Hi

I have bought a new PC which has Windows 7 installed and 1TB hard drive. Using the windows partion GUi I have got half the disc as unallocated. Now I want to install Mint on this space in logical volumes but I have not been involved with UEFI before so don't know if I will have a boot menu when I finish. I imagined letting Mint boot into root as a means of avoiding interfering with windows boot but how do I access Mint?

If push comes to shove I will get rid of windows but do I need to reformat the whole drive so it will recognise Mint as the OS? Can I then disable the UEFI and stay with the MBR system?

grabro

grabro,

Have a thorough read of these two first.

W7 & Ubuntu:

http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/d...-7-ubuntu.html

W8.1 UEFI & Ubuntu:

http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/d...-8-ubuntu.html

It is not a bad idea to create a W7 System Repair disk:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/w...m-repair-disc?

Also create a backup .iso on an external hard drive.

Finally, I would recommend creating a Rescatux CD:

http://www.supergrubdisk.org/rescatux/

You should then be prepared for most eventualities!

Beachboy2

Thanks for the info. The unbuntu site appears old and makes no mention of the EFI. Also windows will only let you shrink
its partion so far. As I understand the EFI if I use GRUB2 to install Mint on the MBR 1) it wont work;
2) I'll have Mint but not windows or 3) I'll lose everything.

Windows was pre-installed but I am seriously thinking of deleting it completely and installing Mint. I could reinstall windows later
on a logical partion. My only concern with this solution is the EFI v grub2 conflict.

Thanks anyway
grabro

I don't know where you got your ideas re UEFI from. Mint is fine with (most) UEFI implementations - HP appears to cause some grief, but I have one that installed ok. Leave UEFI active, Mint installer will recognise it and use the EFI partition that is already allocated.
Don't accept the default partitioning else you will get Win7 erased - pick the "something else" radio button and allocate your own partitioning. Dual boot works fine.

grabro,

That is why I included the second link which specifically refers to UEFI.

Sgy00

Thank for the input. I checked with the Mint website
and now much more clear and also happier.

Thanks again for all you help

grabro

You might be able to play with a free virtual machine. That way you could run windows and linux at the same time. It's easy and won't mess with your system. Then you could play with linux till you are ready to switch.

I get the feeling you are mixing up mbr and uefi.