Dual Boot Question

[Queuecumber]

Hello,

I am trying to dual boot windows 7 with fedora core 15 linux. I get through all the installs fine, but when windows boots, it often hangs with 100% disk activity for no apparent reason. When I disconnect the linux disk and reboot, this doesnt happen. My setup:

240 gb corsair force 3 ssd -- windows 7 x64
60 gb corsair force 3 ssd -- fedora core 15 x64

Does windows 7 have some weird write problem when its not the only OS disk? Or maybe it is the grub bootloader which is causing problems? I've tried this both configurations (e.g. the linux disk as disk 0 and the windows disk as disk 0) and I get the same results. I have also tried hiding the linux partition with grub, but windows seems to see it anyway.

thanks,
Max Ehrlich

 

[gregrocker]

GRUB bootloader causes many problems. Try installing Win7 first, then Linux.

You may need to wipe the HD first.

Dual-Boot Windows 7 and Ubuntu in Perfect Harmony

 

[MilesAhead]

Most Linux installers are tuned to carving off a partition on the first disk and installing. You may find you have a much easier time if you make a small boot partition on the first drive. Then you can allocate all you want of the 2nd physical drive for other Linux partitions. An excellent installer if you have broadband is Mandriva OneCD

You can set it up so Linux sees all disks and partitions as directories under '/' (root). See Linux docs for "/etc/fstab" which is the file that describes what partitions are on the machine, how they are used, and if they are part of the root file system, where they are located(such as /usr /etc whatever.)


Mandriva is based on Debian with APT package tool same as Ubuntu. But I think they just did it better.

If you make a small /boot partition it will only be used to load vmlinuz and it will be written when you make grub config changes. Also grub may save a copy of your MBR there. It doesn't have to be large. Just big enough to hold the kernel and a few files.

Search the newer Linux Howtos for various install scenarios with Windows7 on more than one physical drive. But if you can bring yourself to give up a piece of the first drive you may save a lot of headaches.