Ubuntu Installation :: Multibooting With XP And Vista?
Sep 28, 2010
I have a laptop that already duel boots to Vista and XP. Is it possible to add Ubuntu to a 10 GB unused space on the hard drive?
Some more details: It came with Vista on one partition and factory backup on another. I added a partition for XP and another one for general storage. Now I have shrunk the Vista volume to make the 10 GB blank space. Vista refuses to make a new partition out of that. Ubuntu installer can't seem to use that blank space either.
I am a new UBUNTU user. I had installed OS in my computer in the order of XP, Win 7, and finally UBUNTU.With EasyBCD, I managed multi-booting order of XP and Win7. That is, after choosing Win7 or UBUNTU from GRUB, (If I chose Win 7) I should choose XP or Win 7 to boot.
Using UBUNTU, I think that I do not need XP, so I formatted the hard disk where XP was installed. However, after deleting XP, I can not boot Win7 from GRUB, although there is still
Noobish question on multibooting multiple Linux distros. I have four of the current major Linux distributions. Each has been installed and run individually (no other Linux distribution installed) in a dual-boot configuration with Windoze. No problem.
What I want to do is install all four Linux distributions and multiboot them. Reading the internet it would seem this is a simple task with GRUB. The short version being - install a Linux distro with a separate /boot partition for GRUB and use GRUB to boot the other Linux distros from the GRUB boot menu.
So I installed one of the Linux distros with a separate partition for /boot. The distro installer installed GRUB in /boot and correctly setup a dual-boot configuration with Windoze. GRUB was installed to the MBR. Next I installed a second Linux distro in its own root partition and told the distros installer NOT to install GRUB to the MBR, but rather, to the boot sector of the root partion of the second Linux distro. Installation was uneventful (and I could access the second Linux partition from the first installed Linux distro, things looked ok). Then I added to following to the installed (MBR - /boot) GRUB's menu.lst:
Code: title lixux distro 2 root (hd0,7)
chainloader +1 After which I rebooted the system and the new entry for the second Linux distro now appears in the GRUB boot menu. I selected the second Linux distro from the boot menu and got the following GRUB error: Error 5 : Partition table invalid or corrupt [Code]....
I have a single hard-drive on a spare computer and I decided to try out Ubuntu on recommendation from a friend. I really like it now but at first I just dual-booted it, and now I want Vista gone. I know it's unnecessary to have just one OS but my hard-drive isn't particularly big and I'd prefer to have Ubuntu by itself. Can anyone tell me how to eliminate vista and leave Ubuntu as my sole operating system (I've all my files from computer on another computer so I don't have to worry about losing anything).
I installed Ubuntu 10.10 on my PC running Vista Home Basic. I installed to run as a dual boot but now I can only boot into Ubuntu. I have tried to run the recovery disk for Vista and it errors out also..
i have recently started my masters degree program and i have to install fedora 11 for one of my courses. The problem is when i try to install fedora 11 on my laptop, it wipes out my windows vista installation. I want to keep vista. I have a sony vaio laptop model VGN-FW340D. 4GB RAM and 400 GB HD. i first shrink my hard drive to free up around 100 GB. Then i run fedora 11 DVD and let it make the partitions on my free space.. I have tried everything.. I chose use free space the first time, but i didnt work, it wiped out my vista, next time i chose custom layout and defined boot, root and swap partitions , but again it wiped out my vista.. I have read many guides to dual boot vista and fedora and have carried them out step by step, but nothing works.... Also i dont have vista installation DVD, i just have the recovery CDs, so everytime it wipes out my vista, i have to do system recovery, ive been trying for a week now, and its driving me crazy, i asked a friend of mine to help me out, he has dual boot system, and he tried it and it did the same thing, wiped out my vista... i just have one drive C: with two partitions, one small partitions which contains recovery files, and the rest of the partition has vista.......
