On Sat, May 28, 2011 at 3:10 PM, Charles Blair <c-bl...@illinois.edu> wrote:
> ****** THE MESS ***** > > I recently tried to set up a multi-boot with windows 7 > and squeeze on a laptop. When started, grub displays > > /dev/sda1 Windows 7 > /dev/sda2 also Windows 7 > /dev/sda3 Windows 7 recovery > /dev/sda4 Debian > /dev/sda5 Debian recovery > > I am relieved that Debian works, but the other choices > give me "failed to start" error messages. I give fdisk > and grub configuration information below > > ***** HOW I CREATED THE MESS **** > > The installer initially reported three partitions allocated > to windows. I re-sized the largest one (I think this was the > second one) and then put debian into the free space. > > ***** FDISK INFORMATION ***** > > Disk /dev/sda: 320.1 GB, 320072933376 bytes > 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders > Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes > Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes > I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes > Disk identifier: 0xbb0c5abb > > Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System > /dev/sda1 1 192 1536000 27 Unknown > /dev/sda2 192 12349 97656250 7 HPFS/NTFS > /dev/sda3 37264 38914 13248512 17 Hidden HPFS/NTFS > /dev/sda4 12350 37264 200128513 5 Extended > /dev/sda5 * 12350 12392 340992 83 Linux > /dev/sda6 12392 13486 8787968 83 Linux > /dev/sda7 13486 13851 2928640 83 Linux > /dev/sda8 13851 14826 7827456 82 Linux swap / > Solaris > /dev/sda9 14826 14874 389120 83 Linux > /dev/sda10 14874 37264 179849216 83 Linux > [snip] Hi Charles. In my experience with dual-booting, the key is to have the Win7 partition that is actually the bootable partition, flagged as bootable via gparted/fdisk/etc., before installing Debian. Win7 makes a mess of partitioning if you don't manually force it into your own partitioning scheme. I learned the hard way, and wound up wiping out the Debian installation and MBR, then rebuilding the MBR for Win7 to be bootable, then installing Debian again. There are lots of people smarter than me on this list that may have a better way, but that's what I can share with you from my own struggles. I avoid dual-booting if at all possible these days, although in some cases it is unavoidable. Maybe someone else will chime in with a better idea for you. Mark
