Dual Boot/ with Windows 7

[brooklynzoo81]

Hello all. I am trying to get back into Linux and setup Ubuntu x64 on my main PC. But my main PC already has Windows 7 x64 in a Raid 0 array. However i do have a 1TB spare drive in the machine. I wanted to know if it would be possible to install Ubuntu on the 1TB drive without removing the raid setup with windows 7? If i am able to do this what would i need to do in grub to get this going?


Thanks.

[darkod]

There should be no problems installing it on the 1TB disk. But to have more control where the bootloader goes I would use the manual partitioning option (Something Else from the menu).

Set the partitions as you want and set the bootloader to install on the same 1TB disk.

Then just go into BIOS and set it to boot from it.

I haven't tried this setup but I think it should be able to detect your win7 and make an entry in the grub boot menu for it.

[brooklynzoo81]

Thanks darkod for the reply back. I will give this a shot tonight if i can.

[brooklynzoo81]

Finally had a chance to do this tonight. It does work but not a big fan of having to select which drive to chose during boot up. Ubuntu didn't recognize my raid setup.

[LinuXofArabiA]

Could you please give more details as to the options you chose in your partitions - 'Type of partition, logical or primary', 'Mount type, where did you mount the partition'. I need this info to help with my installation.

Thanks

[darkod]

Finally had a chance to do this tonight. It does work but not a big fan of having to select which drive to chose during boot up. Ubuntu didn't recognize my raid setup.

When you install ubuntu on fakeraid, it's recommended to use the alternate install cd, not the standard desktop cd. It has better raid and lvm support.

Even though you are not installing on raid, if you want it to "see" the win7 raid I wonder if it's better to use the alternate cd. During the beginning of the installation that cd detects a fakeraid and asks you if you want to activate it. Maybe it's this process of activation that is missing so it doesn't detect it right now.

[brooklynzoo81]

Actually I did fail to mention that I used both the regular cd and the alternate cd. It did ask me if I wanted to activate the raid and I say yes but it only saw one drive instead of two, while using the alternate cd.

@Linux of Arabia. I really didn't chose any custom lay out I just let it do it for me automatically. It picked my raid as sdaa 150GB only saw one drive. And sdac for my 1.5TB which I have Ubuntu installed on it now.

[Mark Phelps]

Finally had a chance to do this tonight. It does work but not a big fan of having to select which drive to chose during boot up. Ubuntu didn't recognize my raid setup.

An alternative, if you end up being unsuccessful in enabling OS selection using GRUB, is to do that using EasyBCD. You can get that from the NeoSmart Technology forums.

Download and install it in Win7.

You will have to experiment with adding a boot entry, as there are a lot of options and I don't personally know which ones (if any) will work with raid.

[ronparent]

A program called dmraid is essential to access the raid drives. I have found that, typically, Ubuntu does not install dmraid when Ubuntu itself is not installed on the a raid drive. Thus after the install you won't see the Windows partitions on the raid.

Solution is to simply install it (ie apt-get install dmraid). This step will make all raid drives on your computer completely accessible to your Ubuntu install.

Also, contrary to prevailing beliefs, the latest releases of Ubuntu install fine with the regular cd and the alternate cd shouldn't be needed for a simple install.

[darkod]

Also, contrary to prevailing beliefs, the latest releases of Ubuntu install fine with the regular cd and the alternate cd shouldn't be needed for a simple install.

The install as install is fine, but grub2 install to the MBR seems to fail sometimes (not always). At least according to threads here on the forum including using the latest versions. I might be wrong though.