I'm looking to install a Linux distro on my Windows 7 machine. Could anyone suggest any tools to handle the multiboot? (I may install 2-3 distros to try out)
I have a question about partition sizes when you are multibooting. I would like to know if 20GB partitions are an acceptable size. Is there anything to worry about with partitions around that size? I am not sure whether it makes sense to break it down further as some people have separate boot and/or home partitions. I guess if they are only 20GB in size, there is not much room left to divide further?
I am also wondering if it's okay to multi-boot four or five distros. Is that too many for a 160GB drive? My plan or idea was to multi-boot four or five distros until I decide which one I use the most or like best (well, best for an old notebook). My only notebook, currently, is a Thinkpad T41. Here are some specs:
Centrino Pentium M 1.6 GHz CPU ATI Radeon Mobility FireGL 9000 video card (aka RV250) w/ 1440 x 900 LCD res Intel 2200bg wifi card Intel ethernet LAN 160GB Samsung IDE/ATA HDD 2GB DDR RAM
Is that sufficient for assessing my hardware specs? I know that the video card is only supported by the open source radeon driver and that the Intel wifi card requires specific firmware before it can work or operate. I am not sure which desktop window manager I should use so I was going to install a distro that has each. LXDE, xfce, Gnome, KDE
i installed ubuntu to multiboot with windows 7 but i don't know how to remove it to where its just windows again you can't delete the partiton ecause grub comes up how do i make it go back to the way it was before i installed ubuntu
I am trying to boot up Vista Home Premium from USB since my internal (bootable) CD-RW drive has failed and I cannot boot up Vista from CD.
I have Ubuntu running in the Windows partition and all my windows files are in there so I don't want to do a full installation of Ubuntu (yet).
I formatted an 8GB USB stick into two partitions
I then copied over to /dev/sdb1 all files from a Vista CD using an external CD-RW drive (which is not recognised as bootable on USB port).
In my Dell BIOS settings I changed the boot sequence to be bootable from USB disk first.
then I tried to reboot Vista installation in the USB stick.
But I get this message ..."this is not a bootable disk .. insert a bootable floppy"
So I could not boot up the Vista installation files.
When the boot flag is "on" in a GParted created partition does this make the partition DOS bootable for Vista installation?
My question is - What utility in Ubuntu 10.10 can create a DOS bootable partition on a USB stick? It seems that the MBR might have been overwritten when I installed Grub 2.0.
I can Grub dual boot between Windows and Ubuntu but I can't get very far with Windows .. stalls in safe mode.
So a Vista repair is called for. I would prefer not to reinstall Vista afresh at this stage.
There is a thread here explaining how to repair Vista bootloader
[url]
But it assumes that I am able to boot from CD-RW drive.
I'm trying to install Ubuntu 9.10 on my Windows Vista Home Premium machine. My specs far exceed the requirements to install, so I know there's no problem there.On installation I receive an error somewhat through that says something like:Quote:An error occured:Permission deniedFor more information, please see the log file:C:UsersUsernameAppDataLocalTempwubi-9.10ubuntu1-rev160.logSo.... I go to that file, and the last line in it is:Quote:OSError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: u'C:\ubuntu\install\ubuntu-9.10-desktop-amd64.iso'I did run Wubi Installer as an Administrator, and unblocked it giving it full privileges.It's really annoying because my download speed is 80kb/s so it takes about 3 hours to download. During that 3 hours I can't use my internet so I have to wait, and wait, and wait, and then boom.error. And wubi can't pick up where it left off, you have to uninstall to reinstall, which sucks tremendously.
My Windows Vista installation won't start after upgrading from Karmic to Lucid. If I select it on GRUB2, it leaves a blinking cursor on screen. And I tried doing the whole test disk thing and the boot info script. This is what my Results.txt file says
I have just installed ubuntu with a USB key, I have Vista installed in drive C: and I created a partition (L: ) and installed Linux root (/ ) in that one.When there was the screen where I could choose the boot loader i left the default option instead of choosing Windows Vista Loaderand now I can't boot Vista anymore.
