Fresh Install Of Windows On Dual Mint

Did it again!

Last week, with help from this forum, I was able to install Linux Mint 17.1 dual boot with Windows 8.1. It worked so well, I decided to explore other Linux distros recommended by forum members as some I wanted to check out.

I was using Unetbootin to download and install these as live sessions on my Windows 8.1 partition.

On my last such download, something went wrong, and no doubt I caused the error, but no clue as to how.

When I opened up this PC, I got the normal dual boot option for Windows and Mint. When I selected Windows, I found an additional dual boot option between it and Unetbootin! Somehow I created a partition (?) on my C Drive for Unetbootin (see Thumbnail below).
This Unetbootin option only goes to a page for me to choose another OS. Further, when I rebooted, the Windows/Mint dual boot option no longer existed, just the Windows/Unetbootin one.

Been checking out various articles and websites about BCD/MBR repair, but nothing definitive (that I can understand) about modifying these to delete the Unetbootin partition and restoring the Windows/linux dual boot.

Naturally, this is a newbie land mine area, so I'm very reluctant to try anything I can't fully understand, which is the category everything I've Googled on this topic falls into.

Anyone know how I can resolve this short of a complete start over
installation based on steps that basically a PC fence post can follow?

TIA
Cheers!

Hello All. This is my first post here. I am worse than a newbie; I'm a PC dinosaur! Not joking either.
Recently got a Dell Inspiron 3048 with Windows 8.1 pre installed. As I am a die hard XP user (my other PC is a Dell Dimension 2400), and seeing that PC's days may be numbered, I want to start using Linux, and decided Mint 17.1 would be first on the list.
Ordered a Linux Mint 17.1 boot disk and went to install it. At the option for a dual boot with Windows, I got lost, and did not understand the "other" choice versus making Linux the only OS on the PC. I wound up wiping my HDD and lost contact with Windows 8.1. Fortunately, the Dell Tech I got at Dell Support was able to walk me through getting Windows back up, but the only way I can now access Mint 17.1 is with the boot disk, but there is no set up options as it is already set up, even though incorrectly for a dual boot.
How do I wipe out Linux without losing Windows 8.1 as well so I can re install Linux and this time make the correct selection for a dual boot?
Anyone willing to respond please do so small and slow so I can follow.
TIA.
BTW, I have tried installing Zorin OS 9 Ultimate on my XP machine via DVD and USB, but I can't get past the f1/f2 loop, even though I have reconfigured my boot sequence according to the drive I'm installing from. Zorin support has been MIA on this. Anyone having a similar problem?
Cheers

I have a dual boot installation of Mint 17 Cinnamon (separate / & /home & swap partitions) along with WINXP (c: winxp, D: data on NTFS).

I am not happy with the cinnamon and want to install XFCE 17 (fresh download from mint website).

I have created 3-4 different usb sticks wwith the iso (thru unetbootin, YUMI, unisersal boot installer) and tried to install. The installation freezes on the second screen itself - after asking for the language, it just sits there and waits for something to happen. Tried this 3-4 times but it just keeps the wheel spinning. However, while I am trying this I am unable to use the laptop perfectly well. In fact, I am typing this while the the installation is trying to do something!

I will be very grateful for the help. I am not too well uquipped with the Linux command system and still rate myself as a newbie.

Hi,

Before installing Linux Mint 17 to the entire HDD of my HP p2 1317cb desktop, it was running a preinstalled windows 8 OEM UEFI. After several failed attempts of dual booting(no grub menu and boots directly to the windows 8) i then decided to do a erase all and install Linux option. Now i have Linux Mint 17.1 working flawlessly, so far. What i want to now do is, dual boot a windows 7 installation alongside my Linux. Please advise on the best way to do this.
Thank You.

Note: Before doing a clean install of Linux i disabled secure boot,enabled legacy, and disabled fast boot.

Hi friends. I have to say right off the bat, this is basically my first time trying to install Linux by myself. After reading this forum and others, and tech sites, I decided Linux Mint looked the most to what I am used to, which is Windows 7.


Here is my CPU-ID Info - http://valid.x86.fr/5ya0sx


I downloaded Linux Mint 17.1 Cinnamon 64bit (The one found on this link, http://www.linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=172).
I burned the img to a DVD with Nero Burning ROM. I wanted to boot from the disc, and the Linux started to show it's logo, and I waited for a few minutes, and I finally thought something was going to happened, but this showed up, (Screenshot) http://i.imgur.com/oELzKCg.jpg.
So basically I shut down my computer and here I am. I have eno experience as to what I am supposed to do when I get that message. Frankly I did not see this type of message when looking through step by step instructions about how to install Mint allongside W7.
Can someone please tell me, for the love of Star Trek Voyager and all that is Holy, how do I install Linux Mint 17.1 Cinnamon as a dual boot on a Windows7 system.

