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I've a quite complicated problem related to dual boot of Ubuntu and Windows 7.

At first I had Windows 7 installed in my laptop but then when I tried to dual boot with Ubuntu 14.04, I somehow mistakenly managed to delete Windows 7 and all my data and partitions except the 512 MiB sized fat32 /boot/efi and a swap partition I had from an old linux installation. All other Windows ntfs partitions and a 40 GiB ext4 partiotion turned into a giant 450 GiB ext4 Ubuntu partition.

When I coped the loss of all my data and Windows 7, today I finally tried to re-install it in my Laptop.

First, I created two ntfs partitions from that ext4 450 GiB partitions with a GParted live cd. Now my Gparted shows these partitions:

Gparted shows these partitions

Then I created a Windows 7 live USB to install it in the ntfs partition. My plan was to install Windows 7 and then boot-repair grub from Ubuntu live cd. But when the Windows 7 live usb loaded. It gave me the following error

Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause.
To fix the problem:

1. Insert your Windows installation disc and restart your computer.
2. choose your language settings, and click "next"
3. Click "Repair your computer."

If you do not have this disc, contact your system administrator or computer
manufacturer for assistance.

File:  windows/system32/boot/winload.exe

Status: 0xc0000001

Info:  The selected entry could not be loaded because the application is missing
       or corrupt.

When I don't even have Windows 7 in my system then why Windows boot manager not letting me install a fresh one. I have also tried to fix it through boot-repair but it shows some error at the end. Here's the Boot Info Summary:

============================= Boot Info Summary: ===============================

=> No boot loader is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda.

sda1: __________________________________________________________________________

File system:       vfat
Boot sector type:  FAT32
Boot sector info:  No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:  
Boot files:        /EFI/ubuntu/MokManager.efi /EFI/ubuntu/grubx64.efi 
                   /EFI/ubuntu/shimx64.efi

sda2: __________________________________________________________________________

File system:       ext4
Boot sector type:  -
Boot sector info: 
Operating System:  Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS 
Boot files:        /boot/grub/grub.cfg /etc/fstab 
                   /boot/extlinux/extlinux.conf

sda3: __________________________________________________________________________

File system:       swap
Boot sector type:  -
Boot sector info: 

sda4: __________________________________________________________________________

File system:       ntfs
Boot sector type:  Windows Vista: NTFS
Boot sector info:  No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:  
Boot files:        

sda5: __________________________________________________________________________

File system:       ntfs
Boot sector type:  Windows Vista: NTFS
Boot sector info:  No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:  
Boot files:

For complete info please check this URL http://paste.ubuntu.com/8346257/

Can anyone please tell me why I'm unable to re-install windows and how to fix this problem?

Any help would be appreciated. :)

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  • 1
    No it isn't. We can install Windows after Linux and recover grub with boot-repair. But my problem is different. I am unable to install Windows because of the error mentioned in the question. I think there's something wrong with grub.cfg file.
    – Mohi
    Sep 15, 2014 at 10:24
  • From where did you obtained the Windows ISO? Is it OEM's? Was windows 7 preinstalled on your laptop?
    – VRR
    Apr 10, 2015 at 6:38

2 Answers 2

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  • Create the ISO file from your current Linux OS so that even if you format your whole HDD, you still can recover your files and data.

  • After you created the ISO file, format the whole HDD again. Then this time, make sure to have enough partition spaces.

  • Then install the Windows first, then install the Linux the main reason is if you install Windows first, then Linux GRUB loader still can detect Windows, but if you install Linux first, Windows will overwrite, to solve this problem, you have to use any Linux Live CD to boot into your Linux partition and then update your GRUB loader. After that you can see both OSs in your system. :)

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  • I can't format my HDD. It took me a lot of effort to make Ubuntu work the way I want. All those alsa driver problems and not to mention the installation of Nvidia driver with bumblebee. Is there any way to make it work without removing Linux and formatting my whole HDD?
    – Mohi
    Sep 15, 2014 at 10:35
  • I found this question. I think this guy has the same kind of problem as mine. Here's the link
    – Mohi
    Sep 15, 2014 at 11:17
  • Even if you remove your Linux, you still can reinstall back to your current condition. That is why I want you to create your Linux OS with current condition to get one ISO file. Let say you don't need to install your Linux from fresh install, and you can reuse from the current condition. It is like your back up Linux OS to reinstall it back :) Sep 16, 2014 at 1:30
  • Thanks for the support but I've alraedy fixed this problem some other way. :)
    – Mohi
    Sep 16, 2014 at 23:24
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I got the same problem and solve by: Step 1. remove efi partition when "where do you want install windows" window come out. In my case is partition 6.

Step 2. Chose the partition where I want install windows

After that windows will overwrite grub from hdd which means cant boot ubuntu. If you need ubuntu: Step 3: fix grub by boot-repair, see step 7 in install-ubuntu-1404-alongside-windows

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