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View Full Version : [SOLVED] Windows 7 Boot Options



jmvizanko
March 16th, 2011, 03:01 PM
I installed Ubuntu 10.10 on my laptop that is a new gateway with Windows 7 on it, as a full dual boot installation. I went with the automatic partition resizing option (I know, I should have done more research and probably figured out what I was doing more with repartitioning).

I now get two options for booting Windows 7. One is SDA2, and one is SDA3. Does it matter which one I select? It does boot up in both (hopefully trying that wasn't bad). I'm assuming one is more of a Windows system partition and the other is for all the user's free space? (obviously a huge newb here)

And also, can you rearrange the boot up selection list, so that Windows 7 is at the top (so if I don't hit any keys, it default goes into Windows)?

Thanks for any help.

zvacet
March 17th, 2011, 12:32 AM
From synaptic install startup manager and with it select Windows as first boot option.

ronparent
March 17th, 2011, 12:59 AM
When Win 7 is installed, it creates a small boot partition and a second partition to install to. I don't know why the grub menu shows both. You select the 1st instance to boot to win 7. If selected the second instance will do nothing.

jmvizanko
March 17th, 2011, 01:25 AM
Thank you for the Synaptic suggestion, although I can't try it out at the moment.

As for selecting the second windows partition to boot from, they both successfully start windows 7. Is there any reason why it would be bad if the wrong one was selected? I can only imagine no, but I obviously don't understand why. Thanks again for any help.

jmvizanko
March 17th, 2011, 02:59 AM
Startup Manager was exactly what I needed to know about, so thanks.

Now if I could have a better understanding of what it means to select either of the two windows boots, I would be good to go.

Mark Phelps
March 17th, 2011, 05:31 PM
When PCs come with Win7 preinstalled, they typically have the following partitioning scheme:
1) Boot partition -- contains boot loader directory and files
2) OS partition -- contains OS files

GRUB2 sometimes sees BOTH partitions as containing Win7.

If, by some chance, you happen to have the boot loader files installed in both partitions, then you're basically booting to the same Win7 each time.

Usually, the boot partition is very small (100MB or so), so I would look at the size in Win7 or Ubuntu. Then, look at the contents of grub.cfg -- to see which entry is pointing to which partition.

Select the entry that is pointing to the larger Win7 OS partition.

jmvizanko
March 17th, 2011, 09:35 PM
Thanks for the help. This topic could be changed to solved now.

PS: I really have to wonder why I didn't try this OS before. I'm in love.

wilee-nilee
March 17th, 2011, 10:26 PM
Thanks for the help. This topic could be changed to solved now.

PS: I really have to wonder why I didn't try this OS before. I'm in love.

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