On Sun, Jul 26 2015, Daniel Frey wrote: > On 07/26/2015 07:35 AM, gottl...@nyu.edu wrote: >> The system came with windows 7 on the whole disk 500GB. To shrink it to >> 50 takes work as there are "unmovable" files in the middle (the "" are >> there since you must actually moved them). Anyway I didn't try but >> simply removed the big partition (I left the "dell" partition and the >> windows recovery partition). I then installed linux (an error) leaving >> a partition for windows. > > Now I can't go and look back on the thread as I've deleted some > messages... is this a new laptop with an UEFI BIOS? If that's the case > you must use GPT with UEFI while booting Windows, and make sure Secure > Boot is off in the BIOS settings if you want to use linux. I am not sure > if Windows will boot if it was installed with Secure Boot on.
The system does have a uefi bios but I am using the old mbr interface as I (perhaps mistakenly) thought it would be harder to learn uefi than to deal with the clunky but known mbr interface >> With my laptop I got a windows 8.1 recovery/installation flash drive. >> I installed 8.1 (trivial) and then the trouble began. 8.1 is a *very* >> different interface. I couldn't even find logout. Also the version >> sent is buggy. I don't remember how I eventually exited. After that >> the system wouldn't boot from the hard drive even after I re-executed >> grub2-install and fdisk (both from the arch linux flash drive). > > A couple tips: The menu in Windows 8.1 is truly buggered. Easiest way to > shut down is use Ctrl+Alt+Del, there'll be a power button at either the > top right or lower right of the screen. If you use the Windows Key+X it > shows an *actual* menu with useful shortcuts. Thanks for these. Dell told me some tips as well. I can successfully boot / login / logoff / halt which is all I expect to use. I dual boot windows just for the convenience of dell support. If I have need for their help (I hope not) I just call and do what they say. thanks again, allan
