Linux Mint Reinstalls every time I boot it

[encarnae]

It's my first time posting on a Linux forum so my apologies if I do something wrong.

I recently decided to try Linux Mint, and installed it dual boot alongside Windows 7. I got the 64 bit Cinnamon iso, mounted it on one of my drives and proceeded to install. The installation went smoothly, and when I was done installing programs, playing around with Mint and what not, I turned off the pc. When I turned it back on, and rebooted Mint I noticed everything I did had been erased; I restarted the computer and indeed, every time Mint was re-installing. I unmounted the iso from the drive on Windows, but that didn't work. This also happened to me a couple months back with Ubuntu. I appreciate your help.

If it helps,my computer is a ThinkPad T430 Lenovo laptop.

[xenopeek]

I don't quite follow how you installed, but I'm assuming you use the mint4win program from inside Windows to prepare for installing Linux Mint. I say prepare for installing, as mint4win does just that. It creates a virtual partition for Linux Mint to install on (actually a very large file on your Windows partition), it sets up a multi boot capable boot manager so you can choose to boot Linux Mint or Windows at startup, and it mounts the installation ISO. Upon booting Linux Mint, you still need to actually install it to that virtual partition.

Unlike Windows, Linux Mint (and Ubuntu) have a so-called Live ISO where you boot into the live operating system from ISO. You can test out the entire operating system from there before committing to install. The live session is not persistent, meaning any changes you make are lost at shutdown or reboot. It is meant for trying, testing, installing and rescuing Linux Mint with.

You should find a "Install Linux Mint", or similar, icon on your desktop. Run that do complete the Linux Mint installation.

[encarnae]

Wow, I feel dumb. I thought that icon that said Install Linux Min was simply the cd drive that had the iso mounted. Thank you, that indeed was the problem

[xenopeek]

It happens quite often unfortunately, so it may be more helpful if after boot a message window is display informing users of this

[Slesreth]

It happens quite often unfortunately, so it may be more helpful if after boot a message window is display informing users of this

When I saw I could start the install process for a dual boot system from inside Windows for Linux Mint 14 it seemed especially convenient, and it was. Installed. Rebooted. Configured the installation. Rebooted. And, surprise! Re-installation!

There was absolutely NO prior notice to the installation process from inside windows that it was temporary, that was on the option below the Windows installation option. There was absolutely no notification on the first boot to Linux Mint 14 that I needed to select the "Install Linux Mint" ISO icon on the desktop to finalize the installation before making any changes to the system. Since even changing the background image was not preserved, a minor change but glad I did not make larger ones before that discovery.

I understand the convenience and need for temporary installations, but proper notification and enlightenment for first time Linux Mint users like myself would have been nice and it was a hard Aprils fools day joke 24 days late.

I write this regretfully as my first post in honor for other first time users to hopefully save the them from it by also recommending with xenopeek a message window after initial boot informing users of this, maybe inconvenient for frequent temporary installs, but far easier to ignore a window warning than to loose all changes and every downloaded file on reboot.

I have to say though I am greatly impressed so far with everything else. For Linux Ive been using Red Hat since 2003 and it was high time to upgrade to a newer kernel and GUI. And thank you everyone who has participated in making the superb distribution of Linux,

Sincerely,

Slesreth

EDIT: PS And Thank you encarnae and xenopeek for your posts here. They are the first things I read after searching for why I had lost everything on the re-boot and how not have it happen again.