Windows boot problem

[dkl1]

I've been somewhat following along on THIS THREAD by Mikestoney and have caught the bug to move beyond where I've been with Linux for about 1.5 years. Back then, I decided to install Ubuntu on my laptop along side of Windows 7 and run as a dual boot system. Like most it seems, I got used to using Linux and have rarely booted up W7 and quite honestly, I like Linux much better. So, I've become interested in making the total plunge and wipe W7 off my hard drive altogether and try out several other distros beside Ubuntu. I'm needing a bit of guidance to achieve this end goal! Knowing what a fantastic group of 'techies' we are blessed with here on this forum, I thought I'd ask

I need help with the following:

• creating a USB stick with several live distros
• get my W7 to boot up again (it is not booting as it once did!)
• how to execute removing W7 (format hd?)

I've dl'd the YUMI and am not sure it is working correctly since I dl'd it for Linux (not Windows) and I am not sure what to do next

I don't shut down very often but periodically I do, then when I hit the power button to fire it back up I get a screen that I choose Ubuntu or Windows and a couple advanced choices for each of those. Most often I choose Ubuntu unless there's a file or doc in my W7 system that I need. Well, now when I choose Windows, I get a message essentially saying there's a problem and it can't boot up. I have tried the Recovery option but no dice. (I will take a couple screen shots to add on here a bit later) All this may be for naught as I may not need to open W7 to blow it away - IDK..:stupido3:that's why I'm here! Was thinking if for no other reason, I need to stop in on W7 system to make sure there's not something I need to backup!

Your help is welcome and would beg your patience for I'm certainly no brain but I do exhibit random episodes of common sense from time to time I will be on and off today but later this evening I would hope to be more available. I will of course be checking in on my mobile from time to time as well Thanks mucho :smokingsomb:

 

[argedion]

Ok think what I would do is get an external USB drive and boot into the Linux side of my computer and copy everything I can to the USB DRIVE from both Linux and Windows.

Next If you are going to do away with windows then I would install my distro and just use the whole disk. This should prepare the disk and remove windows. If that doesn't work you can download gparted and run it. Delete all partitions on the drive and then put your install disk in and install to the drive.

I can't help you with multiple distro's on a single usb I just use dd myself and do a single distro at a time.

 

[dkl1]

Ok think what I would do is get an external USB drive and boot into the Linux side of my computer and copy everything I can to the USB DRIVE from both Linux and Windows. The first issue I've got to solve is getting Windows to boot up, it won't at present

Next If you are going to do away with windows then I would install my distro and just use the whole disk. This is what I intend to do but wanted to test drive some live distros before deciding.

See reply above. Thanks for your reply!

 

[palmtree5]

See reply above. Thanks for your reply!

If you can get it to boot into Linux, you can just mount the Windows partitions and get your data from them

 

[dkl1]

If you can get it to boot into Linux, you can just mount the Windows partitions and get your data from them

That would make sense... I'll need to look into that.. thanks!

 

[DeadDude]

Do you have a second hard drive that is not currently in use?

What I've done in the situation in the past is swap the primary hard drive for my second spare hard drive and install an interim Linux system. Then I reinstall the original hard drive as a slave and use the interim Linux installation to copy in the data from both Windows and the previous Linux install. This way you definitely have a backup of your data and if something is missing you still have the other hard drive. Then I would remove the windows partition from your previously primary hard drive. Do not forget to remove the entry in your grub loader for the Windows installation you just removed. Last swap those two hard drives and you should now have just a Linux system with your windows partition blown away and open for a new installation of whatever operating system you desire.

 

[dkl1]

Do you have a second hard drive that is not currently in use?

What I've done in the situation in the past is swap the primary hard drive for my second spare hard drive and install an interim Linux system. Then I reinstall the original hard drive as a slave and use the interim Linux installation to copy in the data from both Windows and the previous Linux install. This way you definitely have a backup of your data and if something is missing you still have the other hard drive. Then I would remove the windows partition from your previously primary hard drive. Do not forget to remove the entry in your grub loader for the Windows installation you just removed. Last swap those two hard drives and you should now have just a Linux system with your windows partition blown away and open for a new installation of whatever operating system you desire.

No I don't. I have however gotten my DVD that I burned a live Linux-mint onto to run! I still cannot get W7 to boot up and am frankly tired of even trying.

I have been trying to get a Unetbootin, Universal USB Installer, etc download that is compatible with Linux - since that is all I can use at this time. Seems that all dl's are in Windows format! I'm wanting to make a live USB stick of say three distros I can try out before permanently loading one for use. Any idea how I might do that? (Currently on a live Linux Mint DVD) Thanks...

