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I wanted to dual boot Windows 7 64-bit and Ubuntu 13.04 (Raring Ringtail) 64-bit, but when I installed it, it didn't boot. Only Windows was booting. I installed Ubuntu with a " / " of 50 GB and a "swap" partition of 4 GB. Could it be that it doesn't work, because I'm on BIOS mode, and that my disk is MBR, not GPT?

My laptop doesn't have an option to change boot mode to UEFI so as much as possible, I'd stick to MBR :(

System

  • Acer Aspire 4755G
  • Intel i5-2450M 2.5 GHz - 3.1 GHz
  • Nvidia [GeForce GT540M][7] 2 GB
  • 4 GB RAM DDR3
Community
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Dizeke
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3 Answers3

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Here is your solution

There is a very easy and interactive way to fix the GRUB problem. Using this method it will start reading all your boot partitions and also you will be able to use any operating system. All operating systems installed in your computer will be displayed in the GRUB menu.

You have to follow these very simple steps...

Boot from a live CD or your bootable USB, and select 'Try Ubuntu'.

  1. Install boot-repair (a good program to fix GRUB):

    sudo add-apt-repository ppa:yannubuntu/boot-repair
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install boot-repair

  2. Run boot-repair from your system or type: (boot-repair &)

  3. When started, select option Recommended Repair from the two options:

    Recommended Repair & Advanced Options.

  4. Follow the very easy onscreen instruction. It will build/fix your GRUB installation...

Restarting your system will display both options to boot from Ubuntu and Windows.

Peter Mortensen
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Saurav Kumar
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  • And yes you'll need internet connection. You don't have to install Ubuntu from the LiveCD or Bootable USB again. You have to use it just to fix only. – Saurav Kumar Aug 24 '13 at 19:02
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I dual boot win7 and Ubuntu.

The first thing to remember is that you need a separate partition and it's possible (highly likely) that all partitions are already used (there is a maximum of 4 primary partitions allowed).

I deleted the partition that contained the HP media tools, resized the other partitions and installed on the new empty primary partitions (I booted the live CD and used gparted to fiddle the partitions).

crafter
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  • I think that you're talking about GPT disk. I'm pretty sure that MBR can only have 3 Primary partitions, which I currently have now. The following partitions would be logical/extended.

    Actually, when I installed ubuntu 13.04 x64 right after I installed windows, it just wont boot. For quite a while, a flashing underline appears, then just gets past it and boot windows.

    The only way I was able to make ubuntu work was by letting it make partitions itself. That would however, require the other partitions that I have to be deleted.

     – Dizeke Aug 24 '13 at 17:28
  • @user186848 No, you could have let Ubuntu make its own partitions and get to keep Windows and the other partitions. If your hard disk had unpartitioned space, Ubuntu would have detected that and gave you an option to "Install Ubuntu alongside Windows 7". Anyways, check my answer to hopefully fix your problem. – Alaa Ali Aug 24 '13 at 18:41
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It looks like you installed Ubuntu using the Something Else option, and you probably didn't notice a setting at the bottom that asks where to install GRUB (the bootloader). That setting was probably set to install GRUB on the root partition (/) you chose, and not on the MBR. In turn, your Ubuntu installed successfully, but the current bootloader (the Windows bootloader) does not know anything about Ubuntu. You'll need to add an entry to the Windows bootloader to tell it "Hey look! There's another OS at this partition!"

Instead of doing that though, there's another easier (and a recommended way), which is to use the tool Boot Repair. Here's what you need to do:

  1. Boot your Ubuntu USB/CD, and choose the option to "Try Ubuntu", not Install Ubuntu.

  2. Open a terminal Ctrl+Alt+T, and type the following:

    sudo add-apt-repository ppa:yannubuntu/boot-repair && sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y boot-repair && boot-repair &

    Once all of these commands are complete, the Boot Repair application should open up (if it doesn't search for it in the Dash (you can open the Dash by hitting the Windows key (or the Super key)).

  3. In the application, hit Recommended Repair. This should fix your issues.

    Please note down the URL that it provides you at the end (provided that you're connected to the internet). You can give us that link if something goes wrong.

  4. Once done, restart, and you should see options to boot into Ubuntu or Windows. To test, boot into one of them. Verify it boots. Restart. Boot into the other. Verify it boots.

Post back that URL if something goes wrong.

Alaa Ali
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  • Thanks for the help. I'm now able to dual boot windows and ubuntu :D However, I noticed that it turned to EFI again after using boot-repair.

    Well, I think that's not much of a problem now since I'm actually able to dual boot. Probably later on, it will be problem. It's hard not having an option in my BIOS to choose boot mode :| Anyway. Thanks you very much for the help

     – Dizeke Aug 25 '13 at 11:37
  • You're welcome! Don't forget to mark one of the answers as your accepted answer by clicking the grey check mark on the left of it. – Alaa Ali Aug 25 '13 at 17:04