dual boot win 8.1 mint 17 - Solved

[markk]

Hi ;
I had mint installed dual boot with xp . then I deleted xp and installed win 8.1 . so now of course I have no mint 17 option . How do i go about getting back the dual boot option without re installing mint ?
thank you much

[kukamuumuka]

Re-install grub via liveDVD or USB

Code: Select all

sudo blkid ## tells the media
sudo mount /dev/sdxy /mnt  ## where x=drive and y=partition
sudo grub-install --boot-directory=/mnt/boot /dev/sdx  ## where x=drive
sudo umount /mnt

[markk]

Okay thanks .
Now for just what I do with this code ... Do i boot from mint dvd into the terminal and then copy and paste the entire code at once or line by line ?

Do I need to replace the - ( where x=drive and y=partition ) with the drive letter and partition name ?

[gold_finger]

Do i boot from mint dvd into the terminal and then copy and paste the entire code at once or line by line ?

Yes, boot into your live Mint DVD/USB; then enter the codes line by line into a terminal.

Look at blkid output to find out what the drive and partition # is for the Linux root partition. Use that partition in place of /dev/sdxy on the next code line. (For example, if your root partition is /dev/sda5, substitute "a" and "5" for the "xy".)

Using same example, on third code line you'll only need to substitute the "a" in place of "x" in /dev/sdx.

When done, reboot without live DVD/USB and hopefully grub works correctly.

[markk]

thank you for that clarification . I will give this a try today. need linux to do things on internet since Win 8 is the slowest snail OS I have encountered . paint peels faster than Win 8 and win 8.1 is even worse . Had to go through 4 antivirus programs just to find one that works with it without almost stopping it from doing anything .

[markk]

So I did that and did get back the boot options . how ever I also lost internet connection in win 8 . do not know why that would be . then I booted into mint and all is fine except that I can not access any other drives or partiotions . Get an error that they can not be mounted . any ideas ?

[gold_finger]

I booted into mint and all is fine except that I can not access any other drives or partiotions . Get an error that they can not be mounted . any ideas ?

Not sure. Don't use Windows 8, but know that if you don't do a full shutdown of it, it goes into a sort of hybernated state instead of actually being shut down. If it is in that state, it might not allow access to the hibernated partition(s). Just a guess. Here's info:

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/63 ... s-8-a.html

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/window ... ure-works/

[markk]

I did not make that clear . It is not mounting drives /partitions in mint . Only the partition with mint on it . it does mount my usb drive when i plug it in .
the win 8 is now working . well as good as it can . They should have named it win crippled snail.

[gold_finger]

I did not make that clear . It is not mounting drives /partitions in mint . Only the partition with mint on it . it does mount my usb drive when i plug it in .

That is what I meant. If you can not access the Windows-related partitions from within Mint, then Windows might not be fully shutdown. It's partitions may not be accessible if Windows appears to be using them (locking them down in hibernated state).

If those aren't the partitions you're having problems with, then be more specific: what partitions are they and what are you doing to try accessing them? Post a screenshot of problem if possible.