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Dual Boot Installation Issue

Hi guys,
I'm having installation issues with linux and could really use your advice.

I'm trying to set up a dual boot with vista and linux. I prepared my computer by backing up my files and partitioning my hard drive, leaving 20GB for linux. I downloaded Linux Mint 7, and booted from USB (using the universal USB installer from pendrivelinux.com). All good, entered into linux and installed by following the prompts (selecting use largest unallocated partition to point linux to the partition). At this stage the screen cleared to just leave me with the desktop background, and I patiently waited for it to reboot.... which never happened. So I waited for 20mins or so, then shut the computer down because I couldn't think of what else to do. When I restarted (without using the livecd/usb) it just went straight to vista.

I did a bit of reading and found it might have been something to do with vista taking over grub, and some of the tutorials suggested downloading EasyBCD. So I did that, here's the summary:

Code:

There are a total of 2 entries listed in the Vista Bootloader.

Bootloader Timeout: 30 seconds.

Default OS: Linux Mint 7



Entry #1



Name:  Microsoft Windows Vista

BCD ID:  {current}

Drive:  C:\

Bootloader Path:  \Windows\system32\winload.exe

Windows Directory:  \Windows



Entry #2



Name:  Linux Mint 7

BCD ID:  {default}

Drive:  C:\

Bootloader Path:  \NST\nst_grub.mbr

Code:

Windows Boot Manager

--------------------

identifier              {9dea862c-5cdd-4e70-acc1-f32b344d4795}

device                  partition=C:

description            Windows Boot Manager

locale                  en-US

inherit                {7ea2e1ac-2e61-4728-aaa3-896d9d0a9f0e}

default                {bbf9569e-31e5-11df-a844-91f7867d7949}

resumeobject            {3fb6bf64-700d-11db-8409-0016d303c867}

displayorder            {3fb6bf63-700d-11db-8409-0016d303c867}

                        {bbf9569e-31e5-11df-a844-91f7867d7949}

toolsdisplayorder      {b2721d73-1db4-4c62-bf78-c548a880142d}

timeout                30



Windows Boot Loader

-------------------

identifier              {3fb6bf63-700d-11db-8409-0016d303c867}

device                  partition=C:

path                    \Windows\system32\winload.exe

description            Microsoft Windows Vista

locale                  en-US

inherit                {6efb52bf-1766-41db-a6b3-0ee5eff72bd7}

recoverysequence        {572bcd55-ffa7-11d9-aae2-0007e994107d}

recoveryenabled        Yes

osdevice                partition=C:

systemroot              \Windows

resumeobject            {3fb6bf64-700d-11db-8409-0016d303c867}

nx                      OptIn



Real-mode Boot Sector

---------------------

identifier              {bbf9569e-31e5-11df-a844-91f7867d7949}

device                  partition=C:

path                    \NST\nst_grub.mbr

description            Linux Mint 7

Hi odway

Now I could be wrong (someone else may correct me) but I have never had any success with Linux (any distro)
using a Windows boot loader to start.
My main issue with what I see above would be the line that reads:

device partition=C:

As Linux does not use this nomenclature to refer to the head of your system but rather
the symbol / (slash) is referred to as the root partition.

I would therefore agree that your install has not worked correctly and to perhaps retry.
Most newish linux distros use grub and will detect your Windows partition and create the
relevant entry.

Hope this helps.

Easybcd works in vista if grub is installed to the linux root partition. However IMHO, it doesn't sound like mint 7 installed correctly.

Thankyou guys,
I'm sure this is super newbie, but how do I go about attempting to reinstall linux? Would I need to delete my pre-existing partition?

Now when I turn my computer on, I get options for vista and linux. Vista works find, but if I select Linux Mint 7 I get an error that reads "cannot load from harddisk, insert systemdisk and press any key"

Let's start with did you install mint and did it seem to install correctly? If so then we might need to simply tweek easybcd.

The issue may be that we would need to put grub or lilo on your linux partition (or another partion) or simply use grub to boot both vista and linux. Kind of your choice on that so let us know.

Both Vista's bcd and grub can boot either or both just as well as the other.

This a a common issue with dual boots. It may be that your system is new enough to not even need a dual boot. Have you considered a virtual machine?

No you don't have to delete the partition, during the partitioning section of the install select manual mode and setup the partiton manually, however for someone new to linux it might be easier to delete the partition and then attempt to install as before. Don't create any new partitions before the installation, the installer will create the partitons after selecting use largest unallocated space