In grub i see a windows vista option, but that option brings me to a recovery partition and not to the real operative system. I know that vista is not broken because when I used wubi I was able to boot from the vista bootloader without any problems, but I never could boot vista from grub because it brought me to that recovery partition.I can access all my files on the disk from ubuntu, but I would like to be able to restore the vista boot loader and use again windows when I need it.Is there a way to restore vista's boot loader? I tried to do automatic startup repair from the vista recovery cd but it says that no problem could be found.
I updated from 10.04 to 10.10. Ubuntu works fine, but Vista does not boot anymore. If i select it from the GRUB menu the Pc just go silent and does nothing till I press Ctrl+Alt+Canc.
Here is my fdisk -l
Code: Disk /dev/sda: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes code....
I downloaded Ubuntu 9.10 and burned it to a cd, but I can't get it to run on my vista computer.
I originally tried it multiple times on a computer running xubuntu, but it wouldn't load from the disk. Not knowing much about linux in general I mostly chocked it up to being normal, so I decided to make sure by trying to run it on my windows pc only to find out it wouldn't run on that computer either. It just brings it up as a file folder, with the .iso file in it. I then re downloaded it to be sure that it wasn't just corrupted on download. Then I burned it to the disk again, and tried to run it, but it still didn't work. My computer is set to ask me what I want to do when any sort of data container is hooked into my computer, but it seems to override that and run it with a folder anyways. Does anyone know what the problem is, and how it can be remedied?
On a side note I used Roxio Creator DE, version 10, which came with my computer, to burn it to the disk. Is there, perhaps, a known issue with that?
I installed Ubuntu 10.04 on a Sony Vaio following the instructions that came on the cd (obtained from a Linux Magazine bought in the UK) under the misapprehension that i would get a dual boot, (because i specified retaining windows) but instead I got Ubuntu and a Windows recovery partition. I need to access windows for work related issues, so had to try to recover windows which appeared to go well until I tried to reboot when i got an error message, (to the effect Device not found, Grub not loaded, but since this was about 2.00am last night please excuse me for not writing it down). I then used my windows recovery discs, (prepared as soon as I got the Vaio for use in an emergency) but the Sony will not now reboot from the cd. Since by now I had neither windows nor Ubuntu, I then reinstalled Ubuntu (which will install from the cd, although my windows recovery disc will not). This had the effect of reinstating the windows recovery partition, so i went through the same merrygoround, using the windows recovery partition to "recover" windows, which would not boot because of a grub error; then tried to reinstall Ubuntu which now will not reinstall, but prompts me to manually partition the hard drive which is when i gave up and came to work instead! When I now try to boot with no Ubuntu cd in the drive i get a message reading along the lines "Grub recovery: error 22", which is the message i get whether there is nothing in the cd drive or the windows recovery disc in the cd drive.
i need to backup my Vista Home Premium entirely, including the OS itself, just in case i screw my whole hard drive up during this process, and i need to reinstall vista and my data. I have a 1tb external Hard Drive with a ~700gb FAT32 empty partition on it (i can re-format this if necessary), I need to be able to backup my operating system entirely to this. Example of why i wish to back this up: Let's say im installing ubuntu, and i accidentally install it over my vista partition, now i have no vista in my machine whatsoever, i want to be able to use this backup i have created to reinstall vista onto the hard drive.
If I were to install windows vista shrink the partition to fit only the OS and dual boot Ubuntu over it would I be able to use windows programs on the Ubuntu install.
In a sense I am wondering if I can use Ubuntu as my primary OS and use my Windows Utilities through Ubuntu on the Ubuntu partition?
If not would it be possible to install them on the windows partition and launch them through Ubuntu?
For a while now, I have multibooted my Vista installation with Ubuntu. However, up until now I have been happy with Ubuntu being in charge of my boot options. I am wanting to change my bootloader so that when my machine boots, and no choices are made at the boot menu, Vista automatically starts after a set amount of time instead of Ubuntu.
