Boot to Debian thru Windows 7 boot manager

[thegoodmelon]

Hi All

I recently installed Windows 7 which promptly took over the boot process and gave a rather curt name for my earlier Windows XP Pro SP3 installation as in "earlier version of Windows" or something. Then I installed Debian 5 which insisted writing GRUB to MBR and all hell broke loose! Neither of OS were able to boot with GRUB giving me an Error 21. I corrected the MBR to that of Windows 7 and now I am back to dual-booting to Windows 7 and Windows XP.

Is there any way to load Debian thru the Windows 7 boot manager? I know I can do the dirty work and get GRUB to load both Windows XP & 7 but I am just wondering if we can load everything thru Windows 7?

~ thegoodmelon

 

[PcBoyGeorge]

Don't think so. Windows won't notice its existance so you will have to make the grub one recognize xp and 7.

 

[C!oud]

Grub is your best bet. Install it to your mbr and then edit your /boot/menu.lst in order to chainload Win 7 and Win XP

 

[awhitecloud]

I need HELP please!

I need HELP, I installed windows 7 on a new hard drive and I have XP on the old one, now I can not get it to boot at all into XP or even give me any options for it. Please can someone tell me how to get teh dule boot to work ?

 

[Richie086]

Hmm.. Yeah i dunno, when i installed Windows 7 on a computer that was already running Windows XP, i was still able to boot into XP with no probs, but when i installed Windows 7 on my roommates computer last week, it moved everything to a directory called C:\Windows.old and afterward could no longer boot into his windows XP install. I think my situation was different because i chose to install Windows 7 on a separate hard drive.

If nothing else, you should be able to thumb thru the c:\Windows.old directory and grab some files if needed. I am assuming it moves the entire directory structure into the .old directory, but i didn't explore the issue on my roommates machine...

 

[john3347]

Don't mention Debian 5

Hi All

I recently installed Windows 7 which promptly took over the boot process and gave a rather curt name for my earlier Windows XP Pro SP3 installation as in "earlier version of Windows" or something. Then I installed Debian 5 which insisted writing GRUB to MBR and all hell broke loose! Neither of OS were able to boot with GRUB giving me an Error 21. I corrected the MBR to that of Windows 7 and now I am back to dual-booting to Windows 7 and Windows XP.

Is there any way to load Debian thru the Windows 7 boot manager? I know I can do the dirty work and get GRUB to load both Windows XP & 7 but I am just wondering if we can load everything thru Windows 7?

~ thegoodmelon

I recently made approximately the same mistake as you did. I feel that it is likely that my problem may have been a routine "click, click, fixed" operation for a Linux guru, but not for me. For me the result was the most total computer crash I have ever experienced. I had installed Debian 5 on a dual boot arrangement on a separate physical harddrive with Windows 7 installed on the original harddrive. The result was that Windows would no longer load. Debian opened, but I not only wanted Windows 7 to remain functional, but for it to remain as the primary OS on that particular computer. That installation of Windows NEVER booted again. I was not even able to restore with Windows Home Server. I had to physically remove the second harddrive containing Debian and format and reload Windows on the original harddrive (the one already containing Windows). With a fresh Windows install, I was then able to restore from Windows Home Server. Oh well, If this is what "Linux is ready for primetime" looks like, I don't need primetime OR Linux either. This experience did not endear me to the concept of dual booting either.