Solved Clean install W7 cannot access Linux?

[johnwillyums]

Hi folks,

Wasn't sure where to post this but here it is.
Up until a couple of days ago I had a dual boot setup with Linux Mint and W7.
The OSs were on different drives (and still are)
Over the weekend I wiped my c/ drive and did a clean install of W7 on it. It is on a 1tb drive with no partitions.
I have another 1tb drive with a large Windows storage partition (800gb) and three other partitions 2 with Linux Mint on and one unallocated.
Prior to the re install I would get GRUB at boot and default into Linux or scroll down to W7, choose that and then get the Windows bootloader.
When re installing Windows 7 I disconnected the other drive.
Now, of course, I boot straight into W7 and cannot see Linux, can't tell what partition it's on etc.
Obviosly the Linux install is still there but I'm not sure of the best way to access it and return to a boot choice.
I can think of several ways that might do this but I'm not sure what would be the best long term solution.

Suiggestions would be most welcome, cheers, John

 

[severedsolo]

Hi john,

Do you by chance know which drive Grub was installed to? Was it the Linux Drive?

If so, then EasyBCD should get it back for ya,

The Guaranteed method:
Download and Install Easy: Download EasyBCD 2.0.2 - NeoSmart Technologies
Run it, and click "Add New Entry"
Select the Linux/BCD tab and then Grub2" from the drop down list. (default is Grub (legacy))
Give it a name, unless you like "Neosmart Linux" of course, (Linux Mint would be good )
Click Add Entry

Ta da! Basically this is the reverse of what you had before, the Windows Bootloader will load, and if you select Mint it will hand over to Grub.

The Alternative:
The above, I know will work. This one may or may not, I've never tried it, although it probably would. Of course being Linux, it could well be that it will properly screw things over if it goes wrong, hence why I offered the above first.

Try making the Linux drive the primary boot device, boot into Mint and then run "update-grub" from the terminal. Hopefully, that will put it back to how it was. As I said though, no promises.

 

[StalkeR]

Hello John. As I understand you have simmilar problem as this here.
http://www.sevenforums.com/installation-setup/147242-help-about-bootloader.html
I solved it with EasyBCD.
Give a look it.

-----
Lol,severedsolo was a bit faster than me.

 

[johnwillyums]

Thanks to you both. I had heard of EasyBCD but never used it. I imagine GRUB is on the Linux drive as I installed it after W7 and followed the tutorial on dual booting to insatll Linux Mint on the other drive.
It would be much more preferable to have in winboot as I think that GRUB was poreventing me install SP1 hence the re install.

Thanks again, John

 

[StalkeR]

You're welcome John!

 

[severedsolo]

Your welcome John

One thing I forgot to mention, Occasionally Easy throws a wobbly the first time you click "Add Entry" it will throw a framework Exception. Just click continue and do it again, it always works second time.

 

[johnwillyums]

Thanks a lot guys. I just got in from work so I haven't time to do this now. I'll report the threads as solved and if I run into any problems I'll get back to you.