How To Install Windows 8.1 Before A Linux Install On A New Laptop

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

I've build my desktop from scratch a long time ago and it's using the standard BIOS.

I am planning to get a laptop at some time and it has windows 8.1 with UEFI. My plan to to wipe windows off the thing and install linux.

I will be dealing with UEFI for the first time, so my question is, do I need to get an UEFI supported distro or will any linux distro detect the UEFI and install accordingly?

Thanks

I just got a new laptop with Windows 8.1 and I cannot figure out how to install Linux Mint by booting from a CD or USB drive. Previously, I had installed Linux Mint on my old desktop and netbook computers that were running Windows XP. I had no trouble booting from a CD. Now that the process has been complicated in Windows 8.1 I don't know what to do. Any help would be greatly appreciated, I would really like to get rid of Windows 8.1 ASAP. Thanks!

If I buy a new laptop and just take the HDD installed with windows out and install a new SSD in, and install it with Debian, will that workout? And will I be able to use that HHD with windows on say a desktop build?

I am completely new to Linux. Ready to get as much advice and tips as anyone can offer. First, which version should I install? Are the free online versions safe and functional? I am running windows 8.1 on a laptop. Would prefer to install, if possible, any type of Linux on USB or disk. If not possible, use a partition. Everyone has to start somewhere, right?

I am trying to boot Linux Mint from an 8gb Sandisk USB. I changed my boot settings and it boots into what I believe is called grub? I am given two options, Boot Linux Mint, Boot Linux Mint (compatibility mode). When I select either of them all I get is a black screen. I've tried many things to get around this, messing with my graphics card settings (within grub), different USB's (another 8gb and a 32gb), I tried Ubuntu and that just doesn't boot at all I go straight back to my UEFI settings. I'm very new to Linux and I don't just want to hop in, I just want to boot from my USB whenever I want to play around with it. Thank You

Note: I'm running windows 8.1 currently on a ASUS N550JV laptop. I've been using the UUI from Pen Drive Linux.

Hi,
Some years ago I purchased a Lenova laptop model #8922 which, when purchased, was equipped with Windows XP Home Edition.
As is widely known, support for XP has now finished and I would like to load into the Lenova the Linux Mint but I am not sure how to go about this.
Any tips or information would be a great help.
Regards,
Oscarfrosty.

I just got a laptop with a 500GB hard drive installed with a clean copy of Win 7. I'm trying to shrink the windows volume from windows using Disk management and it's given me 230GB. There's less than 15 gig being used by the win 7 install. I want to dual boot but not if it's gonna cost me half the disk! I followed suggestions from he http://skimfeed.com/blog/windows-7-f...ize-shrinking/ which freed up all of 280MB. Can anyone suggest how I can get more shrinkage out of win 7?

Hello, I hope someone can assist. I have installed 17 on 2 laptops and 17.1 on another all with windows 8 upgraded to 8.1 Now I have a new PC with 8.1 and cannot get 17.1 to install. I go thru all the steps but when I get past "something else" and choose the "free space" that I partitioned in windows and hit install the window pops up with "no root file system is defined" "Please correct from partitioning menu.. I have never had this happen, did I not do something? There is 1 300mb(fat32, efi) partition, ntfa, free space(which is where I am trying to install Linux), 1 small and 1 large "free space". Then the define for boot loader installation, which I do not remember needing to do before. Can someone please help. The PC is an Acer Aspire, amd10, 3.7ghz, quad core, radeon hd 8670 graphics , 1 terabyte hdd, 4gb ram, windows 8.1

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