Just a note to add to hundreds of postings to this matter.
Backup your data first !!!
We were trying to install w7 on a reserved partition. W7 did not like the partition (whatever we tried).
Since we had 3 hard-drives, on the allocated drive we deleted all partitions and set the partition table type new to MSDOS (yast etc…).
W7 installed fine. We did not time it, but it appeared that 11.3 installs faster plus considering 11.3 installs quite a number of applications.
There are plenty of postings re integrating W7 to the Grub-menu.
This system went through several Suse updates, hardware upgrades, basically was all over the place… we did a “new” install of 11.3 allocating its own hard-drive.
Install…fine, and Grub entered W7 to the menu. Worked ! Mounted the windows partition to /home/yourusername/windows
So, if you really (?) need W7 and have a spare hard-drive, this maybe is a clean solution.
Did you try to create a blank partition without any filesystem? (and without leaving a gap between this partition and the others)
Boot Windows7 , see if you can install
Did you try to remove a primary partition, so get a blank space
Boot Windows7 , see if you can install
Did you try to create a blank partition (NTFS formating under Linux is irrelevant), give it the partition ID 0x07 and set the bootflag on it (you pretty much need Grub in the MBR to do that)
Boot Windows7 , see if you can install
Dif you try with OEM and full versions of Windows 7. Does it make a difference?
Did you try to create a blank partition without any filesystem? (and without leaving a gap between this partition and the others)Boot Windows7 , see if you can install
yes but no gap
Did you try to remove a primary partition, so get a blank spaceBoot Windows7 , see if you can install
No
Did you try to create a blank partition (NTFS formating under Linux is irrelevant), give it the partition ID 0x07 and set the bootflag on it (you pretty much need Grub in the MBR to do that) Boot Windows7 , see if you can install
No…“bootflag” that could have been the problem !!!
Dif you try with OEM and full versions of Windows 7. Does it make a difference?
otto_oz, you should consider running findgrub on your setup and posting a copy here using the code block to enclose it. Here is a link for its location. Copy the file your home area ~/bin folder as the file findgrub:
Open up a terminal session and run findgrub. Enter the root password when requested. Here is a sample of the printout on my computer which also boots from a secondary hard drive.
james@LinuxUser:~> findgrub
Root User Permissions are required, Please Enter the ...
root's password:
Find Grub Version 2.1 - Written for openSUSE Forums
- reading MBR on disk /dev/sda ...
- searching partition /dev/sda1 (NTFS) ... --> Windows7/Vista Loader found in /dev/sda1
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You can add the following entry to /boot/grub/menu.lst :
###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: WindowsBootLoader###
title Windows on /dev/sda1
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
chainloader +1
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- reading MBR on disk /dev/sdb ...
- skiping partition /dev/sdb1 (swap)
- reading bootsector /dev/sdb2 (LINUX) ... --> Grub found in /dev/sdb2
- reading bootsector /dev/sdb3 (LINUX) ...
- reading MBR on disk /dev/sdc ...
- searching partition /dev/sdc1 (NTFS) ...
You might also consider doing a terminal command of fdisk -l which gives even more information about your setup:
