Dual Boot – How to Set Up Linux and Windows 7

linuxmulti-bootwindows 7

I've been a long time user of Ubuntu on my home desktop, but for some things you just need Windows. I downloaded the Windows 7 RC and got a key for it, and I'd like to dual-boot. I've tried several dual-boot guides, but I'm having trouble following them because of my odd partition layout. Here's how it appears in GParted:

  • Drive 1:
    • /dev/sda1: fat32 (Empty)
    • /dev/sda2: extended
      • /dev/sda5: ext3 (Ubuntu Root)
      • /dev/sda6: swap
  • Drive 2:
    • /dev/sdb1: ntfs (Windows 7)
    • /dev/sdb2: ext4 (Home Folder)

Whenever I try to boot Windows from GRUB, it says

Disk Error
Press any key to restart

I press the spacebar, and it takes me back to GRUB, from which I can boot Ubuntu just fine.

Here's the relevant part of my /boot/grub/menu.lst:

title       Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-15-generic
root        (hd0,4)
kernel      /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-15-generic root=UUID=f039d530-b7a1-49f6-a5b7-37dc8f4c6ad2 ro quiet splash 
initrd      /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-15-generic
quiet

title       Windows 7
root        (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1

I mounted /dev/sda1, and inside I found three files:

  • Boot (folder)
  • bootmgr
  • bootsect.bak

Am I missing something rather simple here? I'd rather not try and move partitions around, and I don't want Windows 7 on /dev/sda1, because that partition is only 10 GB. Any help?

Best Answer

Booting windows on drive2 is tricky - you might get grub to do it but it will cause problems in windows later.
Can you swap them so that Windows is the first drive?

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