Thank You

I recently wiped Windows 8 off my laptop and installed Linux Mint; I selected the 'wipe everything/install Linux Mint' option, and I've got Mint working....but:

My Mint partition is about 45GB; it's a 1TB drive, and I've got a partition or two that I can't seem to do anything with. I can't expand my Mint partition; I've tried putzing around with the other partition and split it into two, but I can only look at them, can't save things to them. When I use Dolphin and put in a test file with just some random text on one then reboot my computer, it's gone.

Here's the results of a df -k command:

Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda6 48991048 11277504 35201880 25% /
none 4 0 4 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
udev 4014028 4 4014024 1% /dev
tmpfs 805912 1352 804560 1% /run
none 5120 0 5120 0% /run/lock
none 4029560 15044 4014516 1% /run/shm
none 102400 8 102392 1% /run/user
/dev/sda3 118782228 60984 112664388 1% /media/joshandkaren/8495904f-0de8-4cf9-b169-2c86a79ade35
/dev/sda1 776984056 70296 737422180 1% /media/joshandkaren/9db04a44-79dd-470f-8d54-508c3d852657


When I do an ls -al command on either /media folder on either partition, there's also a + sign at the very end of the listing (drwx...+) and I don't know what that means or signifies.


I'm obviously not hurting for space on my main Mint partition, but it would be nice to have the whole drive, of course. Does anyone have any notion of what I did wrong and how I might be able to 'open up' my partitions in order to get that space back/useable? I'm not averse to reinstalling/wiping everything and starting again; also, I'd goofed something up when trying to dual-boot Win8 and Mint, so I just decided to wipe everything and stick with Mint solo. I had an instance where I was only able to bring up the 'grub rescue' prompt, whereupon I'd simply reinstalled Mint from the DVD, so I wonder if that has anything to do with it.....

Any input would be appreciated, thank you!

Hi everyone,

I just installed Mint 17 Mate, I created the partition of about 30 gigs, it installes to the point where the linux image is on the desktop, but unfortunately the mouse and keyboard is frozen.

W8.1 64 bit (brand new machine).
I installed the 64 bit Mint Mate iso

It all seemed to be going seamlessly until I started my celebrations

ps. it hadn't gotten to the installation pont where I was able to select the 30g of non-allocated space

Any ideas?

Hi guys,

For my dual boot system, I first installed window XP followed by Linux fedora 19 and the system has been booting and working fine without
problem.

Now, I would like to remove window XP and install Window 7,
so, I need to remove the partition window XP is on, and then
do a fresh window 7 install. Is there is simple and easy way
of doing this ?

I have window XP, a window 7 and a linux fedora installation disk.

Thanks.

User 247

I've made a couple attempts at installing these OS's on my machine and am still not getting it. I've actually been using AVLinux for about the past nine months, and it's working fairly well. And, yes, I know XP is down for the count, but for the moment it's the only MS option available to me - and I *need* to get it running for some work related web stuff...

This is all on a 32 bit AMD system btw.

What I've tried: Everything on one SATA drive. Partition one formatted to NTFS (about 20GB) for XP. Partitions 2 and 3 are Root and Home for AVLinux, Partition 4 at the end of the drive as the /swap for AVL.

All the how-to's and guides I've been able to come across point to (usually) Mint or Ubuntu's install dialog, and to select "something else" - which, by the way, is not a function of AVLinux's installation procedure. During install you can install GRUB to the MBR *or* root partition..

So, just to clarify to procedure (as I might have it now, but am very unsure) XP gets installed first (which is done at this point...) then my Linux distro *to the MBR* (?) then I need to add a stanza to GRUB telling it where XP lives? XP is not showing up on GRUB as I'm doing it, but I'm not too sure if installing Linux to the MBR (on the same physical drive as XP) actually wipes out the Windows bootloader....and if so, how chainloading would actually work...

So, any help appreciated, thanks.

I have a Toshiba Laptop that had a Dual Boot of Windows 7 and Linux Mint 17 on it and both OS's worked fine. I've been wanting to use CentOS 7 as my primary OS so that I can become more familar with RPM management and proceeded to remove my Mint installation and replace it with the CENTOS 7 installation, and the install completed successfully. HOWEVER, here's my problem.....

When my laptop starts up, I don't see GRUB nor do I have any option of selecting whether to run Windows or CentOS. It automatically loads up Centos 7. When I do a 'sudo fdisk -l', I can see that SDA1 is an NTFS drive, and when I try the following 'sudo mount /dev/sda1 /media/Main\ Drive' I get an error message saying that I can't mount an NTFS drive.

Am I missing something or is there a way to access my Windows files from within Centos. I was able to do this with Mint without an issue, but unable to see any of my windows drives because I can't mount an NTFS drive.

I have no problem with keeping CENTOS as my only OS on this laptop, however, I do need to access the files from the Window's partition, and if anyone can help me to access my files, that would be totally awesome.

Thank you in advance for reading through this and for any help offered.....

Mikey