 

[iowabowtech]

Since you have Ubuntu, use your dash search and type in "startup disk creator". If you're on newer Ubuntu, it should be pre-installed.

 

[jefboyardee]

Startup Disk Creator

Startup Disk Creator converts a USB key or SD card into a volume from which you can start up and run Ubuntu. You can also store files and settings in any space left over.

~~~~~~~~~~

...could be handy.

 

[dkl1]

Startup Disk Creator

Startup Disk Creator converts a USB key or SD card into a volume from which you can start up and run Ubuntu. You can also store files and settings in any space left over.

~~~~~~~~~~

...could be handy.

I already have (had) Ubuntu as an OS but was looking to try out other distros. I was able to somehow get a DVD burned of live Linux mint so after fiddling so long trying to get a USB creating app on my system, I went ahead and installed mint!

So far, so good. One thing I forgot to do tho was to grab a couple files I had changed since my last backup. Doh! Fortunately it is a doc that won't be that difficult to recreate...

I want to try OpenSuse live from a USB stick sometime but not for a while.

EDIT: after reading the description, it appears SDC will make other live distros so long as the ISO image is available?

 

[argedion]

not sure if you can afford a couple of usb drives but you could install a distro on a disk and try them out that way. I have mine set up this way. I have OpenSuse as my main distro. This is installed directly onto the Laptop drive. then i have a usb drive that has Sabayon 14, and I have one drive that has Mandriva 4 beta 2 installed on.

Each has its own grub installed on the disk with the distro. This allows me to choose a drive to boot to and boot that distro up.

I find that this works very well for trying out different distro's. I however keep my openSUSE as my main distro

 

[iowabowtech]

EDIT: after reading the description, it appears SDC will make other live distros so long as the ISO image is available?

Correct. At the end of the process, it'll say "you can now boot Ubuntu from usb" or similar language, but in reality it doesn't matter if it's Ubuntu or any other distro. It's a super simple application. Just choose the iso source file, choose the destination to be your pendrive and hit the button to proceed. Works like a champ.

 

[jefboyardee]

Quasi-related question: I have a 40GB hard drive just laying around, doing nothing. If I mounted it in my PC alongside the active 230GB, I presume it will just show up as a secondary drive, true? And then if I installed a Linux ISO on it, what would happen on boot then? Would I presented with a choice of hard drives to boot, with no GRUB required? ...hope I'm making sense.

 

[DeadDude]

Nope. Need Grub to tell PC the drive is bootable.

Only the boot partition turns on the OS.

You may be able to use a BIOS setting to in theory unplug your boot drive, leaving only the 2nd drive visible (and thus forcing it as boot drive) but this isn't 100% on all machines.

 

[Dngrsone]

To be fair, GRUB is not the only bootloader out there.

If you are running Windows, then you can edit the Windows Bootloader to give you a menu and boot other operating systems; most multi-booters just prefer not to do it that way, is all.

So, with that in mind, then yes, you can install Ubuntu on a secondary hard drive, add it into your current machine, and then tell Windows boot loader where it is for the boot menu.

Here's one: Using Vista's boot manager to dual-boot Ubuntu

Not the best tutorial, I'm certain I had done one, but I can't find it... :/

 

[jefboyardee]

I just opened the box. Between (a) comments from you two, (b) there's isn't really a parking space for it after all and (c) it's a dopey drive that's not worth further tinkering, then (d) thanks but never mind.

 

[Davdi]

Generally Grub (Grub2 is what I know about) doesn't care how many physical disks are present. it will find whatever OSes are installed on all of them. as a relatively straightforward example, my main box has 2 HDDs, HDD1 is Win7 and Mint (boot disk) and HDD2 is PCLinuxOS boot menu is Mint/Win7/PCLinuxOS.
You could always have an external Disk if your BIOS supports boot from USB/E-SATA.

 

[whittycat]

Generally Grub (Grub2 is what I know about) doesn't care how many physical disks are present. it will find whatever OSes are installed on all of them.

I have a similar problem; grub should do that but doesn't. To set the background I am a long-term linux user and a client has recently asked me about Android on his Acer Aspire One. When he bought it it had Windows 7 Starter and Android 1.6 so I thought I'd install Android 4.4 to let him get an idea what it is like. I created an ISO on a pen drive and installed it on a 32GB partition to leave Windows undisturbed (this is a virtual SD card right?). The installation included grub and it loaded the Android OS ok but now when I hit the power button and F12 I just get the Android options and it won't look at the USB port to let me boot a live linux OS from it. F12 is not doing what I thought it would and what I would really like to do is boot up a live linux OS so that I can use familiar tools to sort things out and let him have a look at how linux compares. Is there any way out?