I know the boys over at APC have a guide on how to do this, but it involves copying information from the menu.lst file and using EasyBCD - I was wondering if these steps will still work now that I am running Karmic Koala, which I understand uses a different method of changing GRUB entries (manipulating the menu.lst file is no longer part of this process and is no longer recommended)
If someone could tell me how to put Vista in charge of my boot options so that it will boot automatically instead of Linux, that would be greatness.
I cannt access my vista after installing Ubuntu 8.04 on a Toshiba with 250gb I am unable to access the windows partition since its only the linux partition being displayed.
I recently installed Ubuntu 9.10 within Windows Vista to try it out I have since tried to uninstall it but the uninstall fails with a message saying it is unable to find the file it is attempting to delete - sysout=. The process has produced a fairly large text log of the procedure and the error but none of it means anything to me.
I've got a dual boot system with both Vista and Ubuntu. After upgrading to 10.04 my Vista doesn't load anymore. I select it in the Grub menu and the computer just hangs.
Are there any known fixes for this? Where do I start? I'm an Ubuntu novice, but I'm an able computer fixer.
I have a similar problem to that described in the 'MBR questions (and: Windows 7 not booting with Grub2)' Thread, except that mine is with Vista and the bootinfoscript result is different.
I have upgraded from Ubuntu 9.10 to 10.04 on my desktop PC, running Vista from sda1 with Linux on sda6 (actually the second partition of the 320 gig master drive, there is a similar external HD that causes the high number, but its presence or absence has no effect on my problem).
On booting, a cursor flashes top left on a blank screen ( no 'Grub Loading' text) and then the grub menu shows the new 32.22 Linux options and the Windows Vista booting from sda1.
If I press enter on the Linux option the cursor flashes for 20 seconds and then boots into Ubuntu with no problems.
If I press Enter on the Windows option the cursor flashes for 3 minutes without any change, completely unresponsive to any Keyboard input. ( I have not left it any longer, I have to hit the power button to shut down.)
If I press 'e' on the Windows option the screen shows: Gnu Grub v1.98 -1ubuntu6; Ctrl-x gives a terminal with a 'GRUB>' prompt, but it does not recognise any commands I tried. The boot option shows 'Disk Boot Failure,insert System Disk and Press Enter.' Pressing Enter reverts to the Grub Menu.
Booting from a Vista recover DVD and running Startup Repair shows no error, but it still does not boot. The dvd does not give me the option to repair the MBR, but does offer a Command Prompt. Can I repair the MBR from there ? if that is what I need to do.
If so what commands should I use ?
Bootinfoscript shows Grub2 in sda0 and both sda1 and sda5 (the Recover partition) pointing to different places in neither of which is core.img to be found:
Code:
Should I remove the Grub 2 from one or more of the partitions, as described by darkod ?
My system is : Medion MD 8822 with a 2.9GHz Dual Core Intel CPU, running Vista Home Premium 32 bit, 2Gb DDR2 Ram, 320 Gb Sata HD and externally similar HD( not plugged in when these tests were done, though it was during the upgrade installation).
I supposedly installed ubuntu 10.something into a dual boot with windows vista but now windows vista won't load. It says partition can not be found... and from reading other forums I think it is looking in the wrong place... but i got this document. Boot Info Script 0.55 dated February 15th, 2010============================= Boot Info Summary: ==============================
=> Grub 2 is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda and looks on the same drive in partition #4 for /boot/grub. => Windows is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdb
I just upgraded to Ubuntu 10.04 from 9.10. Under 9.10 I dual booted to Ubuntu or Vista in the grub menu. Now that I have upgraded I cannot boot to Vista. When I select the Vista option in the Grub bootloader it restarts the computer and comes back to the grub menu screen again. I have run the boot_info_script. The results are:ot Info Script 0.55 dated February 15th, 2010 ============================= Boot Info Summary: ==============================
=> Grub 2 is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda and looks on the same drive in partition #5 for /boot/grub. => Grub 2 is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdb and looks on the same drive in
I have Ubuntu 10.04 on my laptop. If I wanted to reinstall Windows Vista over the top of Ubuntu 10.04, do I just install Vista normally, as if I was reformatting the hard drive?
