Windows 7 took over my computer?

Yesterday, I had RAID installed on my computer with Windows 7. I deleted the RAID so it would wipe both drives, and then installed Ubunutu on the first HD. Today, I went into Ubuntu, used Gparted to partition the second HD so I could have Windows 7 on the second. After I finished instlling Windows 7 on the second drive, it does not give me the option to pick Ubuntu or Windows 7 on startup. Is it not showing because its starting the second HD on startup by default and not the first? I would really like to know how I can boot back into my Ubuntu. Thank you.

raid startup boot harddrive gparted windows7 install ubuntu

asked Jan 18 '11 at 17:43

Luke oX
1.8k●139●150●172

edited Jan 18 '11 at 17:46

5 Answers:

oldest newest most voted

0	Try easyBCD. its a freeware bootloader edeting program for windows. Just add ubuntu to the loader, give it the right settings and you should be done. answered Jan 18 '11 at 18:20 nitrocrime 3.6k●64●77●126

I'd like to let you know what was causing the problem. Windows is greedy. When Ubuntu installs, it'll scan other hard drives/partitions for other operating systems. It then adds these other systems to GRUB, Ubuntu's bootloader. If you install Windows after you install Ubuntu, Windows will tell your BIOS to load Windows's bootloader, but unlike Ubuntu, Windows won't see Ubuntu and add it to its bootloader. Therefore, you will only get the option for Windows.

This answer is marked "community wiki".

answered Jan 18 '11 at 20:29

DanielHep
461●18●23●31

edited Jan 18 '11 at 20:29

Marked as a community wiki. If I got something wrong, please edit it.

(Jan 18 '11 at 20:30) DanielHep

Install win first then linux. Linux will then find the windows and allow you to load it using the linux grub boot loader.

If you delete linux it should default back to the windows loader as linux does not delete it.

If you install windows second then it will not pick up linux. You can try adding linux to the windows boot loader by using EasyBCD for Windows. It should find linux and add it to the windows loader when you run it so give that a try first.

If you can boot into linux by booting the second hard drive first then when you get into linux go to the terminal and type sudo update-grub that should then upgrade the grub loader to show win 7. All you have to do then is re-boot and it should work and/or tell the bios to boot the drive with the grub loader on it first.

Have fun.

answered Jan 19 '11 at 11:35

SignOff
(suspended)

edited Jan 19 '11 at 11:36

0	You did not do the installation in the right order you need to install windows first. answered Jan 19 '11 at 13:20 Louis Jenvey 591●6●9●20 How would I know that before now??? -.- (Jan 19 '11 at 17:18) Luke oX

0	i have a simular set up i go into the bios and change my first boot to eather the hdd with win 7 or the hdd with xp installed you could try that answered Jan 19 '11 at 16:01 Daniel Balment 315●6●9●17 It doesn't work that way with Linux and Windows combined. (Jan 19 '11 at 17:18) Luke oX

Your answer

toggle preview

community wiki

Follow this question

By Email:

Once you sign in you will be able to subscribe for any updates here

By RSS:

Answers

Answers and Comments

Markdown Basics

*italic* or __italic__
**bold** or __bold__
link:[text](http://url.com/ "title")
image?![alt text](/path/img.jpg "title")
numbered list: 1. Foo 2. Bar
to add a line break simply add two spaces to where you would like the new line to be.
basic HTML tags are also supported

learn more about Markdown