 

[DeadDude]

If I understand...

You did not remove Windows. You removed Android 1.6.
You then installed 4.4 where 1.6 was?

I am new to android on pc. No idea how it works. Assuming it is just like Linux.

If so, I would boot an Ubuntu CD, and see if grub can be installed from there...reasoning being it seems android's grub is incomplete...so use grub install from non android repo...?

Sorry for my broken post, in a rush.


Edit

Okay, I read up...

First, did you REMOVE Android 1.6? Or re-use the partition and install 4.4 on top of it?

From what I can tell, Android should be the first OS installed. Then Windows. Then grub seperately.

Never done this before, so what do I know?

 

[whittycat]

Thanks for thoughtful rep0ly. I didn't remove Android 1.6; there was a 32GB partition with as few files in in and I installed Android 4.4 in there. Grub gets installed by the Android installer and I expected it would offer me a choice of systems to boot but it offers only Android 4.4. Android is based on the linux kernel but it is not 'just like'.

The Acer Aspire is not a PC it is a netbook, which means I don't have a CD dirve. I would very much like to do what you suggest and install Ubuntu, or anything really, but grub won't let me see the USB port. If I could I know I could install linux with it because that is how I installed Android. Yes, Android's grub is flawed.

Would it help if I were to delete grub? Would the system then let me use the USB port?

 

[palmtree5]

Thanks for thoughtful rep0ly. I didn't remove Android 1.6; there was a 32GB partition with as few files in in and I installed Android 4.4 in there. Grub gets installed by the Android installer and I expected it would offer me a choice of systems to boot but it offers only Android 4.4. Android is based on the linux kernel but it is not 'just like'.

The Acer Aspire is not a PC it is a netbook, which means I don't have a CD dirve. I would very much like to do what you suggest and install Ubuntu, or anything really, but grub won't let me see the USB port. If I could I know I could install linux with it because that is how I installed Android. Yes, Android's grub is flawed.

Would it help if I were to delete grub? Would the system then let me use the USB port?

If the computer doesn't support booting from USB drives, then there's nothing you can really do. If it supports it, it may not be enabled

 

[DeadDude]

Um... You are remembering to hit F12 before the machine POSTs, right? To access the BIOS? And changing the boot order there so you can boot USB?

I apologize if this seems rude... Not intended that way. Grub can't lock you out of the BIOS. And you can set the BIOS to boot USB drive directly, thus bypassing the faulty Grub.




Or is it EFI and not BIOS? EFI can be such a pain in the ass.

 

[whittycat]

As I said in the original post when I hit F12 all I get is a list of the different possible ways of booting Android. No chance of changing the boot order that I can see.

OK I have taken this as far as I can for now. Leave it with me and I'll root around until I find a solution. Then I'll come back here.

 

[DeadDude]

Then you must be hitting it too late. If anything android pops up (or windows, for that matter) you hit it too late.

I would suggest mashing the button repeatedly as you turn the machine on.

I do apologize if you have seriously tried this... But the fact is, the OS is already loaded somewhat by the time you hit F12 if there's anything on screen related to an OS.

There really is no alternative.

Got an external usb hd box? Remove existing hd, put in hd box. Attach your usb flash drive to boot, with usb hd box attached AFTER booting from usb stick.

Maybe android doesn't take long enough to post to see the window of F12 accessing the BIOS instead of the OS?

I understand if you want to drop it for now. But can you post the model of the acer in question? Enough info so I can distinguish it specifically from other similar models? I would like to get "anally specific" and really research this for myself (I'ld never thought of doing this before.)

Just sounds to me like the boot delay in the BIOS was turned off, thus the 'window' of accessing the BIOS is teeny tiny.

If you see a splash screen instead of white on black text, you won't even see a prompt to hit F12.

It could be a different key to change boot order specifically at boot time... In order of likelyhood (IMHO):

F12
F8
F10
F6

Good luck, and thanks for the puzzle. Please tell me more about the machine itself (model #, #/drives, etc)

 

[whittycat]

I am sure you are right and I will try that as soon as I can. I haven't got the netbook with me right now but I hope to have it back by Monday.

It's Acer Aspire One KAV60 (that's pretty much like the D250 I think) and it just has the one disk drive.