Trying to install Leap 15.2 in dual boot with Windows 10 on my 2014 Dell Inspiron Laptop. It only support BIOS and not any of the latest EF’s. After installing Windows 10, during install I select installing Grub2 in MBR. But After rebooting I find that the Windows is not booting.
Does Window need some unformated space before its primary partition where ‘C:\’ drive is loaded? If so, how much space should be left?
Just an idea what might have happened: Windows : The UEFI is configured to support both legacy boot and UEFI boot mode. Windows was installed in legacy BIOS mode and therefore the disk is partitioned with MBR partitioning. However , OpenSuse and GRUB was installed in UEFI mode. When using GRUB the Systen is in UEFI mode. But Windows can’t start in UEFI mode on a MBR partitioned bootdisk. That’s not supported by the Windows bootloader.
Could you show us the output of fdisk -l or parted -l ? To decide if the theory above might be true
Then you are not using UEFI. If you were using UEFI, the disk label type would show as GPT. You are using the older partitioning.
Linux can actually use either form of partitioning. And, depending on your BIOS, it might be possible to use UEFI with either type of partitioning. However the UEFI specifications do require GPT partitioning.
Windows is a lot fussier. If you use GPT partitioning, Windows will only boot with UEFI. If you use DOS partitioning, Windows will only boot with legacy booting.
I guess I should mention that there is also hybrid partitioning. It is really GPT, but fudged enough that Windows thinks it is DOS partitioning. It is not recommended, but can work to fool Windows. (I have never tried using that).
In any case, it is highly likely that you are not using UEFI, so that installing Grub2 to the MBR is reasonable.
I’m not sure where that leaves you. I don’t use Windows 10 here. But I recall hearing that when some people upgraded to Windows 10, it created a new partition. And since there can be only 4 primary partitions with DOS partitioning, that left one partition without a partition table entry and broke linux. I don’t know whether Win10 really needs that extra partition, or it is just a place to save stuff.
Thanks for the reply. Yes, When I had purchased this computer in 2014, it had preloaded Windows 10 and it lasted for so many years because I do not use it often. It did have a small partition before ‘C:’ Drive. But at this stage I thought it proper to install the upgrade which was downloaded and installed but after rebooting, it did not work. Then I reinstalled Windows 7. It was working till I installed Leap 15.2. During that partitioning I removed that small Windows partition. Then, Windows 7 also did not work.I suppose that small partition was required by Windows.
I am considering to re-create a small ntfs partition before Windows partition. It will involve my total re-installation of Leap 15.2 also.
This is Dell Inspiron 3540, bought in 2014.
What partitions would you suggest? Only partition I need to keep intact is /home which is /dev/sda6; even though its backup is taken on an external disk.
Should I change to UEFI? But I am not very familiar with it.
I feel comfortable with the DOS boot and prefer to carry on with thatonly unless you feel otherwise.
Hi
Will make life far more easy for windows/openSUSE along with one partition for both operating systems to boot from etc…
Means a complete install, change the disk type etc, windows creates it’s own partition on an update etc…
This is my Dual boot laptop, no issues with winX after a couple of update installs (I prefer to run a full update after a release of winX and keep files/settings)
lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda 8:0 0 111.8G 0 disk
├─sda1 8:1 0 260M 0 part /boot/efi
├─sda2 8:2 0 16M 0 part
├─sda3 8:3 0 25G 0 part /
├─sda4 8:4 0 15G 0 part /data
├─sda5 8:5 0 1.5G 0 part [SWAP]
├─sda6 8:6 0 69.4G 0 part
└─sda7 8:7 0 620M 0 part
parted -l
Model: ATA OCZ-VERTEX460A (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 120GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags:
Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
1 1049kB 274MB 273MB fat16 EFI System boot, esp
2 274MB 290MB 16.8MB Microsoft reserved msftres
3 290MB 27.1GB 26.8GB btrfs Linux filesystem
4 27.1GB 43.2GB 16.1GB xfs Linux filesystem
5 43.2GB 44.9GB 1611MB linux-swap(v1) Linux swap swap
6 44.9GB 119GB 74.5GB ntfs Microsoft basic data msftdata
7 119GB 120GB 650MB ntfs hidden, diag
I seem to remember that, back in 2014, Dell was selling systems where the BIOS supported UEFI, but which were configured for MBR booting. I think they came with Windows 7, which some people wanted to avoid Windows 8.
To the OP: If you want to go with UEFI, then you will probably need to reinstall Windows to get it to work. But perhaps you need to reinstall Windows anyway. You would have to decide that.
Thanks a lot for your replies. Yes, as pointed ut by Malcolm also Dell does include UEFI as well. But I will have to get familiar with it before I venture into it. I wanted to avoid that ‘learning curve’ for want of time. But I suppose there is no escaping from it. Yes, reinstall I have to and that is why my original question.
Shall delve into it and shall come back after I have finished with reinstall.
When I bought new hardware in 2014 I continued with traditional bios and postponed switch to uefi until 2018. Based on 3 years of experience with uefi I now know that I should have switched already in 2014.
Thanks for all your reactions. I have downloaded the BIOS and shall be updating once windows 7 is reinstalled.
I have also backed up my ‘/home’ on an external drive. I shall be re-partitioning the HDD and install windows first and the Leap-15.2 with Gnome Desktop.
Shall come back after it is done.