Okay, so I'm relatively new to Ubuntu. I've searched and found solutions related to my problem but none that have so far directly worked.
After figuring out how to free up space to make a partition on my computer in order to install Ubuntu 11.10 side-by-side with Windows and installing it, and rebooting my computer, I found myself staring at the Ubuntu login. But it never asked me whether I wanted to boot Windows 7 or Ubuntu, and every time I restart the computer it takes me straight to the Ubuntu login.
My computer is an eMachine EL1333G-01w. Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit was pre-installed originally, and the entire hard drive was basically dedicated as "eMachines" (which made it really annoying installing Ubuntu since they stole the whole hard drive as a Windows partition, which I figured how to cut down).
After a little (frustrating) search I discovered something called the bootloader and that Ubuntu automatically uses GRUB to let you choose which OS to use. The problem is, GRUB doesn't seem to be working, or it doesn't seem to have been installed at all. I've looked through the Software Center and downloaded what I believed to be GRUB but that didn't work.
When I turn on the computer, the first thing I see is the "e" symbol with two options on the bottom: boot options and Setup Menu, which prompts me to believe the bootloader wasn't properly implemented or installed. Then the screen displays "Input Display Out of Range" for a few seconds, and then the Ubuntu login pops up. I found something called boot-repair but the Ubuntu wouldn't run it whether as a file or off a CD I burned. Entering "grub" into the terminal tells me it's not installed, and after following directions to install it and rebooting, the same thing occurs. Typing "grub" gets me "Probing Devices to guess BIOS drives. This may take a long time.", so I've been waiting for a while, with nothing happening.
Most problems I see involve people unable to boot into Windows from GRUB, but GRUB doesn't even show up on my system. Can someone help me with this?