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I've been a long time user of Ubuntu on my home desktop, but for some things you just need Windows. I downloaded the Windows 7 RC and got a key for it, and I'd like to dual-boot. I've tried several dual-boot guides, but I'm having trouble following them because of my odd partition layout. Here's how it appears in GParted:

  • Drive 1:
    • /dev/sda1: fat32 (Empty)
    • /dev/sda2: extended
      • /dev/sda5: ext3 (Ubuntu Root)
      • /dev/sda6: swap
  • Drive 2:
    • /dev/sdb1: ntfs (Windows 7)
    • /dev/sdb2: ext4 (Home Folder)

Whenever I try to boot Windows from GRUB, it says

Disk Error
Press any key to restart

I press the spacebar, and it takes me back to GRUB, from which I can boot Ubuntu just fine.

Here's the relevant part of my /boot/grub/menu.lst:

title       Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-15-generic
root        (hd0,4)
kernel      /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-15-generic root=UUID=f039d530-b7a1-49f6-a5b7-37dc8f4c6ad2 ro quiet splash 
initrd      /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-15-generic
quiet

title       Windows 7
root        (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1

I mounted /dev/sda1, and inside I found three files:

  • Boot (folder)
  • bootmgr
  • bootsect.bak

Am I missing something rather simple here? I'd rather not try and move partitions around, and I don't want Windows 7 on /dev/sda1, because that partition is only 10 GB. Any help?

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2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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Booting windows on drive2 is tricky - you might get grub to do it but it will cause problems in windows later.
Can you swap them so that Windows is the first drive?

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  • I suppose I'll try that. The only problem I see is that I have home on another partition. Would that show up as /dev/sda2 instead of /dev/sdb2? What will happen if I no longer have a /home/ folder when I boot?
    – Cassie Meharry
    Commented Sep 8, 2009 at 21:37
  • I swapped the drives, changed menu.lst to reflect the changes (changed hd0 to hd1, etc), and restarted. Now, when I select Windows 7, it still gives me the Disk Error, and when I change the root line to (hd0,0) again, it tells me that BOOTMGR is missing Press CTRL-ALT-DELETE to restart. Any other suggestions?
    – Cassie Meharry
    Commented Sep 8, 2009 at 21:56
  • I should add that I have to change the Ubuntu root back as well to boot it. Is GRUB not seeing that I swapped the drives?
    – Cassie Meharry
    Commented Sep 8, 2009 at 21:57
  • @bluejeansummer: You probably do want to remount the root in GRUB after rearranging the partitions.
    – Nikhil
    Commented Sep 8, 2009 at 22:18
  • @bluejeansummer: Did Windows boot properly (using its own bootloader) after you first installed it?
    – Nikhil
    Commented Sep 8, 2009 at 22:19
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First of all, I noticed that you have set the wrong partition to boot your windows. Your (hd0,0) entry means that you point to grub to boot from your sda1 partition, which is empty. Try putting your disks the way you described in your question (sda1, sda2, sda5, sda6, sdb1, sdb2) and try this:

title           Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-15-generic
root            (hd0,4)
kernel          /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-15-generic root=UUID=f039d530-b7a1-49f6-a5b7-37dc8f4c6ad2 ro quiet splash 
initrd          /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-15-generic
quiet

title           Windows 7
root            (hd1,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1

It's the best I could come up to, just noticed you have incorrect entry in your file.

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