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
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.
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,
I'm a new Linux user (Mint 17.1 Rebecca Mate) going through the learning curve. It's a challenege. Dual boot with Windows 8.1, which provides the motivation!
I have an older Dell Dimension PC with XP. It's old and cranky, but I do love my XP. I want to wipe the hard drive and install a user friendly simple version of Linux that I can reinstall XP into as VM.
I am clueless where to even begin to figure out which version of Linux is best for this aside from the two mentioned below. The PC operatest 2.17 GHz, has 1.25 GB RAM, and a 156 GB Hard Drive.
I tried installing Zorin, both by DVD and USB, but could not get it to install or even work live. Just kept getting the F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup ingfinte loop. Spent a week trying every which way, short of a format, to install Zorin but I just refused to work, despite their excellent suopport.
Also tried every which way to install Robolinux ( all three versions), and again could not get it to install, although I was able to do the Xfce and KLDE versions live. Just went to them for support and it requires a $5 donation per case. Knowing how much supoport I could need, that could really add up.
Any advise is greatly appreciated.
TIA.
Cheers!
After creating a bootable usb using Universal USB Installer. I booted up the sytstem (Dell Inspiron N4110) F12 boot on usb, did the install, everything went well until after copying files and then the error message that "The grub-pc package failed to install into /target.. So i continued without a boot loader and now am trying to figure out how to get it back.
Previously i did a perfect dual boot of Kali Linux wherein the Grub boot loader was present. I did however uninstall Kali, reclaim HDD space, and even use EasyBCD to remove Grub(i believe).
Also worth noting is that before this dual boot with pignuy and after uninstalling kali linux i did a complete reinstallation of my windows 7 system using the recovery HD.
Now i would like to know how i could get grub boot loader back onto my system so that i can boot up Pinguy OS. Thanks
Hello everyone,
Recently, I installed Linux Mint 17 (Cinnamon) on my HP dv6 Laptop. During installation Linux was not detecting my original Windows 7 and was attempting to occupy the entire hard disk. So I used the "Something Else" option to manually create separate partitions for Linux (Previously I had allocated around 120 GB free space for Linux using Windows Disk Management). This installed the Linux but after booting it does not detect Windows 7 and directly boots to Mint. I have tried installing and updating the grub but it did not help either.
Please Help...
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 Guys, I installed a dual boot config. on a 160 gb hdd. The first choice in grub menu is Linux Lite (latest distro) and the second boot choice is Mint 17.1 Rebecca. I'm encountering a situation that when I boot into LL the system boots OK. Then when I try a restart and boot into Mint it seems to be doing OK until the end of the boot process at which time the screen flashes the Mint logo and then goes dark-then flashes then goes dark every second or so-endlessly. After a while I'm sometimes able to get Mint to finish booting by hitting the esc key. Any ideas how to make this screen flashing situation stop and do a normal boot?
Update: Solved the problem by changing the resolution settings to coincide with those of LL....flashing stopped!
LL and Mint IMHO are two of the best distros for a Newbie to "get their feet wet." - I know, I am that Newbie.
Hi all:
Yes, my first post and I am sure to make mistakes. Here goes.
Regarding suggestions for Linux Screencasts forum. I constantly struggle with dual boot with Windows. I read so many blogs that my eyes cross. Its even more confusing now with UEFI partitions. It happened today and now Windows is not booting. Screencasts sound like a windfall.
What I need to know:
1. Exactly where are the dual boot files located?
2. Where are examples of working dual boot files?
3. What tools do I need to access dual boot files when my system is not working?
4. If I use Windows tools to fix Windows boot then Fedora boot is overwritten. What do I need to watch?
5. Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity.
There are my suggestions for today. Hope it generates food for thought. :-)
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
hi All,
i tried to make a bootable linux mint usb. i thought i succeeded but when i pull out the usb and try to boot back into windows i still boot into linux mint. this is probably a stupid question but have installed linux mint over my windows mistakenly.
help....please