Linux Mint: Unable to install along side Windows 7?

Vanhishikha

Vanhishikha

Vanhishikha

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So to cut a long story short, I want to install Linux Mint along side Windows 7 because I like experimenting and it'd be nice to have Linux installed on my computer, installed it onto USB > Install > and then I'm only left with two options:

1. Install instead of W7, replacing all current files, etc.
2. Use the advanced options.

I tried to make a partition from with-in windows, so that I could back onto Linux and do it that way? but I can't even make a partition from inside Windows, so I am stumped.
 
Make partition in windows (3rd party program may be better?) Either format as fat/ext or leave unformatted and format in linux.

You can always use a bcd editor in windows to add the Linux partition to the bootloader. I don't know how it is these days but grub used to screw up windows mbr something chronic unless added.
 
Make sure you back up anything from Windows 7 before you proceed. I had a bad experience with the latest Linux Mint recently, where I installed it alongside Windows 7 but on booting and selecting Windows 7 from the boot menu an error was thrown (something about unknown device). Even trying to restore the original Windows 7 partition using acronis didn't work either, even when I tried to overwrite both partitiions (including the 100MB MBR part). Next up I reinstalled Windows and all seemed fine until I did all the software updates and suddenly the error came back again. Think I did complete format and a cold boot and reinstall again before it worked fine.

Might have been a way of fixing it. I'm technically minded but when something says "install alongside" I expect it to just damn work :). Was not impressed by that palava, didn't expect to lose a day of my life trying to fix it.
Still like Mint though so gone back to using it in a VM.
 
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DarrenM343 said:
Make sure you back up anything from Windows 7 before you proceed. I had a bad experience with the latest Linux Mint recently, where I installed it alongside Windows 7 but on booting and selecting Windows 7 from the boot menu an error was thrown (something about unknown device). Even trying to restore the original Windows 7 partition using acronis didn't work either, even when I tried to overwrite both partitiions (including the 100MB MBR part). Next up I reinstalled Windows and all seemed fine until I did all the software updates and suddenly the error came back again. Think I did complete format and a cold boot and reinstall again before it worked fine.

Might have been a way of fixing it. I'm technically minded but when something says "install alongside" I expect it to just damn work :). Was not impressed by that palava, didn't expect to lose a day of my life trying to fix it.
Still like Mint though so gone back to using it in a VM.
Click to expand...

I'm thinking about going through the VM route myself to be honest, it's less hassle and I wont mess up anything in the meanwhile (because I still haven't got that "install alongside windows" option), I'm sure I've got a copy of VMware around here somewhere!

Thanks man, I didn't even thinking about virtualisation until now, xD.
 
I can't think of anything worse than running two OSs on the same HDD. It's a recipe for disaster.
 
Vanhishikha said:
I'm thinking about going through the VM route myself to be honest, it's less hassle and I wont mess up anything in the meanwhile (because I still haven't got that "install alongside windows" option), I'm sure I've got a copy of VMware around here somewhere!

Thanks man, I didn't even thinking about virtualisation until now, xD.
Click to expand...

You could also try Virtualbox which is free.
 
desires said:
I can't think of anything worse than running two OSs on the same HDD. It's a recipe for disaster.
Click to expand...

Heh, I currently have Mint 14, Puppy 5.4, Haiku and Win7 all on the same drive.

I always keep a "spare" linux on the hdd for when I break my main one, saves hunting around for a thumb drive to boot off, Haiku is there to amaze people with playing 15 different hd movies simultaneously with nothing but software rendering while maintaining zero UI lag, and Win7 gets used once in a blue moon for figuring out other peoples Windows problems etc.

Use Gparted (should come with any livecd-type distro) to shrink your Win partition (I assume your hd just has windows on it) then create an ext4 partition in the newly available space. Takes a few minutes, tops. Then bung mint on the new partition.
 
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I thought it would be pointless to make a new thread, so hopefully someone can help me here.

I gave up with Mint and decided, I like the mac looks and simplicity of the Mac side of things, so why not go for Elementary OS? I put it on my USB drive, did all of that and booted up, it was going great and it even gave me that "Boot alongside Windows 7" option, so I was ecstatic.

It began to install and while it was installing I was clicking through the options (language, location etc), but after I clicked next on "Location" it would not proceed any further and thus, I do not have an active install of eOS.

Is this a known problem with installing off USB or is this a bug?
 
Vanhishikha said:
I thought it would be pointless to make a new thread, so hopefully someone can help me here.

I gave up with Mint and decided, I like the mac looks and simplicity of the Mac side of things, so why not go for Elementary OS? I put it on my USB drive, did all of that and booted up, it was going great and it even gave me that "Boot alongside Windows 7" option, so I was ecstatic.

It began to install and while it was installing I was clicking through the options (language, location etc), but after I clicked next on "Location" it would not proceed any further and thus, I do not have an active install of eOS.

Is this a known problem with installing off USB or is this a bug?
Click to expand...

That sounds like a bug. It's still Alpha software isn't it?

You need to reinstall the windows bootloader on the MBR to get windows booting again.

You can do this by inserting your windows disk entering setup and choosing recovery.
 
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