7 mbr 

/dev/sda2      152039160  923801759  385881300    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT --- win 7 "c:// drive" 

/dev/sda3      923801760  1465144064  270671152+  5  Extended

/dev/sda5  *  923801823  924331904      265041  83  Linux ------------- sl6.3 grub 

/dev/sda6      924331968  932717834    4192933+  82  Linux swap / Solaris

/dev/sda7      932717898  999821339    33551721  83  Linux ------------- sl6.3 /home 

/dev/sda8      999821403  1465144064  232661331  83  Linux ------------- sl6.3 /

sl6 and grub are happy to boot win7
from win 7 i reboot and get the sl6 boot menu

Quote:

If I put the bootloader in sda5 where the Linux /boot partition is, when I reboot after install it just goes to Windows 7

you need to reset the bios or the boot flag ( if the laptop bios uses the boot flag still )