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All righty, I am a bit new at this, so bear with me. I've been using windows for a long time and have a decent amount of know-how with it's interface, and I decided I wanted to try out some different ones. I'd heard a bit about Linux's Ubuntu and decided to try out Ubuntu on the advice of my professor. So far, I've had a couple of problems, and I'd love any advice on how to fix it. I'm trying to dual boot Windows 7 (64-bit) and any distribution of Linux 64 bit that will work. My system specs are as follows:

Dell Inspiron 3721 Intel i3-3227U CPU 4 GB RAM 500 GB Hard disk space Windows 7 64-bit Operating System

So far, my experience has been this: I downloaded the Ubuntu 14.4 64 bit ISO, then used disk management in windows 7 to resize the primary partition. I shrunk it by 100 GB and left it unallocated. When I finished that, I downloaded pen drive linux to install the ISO onto a 2 GB flash drive. (I have been having problems with my DVD drive, windows seems to enjoy playing red light green light with the DVD RW icon so I can't make a disk.) When I finished making an ISO, I booted from the flash drive and during the installation process I found that ubuntu couldn't auto detect windows 7 and install it alongside the primary partition. I quit the installation and reloaded Windows, then downloaded 13.10 and found that to be no different. I then tried 12.4, and it got me as far as being able to install alongside windows 7 without removing the Operating system.

"Success!" I thought as I waited for it to finish downloading the packages and formatting the unallocated space. When it finished installing 12.4 64 bit, I rebooted, and it went straight into my windows partition. From what I had seen from dual boot installation videos on youtube, there should have been a screen to select which OS I wanted to load, but no dice.

I decided to see what would happen if I booted from my flash drive again using "try ubuntu before installing" and according to that, both of the partitions are formatted. I rebooted Windows, and it doesn't have the partition listed.

From what I can tell, Ubuntu is installed, but I can't open it. Ideally I would like to have the most recent edition installed, but I don't think I can do it alone anymore. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Johnathon Gosselin
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Johnathon I will explain how I installed Ubuntu along side with Windows 7.

Just like you I have also used an USB device to install the OS. When the it asks for where to install, i.e, if you want to install along side with windows or to completely wipe the hardrive and install it as new or something else, select the last option and proceed. On the next window click on the partition you created and format it into 'etx4 journal'. Then type the mount point as '/'. You also have to create a swap partition of 1 or 2 GB. Then proceed with the installation.

After installing Ubuntu, log into it and open the terminal window by 'Ctrl+Alt+T' and type in the following command:

sudo update-grub

Press 'Enter' after typing in the command and type in your password(terminal will not echo the password).

The reason for the above step is that, when you install Ubuntu the bootloader in it(Grub2) will replace the default windows bootloader, which cannot detect any other operating systems other than windows. Grub2 will not search for windows automatically, that's why you have to give the command.

Enjoy Freedom!

Nidhin Mohammad
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