Ubuntu Linux is quite capable of handling Windows 7.
After you fix your MBR problem, you should download GParted and burn the ISO to a CD-RW. Boot into it, and hide the recovery partition. Then install Ubuntu for a dual boot with Windows 7. You will end up with GRUB2 as your boot manager, and this will hide the recovery partition so you don't inadvertently boot into it.
which only pertains to WinXP, and links to Dan Goodall's now out-of-date fix. The Win7 / 64-bit has different partitions and filesystems, but obviously the problem is the same.
I wanted to end up with a GRUB menu giving me
a default Windows 7,
Ubuntu
and the Dell restore partition in case I ever need it.
but it seems impossible to boot the Dell recovery partion (or to fix the hotkey to it, Ctrl-F11) without the Dell customized MBR. Gparted just lets me resize & hide partitions.
I can however boot to the Dell recovery partion if I FIRST boot from the recovery DVD, which seems to make the recovery partition rather pointless. Never mind, I now have Ubuntu & Windoze dual booting nicely, so I'll just recover from DVD if I ever need to. Thank you.
ieee488
4 Operator
•
11.1K Posts
0
August 27th, 2011 10:00
See if http://neosmart.net/wiki/display/EBCD/Recovering+the+Vista+Bootloader+from+the+DVD is useful.
Ubuntu Linux is quite capable of handling Windows 7.
After you fix your MBR problem, you should download GParted and burn the ISO to a CD-RW. Boot into it, and hide the recovery partition. Then install Ubuntu for a dual boot with Windows 7. You will end up with GRUB2 as your boot manager, and this will hide the recovery partition so you don't inadvertently boot into it.
idiota
3 Posts
0
August 29th, 2011 03:00
Thanks, that is interesting. Information on this is quite hard to find with google! I did find this discussion:
http://laptop-support.org/Information/about-the-dell-pc-restore-partition.html
which only pertains to WinXP, and links to Dan Goodall's now out-of-date fix. The Win7 / 64-bit has different partitions and filesystems, but obviously the problem is the same.
I wanted to end up with a GRUB menu giving me
but it seems impossible to boot the Dell recovery partion (or to fix the hotkey to it, Ctrl-F11) without the Dell customized MBR. Gparted just lets me resize & hide partitions.
I can however boot to the Dell recovery partion if I FIRST boot from the recovery DVD, which seems to make the recovery partition rather pointless. Never mind, I now have Ubuntu & Windoze dual booting nicely, so I'll just recover from DVD if I ever need to. Thank you.