Solved Installing Zorin 9 on Windows Seven drive

[michael diemer]

Hi, I have a drive that I want to use to dual-boot W7 and Zorin. I have created a new partition, basically slicing the drive in two. W7 HP 64 bit is on one partition, other is blank, ready for Zorin. I have not assigned a letter to it yet or formatted it. I want to install Zorin correctly, without wiping out W7 (which I did once when installing Mint). So, how do I do this?

Thanks,

Michael

 

[gregrocker]

It's best summarized here how to Dual boot Ubuntu-Win7

For a fuller tutorial but one which starts from scratch: Dual Boot - Windows 7 and Linux - Windows 7 Forums http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/257048-dual-boot-windows-7-linux.html

 

[michael diemer]

Thanks Greg, but Whoa! I'm not sure I'm geeky enough to pull this off. I think I will just sacrifice the W7 on that drive and install zorin all by itself. After all, I have already migrated most of that drive to another W7 drive that is healthy, and in any case I have an image of it, so know I can get it back if I really need to. I'm just being a bit obsessive about it. The drive is going to fail anyway, so I might as well let it go, and get what use I can out of it with Zorin while it still has life.

 

[michael diemer]

Ok, I went and installed Zorin 9, using the option of keeping W7, just to see if if it would work. Zorin installed fine. However, W7 will not boot. I ran into this before, after I had reinstalled W7 from an image. In order to boot that drive, I have had to boot it from another drive, which has vista on it. The boot menu gives 6 different boot choices, related to three different drives. The third one down is the W7 drive, the image-restored one, which will not boot on its own. I'm assuming I deleted something when I made the image (this was sometime ago). I had tried to rebuild the boot thingy, to no avail. but it would boot off the vista drive, so no problem. I think that's where I'm at now. Currently the vista is disconnected while I installed Zorin (along with the other W7 drive - I know, it's confusing...). Anyway, I will probably still be able to boot W7 on that drive from the vista drive. But how can I repair that drive, so that I don't have to do that? Or is it the problem due to the drive being Bad?

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
The best way to install Linux of any flavor is on it's own drive,
Or you can use the second easiest choice and run it in a v-m.

Dual booting on the same drive as an windows version is not recommended.

 

[gregrocker]

What is the slightest bit complicated about the steps Barman suggests here in Dual boot Ubuntu-Win7? Did you even bother to read it?

You posted asking how to Dual Boot Win7 with Zorin and when I gave you the simplest method that's worked for thousands of others, you reject it without even trying? Hello? :huh:

 

[michael diemer]

I did read it, along with a bunch of other tutorials. Maybe I was making it more compliocated than it actually is. In the end, I installed Zorin very easily simply by following the wizard, choosing the "install alongside windows option." It installed fine, and did not affect the W7 OS. The weird part is, when I pull up the Zorin boot manager, if I choose W7, it won't boot, I get message saying devices are missing. This had been a problem for quite awhile, but I have been able to boot the drive off the vista drive. But I finally figured out the problem: The missing stuff was not on the W7 install disk, it was on the vista install disk. I think maybe this is because vista came installed on the computer, and W7 was an upgrade version. I repaired it by inserting the vista OS disk when prompted, instead of the W7 disk. Now all is good. I have Zorin and W7 on the drive, both work, and I no longer have to boot W7 off the vista drive. It boots off the Zorin boot manager, the way it's supposed to. Plus, my other two drives continue to work fine (vista and another W7 drive, the backup in case the other fails).

Thanks to all! Problem solved.

 

[ThrashZone]

Installing Linux "along side" windows was a bit too cozy for me
Windows hasn't a clue Linux is there
Although Linux is not effected by a lot of virus/ malware it is very easy to transfer these items to windows from Linux,
Installing along side is on the same disk and partition so and since Windows has no clue Linux is there and Linux does read the entire disk and access it too so can all corruption.

 

[gregrocker]

So now we know you didn't even bother to read Dual boot Ubuntu-Win7 because it explains the easiest and best method is to boot Ubuntu off a Windows Boot Menu using EasyBCD, not "off the Zorin boot manager, the way it's supposed to" if you don't care about the easiest way and don't bother to read about it.

Also the idea that it would only repair using Vista disk since you have a Win7 Upgrade is absurd. Unless VIsta was left on the drive along with its boot manager it would have been overwritten by Win7 so Win7 disk or Repair CD is what should be used when things are normal.

We should definitely see a screenshot of Disk Management - Post a Screen Capture Image to look over the configuration now since in more than half the cases where this is requested it is incorrect.

 

[michael diemer]

Correction: I did install Zorin on another partition, not "alongside" Windows." I guess I am not sure what "alongside Windows" means. So, I have two partitions on this drive, one with W7 and one with Zorin. Hopefully, this means I am safer.

Again, many thanks to all who gave of their valuable time to help me out here, and I apologize for any thick-headedness on my part.

 

[gregrocker]

I do not use the term "alongside" for that reason. Another OS must always be in another partition as it can't be joined with an existing OS partition.

If you want to try booting the Linux distro using Windows Boot Menu then I gave you the steps. But if it's working okay using GRUB then you can certainly leave it. We got in the habit here of advising booting Linux using WIndows Menu when GRUB1 corrupted countless Windows installs. It isn't regularly reported now.

Enjoy!