On Friday, October 28, 2011 03:15:12 PM, Matthias Johnson wrote: > On Fri, Oct 28, 2011 at 2:47 PM, Chris Knadle <[email protected]>wrote: > > The only other thing I'll mention is that if you go to install Win 7 that > > it > > WILL blow away the MBR in the process and thus remove Grub2 from the MBR. > > > > If > > > > you want to replace XP with Win 7 it would be easier to do that FIRST and > > then > > to reinstall Ubuntu, such that Grub2 will be installed after Windows. > > The other next-best option is to get a grub2 rescue CD (yes such a thing > > exists: > > in Debian/Ubuntu the package with the ISO in it is called grub-rescue-pc) > > and > > then learn how to deal with the grub2 command line in order to reinstall > > it into the MBR after it's been blown away. I believe I've had that > > happen after > > having to "rescue" Windows. > > Another thing to keep in mind is the 200 MB recovery partition 7 creates > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Recovery_Environment. It apparently > doesn't follow standard use of sectors when partitioning though I > haven't personally looked. > http://www.mydigitallife.info/how-to-avoid-200mb-hidden-system-partition-fr > om-been-created-during-windows-7-installation/
I happen to have Win 7 on my laptop along with Debian and I found something mildly interesting; here's my partition table: Disk /dev/sda: 750.2 GB, 750156374016 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 91201 cylinders, total 1465149168 sectors Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes Disk identifier: 0x01c0ffee Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 * 2048 206847 102400 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT /dev/sda2 206848 716802047 358297600 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT /dev/sda3 1452971520 1465143119 6085800 12 Compaq diagnostics /dev/sda4 716804094 1452969983 368082945 5 Extended Partition 4 does not start on physical sector boundary. /dev/sda5 716804096 716996607 96256 83 Linux /dev/sda6 716998656 732620799 7811072 82 Linux swap / Solaris /dev/sda7 732622848 791214079 29295616 83 Linux /dev/sda8 791216128 1452969983 330876928 83 Linux It looks to me like partition 3 is the recovery partition for Win 7, not partition 1. Also, partition 3 has been physically placed at the end of the disk, rather than consecutively after Win 7's main partition. I don't know what partition 1 is for sure, but it looks too small to be a recovery partition; I think it's mainly a boot loader area, very similar to the /boot ext2 filesystem I have at partition 5. Grub2 is installed in the MBR, so although partition 1 is set as bootable, that's not what is actually initially booted, as the MBR itself takes precedence. > I tried having linux and 7 on the same drive unsuccessfully without an > additional drive for lilo to be written to. You may have better luck > with grub2 and the drive was only a 40 SSD so with 7's constant increase > in size with every windows update I decided to just have one OS anyway. For whatever reason, when I had Win Vista (ick) on my laptop, grub2 would misidentify the Windows partition and the Windows recovery partition, so I had to remember to choose the "recovery" entry to boot Windows. I haven't had any issues at all after installing Win 7. > Many people have both so it is possible > https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WindowsDualBoot > The thing I would be curious about is whether you can use the > recovery partition when not if windows takes a crap. Both are listed automatically by grub2, although I haven't tried booting the recovery choice after installing Win 7. It worked under Vista, though (although as I mentioned it was misnamed as it was the "normal" choice rather than the "recovery" choice). -- Chris -- Chris Knadle [email protected] _______________________________________________ Mid-Hudson Valley Linux Users Group http://mhvlug.org http://mhvlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mhvlug Upcoming Meetings (6pm - 8pm) MHVLS Auditorium Nov 2 - POV-Ray and The Relativity Train Dec 7 - An Intro to Chef Jan 4 - Recovering the Brownfield: Revitalizing Open Source Projects
