[Solved]LM 14 and Windows 7 dual boot -Disk read error

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YanOri
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[Solved]LM 14 and Windows 7 dual boot -Disk read error

Post by YanOri »

Hi, I'm trying for a dual boot here with linux mint 14 and windows 7. I've made separate partition of about 15GB for LM and about 6 GB of swap, everything works fine on the linux part, except for the grub menu. When i select windows 7, I get this error 'A Disk Read Error Occurred. Press CTRL+ALT+DEL to restart' and on restarting and choosing windows 7 again, I get the same error.

Well, I can fix this by using my windows 7 DVD, Go to repair -> Command prompt ->

Code: Select all

bootrec /fix boot
bootrec /fixmbr
But then when I do that, I loose the grub menu ad the computer directly boots into windows.
This does not happen on any version of LM other than 14 (I tried LM 14 KDE, LM 14 64 bit and LM 14 32 bit, also tried ubuntu 12.10 - Same problem). While LM13 and ubuntu 12.04 worksgreat along with windows.
I like the simplicity of linux, but there are some apps and work I have to do on windows, that keeps me away from eliminating it. Any help would be greatly appreciated.


EDIT: Currently I'm on Linux mint 14 KDE (fresh install, 25GB system and 6.7 GB swap - I just allotted the unused space as swap). Right now I can't boot into windows, thought grub shows windows 7 on boot menu, I get the same 'disk read error'
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
mintybits

Re: LM 14 and Windows 7 dual boot -Disk read error

Post by mintybits »

I dont know what is causing this nor why it is only Mint14. Something must have changed in Grub.

A work-around is to boot Mint from Windows. You need to boot Mint and install Grub to the root partition instead of he MBR. Run sudo dpkg-reconfigure grub-pc. Then repair Windows and boot it and install EasyBCD.

Alternatively, install Grub to a different device. such as another HD or a USB stick. If Grub still wont boot W7 you can always use your bios boot menu to select.
YanOri
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Re: LM 14 and Windows 7 dual boot -Disk read error

Post by YanOri »

Hi, thanks a lot for your reply,I'll try and split your suggestion into three parts..
mintybits wrote:I dont know what is causing this nor why it is only Mint14. Something must have changed in Grub.
Hi, i think problem starts from ubuntu, on which mint depends upon. I face this on ubuntu 12.10 too.
mintybits wrote: A work-around is to boot Mint from Windows. You need to boot Mint and install Grub to the root partition instead of he MBR. Run sudo dpkg-reconfigure grub-pc. Then repair Windows and boot it and install EasyBCD.
I can have easybcd fix this, but the I'll have to pass two stages of boot menu selection (sorry i don't know if there's a separate term for that). I mean first I have to choose mint from boot menu and then i have to select 'linux mint' from grub.
mintybits wrote: Alternatively, install Grub to a different device. such as another HD or a USB stick. If Grub still wont boot W7 you can always use your bios boot menu to select.
If i install grub to say 'usb', won't i need the usb to be connected to the pc always?
mintybits

Re: LM 14 and Windows 7 dual boot -Disk read error

Post by mintybits »

YanOri wrote:I can have easybcd fix this, but the I'll have to pass two stages of boot menu selection (sorry i don't know if there's a separate term for that). I mean first I have to choose mint from boot menu and then i have to select 'linux mint' from grub.
Ome option is to change the settings in /etc/default/grub to hide the Grub menu.
If i install grub to say 'usb', won't i need the usb to be connected to the pc always?
Yes. Well, without the USB stick you can only boot Windows. You would need the USB to boot linux.
YanOri
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Re: LM 14 and Windows 7 dual boot -Disk read error

Post by YanOri »

mintybits wrote:Ome option is to change the settings in /etc/default/grub to hide the Grub menu.
Ok, if that's possible, then it would be nice. I'll try that later, if there's no other solution to it.
Yes. Well, without the USB stick you can only boot Windows. You would need the USB to boot linux.
So that makes the usb stick only useful for booting my mint? :cry:


I've heard about alternatives to grub2, but then I couldn't install burg when i tried yesterday. I found a 404 error
mintybits

Re: LM 14 and Windows 7 dual boot -Disk read error

Post by mintybits »

YanOri wrote:So that makes the usb stick only useful for booting my mint? :cry:
No. You can partition the USB stick however you like and use it (using MS-DOS partitioning that is; not, say, GPT)
The first part of Grub is put in the first sectors of the device ahead of the first partition. The second part of Grub is on your HD in your /boot directory. So you can use the stick to store stuff as normal and also use it as a boot device.
YanOri
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Re: LM 14 and Windows 7 dual boot -Disk read error

Post by YanOri »

Thanks for the reply again, This is solved now since your second reply actually gave me an alternative :)
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