xeddog
May 16th, 2009, 10:05 PM
OK, first off I know there are several threads written regarding dual booting with linux and Windws Vista/7. I have read a lot of them until it has given me a headache. But here is MY story.
I have an old 32 bit system that had just one drive in it, the 80GB drive. I had xubuntu 9.04 installed using the entire drive so there were two partitions on it. There was sda1 which was the large partition for linux itself, there was sda2 which was an extended partition that contained sda5 linux swap.
Then I added the 60GB and wanted to install Windows 7 RC on it. My first problem was that this computer would not boot the Windows 7 RC dvd. I had two other computers that did, so the disk was fine. Just THIS machine would not boot it. It was like there was no dvd in the drive. So I booted a Vista dvd, and started trying to install Vista. That was my next problem. As long as sda was formatted as ext3 for linux, "Windows is unable to find a system volume that meets it's criteria for installation".
SO %#@& FINE!!! I deleted all partitions from BOTH drives, recreated ntfs partitions on both drives, formatted them, and was then able to install Vista on sdb. Sheez. Now both sda and sdb contain single primary partitions that take the entire drives except for a very small amount (1MB) of unallocated space on sdb.
Then I re-installed Xubuntu 9.04 on sda, again using the entire drive, and formatting the partitions as ext3. That did not quite go as planned. I was hoping that the Xubuntu installer would recognise the Vista OS and just add it to the GRUB menu, but that didn't happen. It DID recognise the Vista partition, but told me that it would not be able to access it. (Sorry I don't remember the exact message). But the rest of the Xubuntu install went normally.
Most of you now know what my problem is now. After the Xubuntu install, Vista is nowhere to be found. I have added various flavors of strings to the /boot/grub/menu.lst, and I am now at the point where when I select Vista from the Grub menu, I get the "BOOTMGR is missing" message. So it seems apparent that the boot manager for Vista HAD to be installed on the first disk and it HAD to be in an ntfs partition. Even though Vista itself was installed on the second disk. The linux install then formatted the Vista bootmgr out of existence.
This is the part of reading all the preceding threads that has given me the headache. There is just something that I am not understanding about all of it. So are there some step by step instructions that anyone from an old fart to a 4 year old can understand and follow (okay . . .a 6 year old) to get a working bootmgr for Vista so I can upgrade it to Windows 7?
I want my drives set up this way because in a little while I will be through with the Windows 7 and I can then just remove the disk or maybe put karmic on it. If I put 7 on the first disk and then Xubuntu on the second, that would involve a lot more work and I might even have to re-install Xubuntu again. I'd rather not do that.
So Thanks in advance for any help that you can offer.
xeddog
I have an old 32 bit system that had just one drive in it, the 80GB drive. I had xubuntu 9.04 installed using the entire drive so there were two partitions on it. There was sda1 which was the large partition for linux itself, there was sda2 which was an extended partition that contained sda5 linux swap.
Then I added the 60GB and wanted to install Windows 7 RC on it. My first problem was that this computer would not boot the Windows 7 RC dvd. I had two other computers that did, so the disk was fine. Just THIS machine would not boot it. It was like there was no dvd in the drive. So I booted a Vista dvd, and started trying to install Vista. That was my next problem. As long as sda was formatted as ext3 for linux, "Windows is unable to find a system volume that meets it's criteria for installation".
SO %#@& FINE!!! I deleted all partitions from BOTH drives, recreated ntfs partitions on both drives, formatted them, and was then able to install Vista on sdb. Sheez. Now both sda and sdb contain single primary partitions that take the entire drives except for a very small amount (1MB) of unallocated space on sdb.
Then I re-installed Xubuntu 9.04 on sda, again using the entire drive, and formatting the partitions as ext3. That did not quite go as planned. I was hoping that the Xubuntu installer would recognise the Vista OS and just add it to the GRUB menu, but that didn't happen. It DID recognise the Vista partition, but told me that it would not be able to access it. (Sorry I don't remember the exact message). But the rest of the Xubuntu install went normally.
Most of you now know what my problem is now. After the Xubuntu install, Vista is nowhere to be found. I have added various flavors of strings to the /boot/grub/menu.lst, and I am now at the point where when I select Vista from the Grub menu, I get the "BOOTMGR is missing" message. So it seems apparent that the boot manager for Vista HAD to be installed on the first disk and it HAD to be in an ntfs partition. Even though Vista itself was installed on the second disk. The linux install then formatted the Vista bootmgr out of existence.
This is the part of reading all the preceding threads that has given me the headache. There is just something that I am not understanding about all of it. So are there some step by step instructions that anyone from an old fart to a 4 year old can understand and follow (okay . . .a 6 year old) to get a working bootmgr for Vista so I can upgrade it to Windows 7?
I want my drives set up this way because in a little while I will be through with the Windows 7 and I can then just remove the disk or maybe put karmic on it. If I put 7 on the first disk and then Xubuntu on the second, that would involve a lot more work and I might even have to re-install Xubuntu again. I'd rather not do that.
So Thanks in advance for any help that you can offer.
xeddog