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

branchfj · 01-24-2013, 09:09 PM

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.......

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

Can anyone help me with this.

TroN-0074 · 01-24-2013, 09:26 PM

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

EDDY1 · 01-24-2013, 09:31 PM

mbr is in sda1

John VV · 01-24-2013, 10:50 PM

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 )