Mint 17 installer does not see Windows 7 installation already on computer

moxieman99 · 06-11-2014, 11:26 AM

Thought I'd try Mint 17 (cinnamon) on my Gateway i7 machine that has Windows 7 professional already installed.

Everything is 64-bit.

Mint 17 installer says that it detects no installed OS on the computer, and wants to take over the entire hard drive. I don't want to do that, I want to dual boot. So I cancel the install and am now at a loss. Why isn't the linux installer recognizing the existing Win7 installation?

I'd like to avoid having to install to a pre-selected partition and then go in and edit grub-2 if I can avoid it.

Thanks

yancek · 06-11-2014, 02:14 PM

Did you do an md5checksum on the iso? Do you not see the 'Install Alongside' option in the Installation Type window? Did you try the 'Something Else' option? Same result?

Quote:

I'd like to avoid having to install to a pre-selected partition and then go in and edit grub-2 if I can avoid it.

So you don't want to make any decision? Why would you not want to select the partition yourself? Why do you think you would need to edit Grub? The situation you describe certainly would not require that.

moxieman99 · 06-11-2014, 04:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yancek

Did you do an md5checksum on the iso? Do you not see the 'Install Alongside' option in the Installation Type window? Did you try the 'Something Else' option? Same result?

So you don't want to make any decision? Why would you not want to select the partition yourself? Why do you think you would need to edit Grub? The situation you describe certainly would not require that.

I don't mind selecting the partition. I just don't want to go in and edit grub-2 if I can avoid it. If I have to, I have to. The essential point is WHY isn't the install alongside option showing up?

The MD5checksum is fine, and I can install on another computer. I know the dvd is good.

yancek · 06-11-2014, 07:04 PM

The only thing I can think of is there is no unallocated space or partitions on which to install Mint. If that's not it, I have no idea.

jefro · 06-11-2014, 07:58 PM

Not sure why it doesn't report an OS unless you have a flash drive on it or different partition. Could be some encrypted drive too.

I might suggest you just run a virtual machine. The core i7 should be fine for this.

If you want you can boot to the live media and use other tools to see what this distro sees on this drive. There should be three partitions on it already or maybe more.

You'd have to create some room on a partition.

moxieman99 · 06-11-2014, 09:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jefro

Not sure why it doesn't report an OS unless you have a flash drive on it or different partition. Could be some encrypted drive too.

I might suggest you just run a virtual machine. The core i7 should be fine for this.

If you want you can boot to the live media and use other tools to see what this distro sees on this drive. There should be three partitions on it already or maybe more.

You'd have to create some room on a partition.

/dev/sda had 5 partitions originally, the win7 boot (100 meg), C:, E:, and 2 data partitions.

I transfered the data from the data partitions into the E: partition, and then deleted, combined, and formatted them into 1 partition at the end of the hard disk.

I then installed Mint 17 /, /home, /var, /opt, swap, etc. (all separated out) into the now free partition. 900 gigs worth. Mint 17 is working fine, and I've been downloading apps and surfing the net all evening.

Trouble was, when installing, Mint 17 said there was no OS on the computer at all.

Learning how to find my win7 boot and then configuring grub-2 will be a pain, but do-able. I'm just mystified at the lack of recognition of the existence of the win7 OS to begin with.

Now I know I've wiped out my boot for win7, but there was plenty of space on the drive at all times. My concern is that Linux Mint didn't see it at all.

yancek · 06-11-2014, 10:03 PM

I've seen posts with the problem of not recognizing windows on the Mint forums so you're not alone with the problem.
You could try running sudo os-prober and sudo update-grub to see if windows gets added to the menu. Windows entries in Grub2 are pretty simple:

Code:

menuentry "Windows 7 (loader) (on /dev/sdb1)" --class windows --class os {
	insmod part_msdos
	insmod ntfs
	set root='(hd1,msdos1)'
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root A0A03A5CA03A395C
	chainloader +1
}

The only things you would need to change from the example above are the (hd1,msdos1) on the set root line above to conform to the partition you have it on and the uuid at the end of the search line which you can get with: sudo blkid

moxieman99 · 06-12-2014, 07:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yancek

I've seen posts with the problem of not recognizing windows on the Mint forums so you're not alone with the problem.
You could try running sudo os-prober and sudo update-grub to see if windows gets added to the menu. Windows entries in Grub2 are pretty simple:

Code:

menuentry "Windows 7 (loader) (on /dev/sdb1)" --class windows --class os {
	insmod part_msdos
	insmod ntfs
	set root='(hd1,msdos1)'
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root A0A03A5CA03A395C
	chainloader +1
}

The only things you would need to change from the example above are the (hd1,msdos1) on the set root line above to conform to the partition you have it on and the uuid at the end of the search line which you can get with: sudo blkid

Yancek, Wonderful advice. os-prober found my windows 7 (making it all the more puzzling why it wasn't picked up before) and update-grub added it to my boot menu. Thanks!

yancek · 06-12-2014, 01:59 PM

If I'm reading your post 6 correctly, that you had five windows partitions when you booted Mint that would be why you did not get the Install Alongside option. It's not that the OS wasn't detected but that there was no "alongside" to install to, a partition or unallocated/free space. If you had the partitions before initially trying to install Mint then I have no idea what the problem would be.

moxieman99 · 06-12-2014, 06:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yancek

If I'm reading your post 6 correctly, that you had five windows partitions when you booted Mint that would be why you did not get the Install Alongside option. It's not that the OS wasn't detected but that there was no "alongside" to install to, a partition or unallocated/free space. If you had the partitions before initially trying to install Mint then I have no idea what the problem would be.

I had made the space for Mint before I tried to install. I had about 900 gig worth of space to install into. It's a mystery. Oh Well (Parts 1 & 2)

NGIB · 06-18-2014, 06:28 AM

Add Grub Customizer to your Mint install - it does a great job tweaking Grub and avoiding having to manually edit the config files...

boredtech78 · 11-15-2014, 01:09 PM

change your boot mode setting of efi/legacy to either one or the other. Once you find which one windows boots into then restart using your install for linux. It should now see windows 7. That's how simple it was for me.