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Background information: I've a Lenovo u510, which comes with pre-installed windows 8 with their "new" UEFI boot system as you know.

I need Ubuntu to run ROS for fun in my spare time and I need Windows for Autodesk Inventor and other programs for university studying.

I've tried 5 times now to be able to dual boot Windows with Ubuntu and it is driving me nuts.

First I installed Virtual box in Windows 8 to install Ubuntu this way. both operating systems work fine, but ROS will not work with the USB ports etc, so this option was useless. Then I tried to dual boot Ubuntu along windows 8, twice I almost messed up my computer, so I dropped this.

This was two month ago - this week I ended up with an extra SSD disk from my workstation, so I decided to install it in my laptop.

From what I could read and see on the internet this was the way to do it:

  • First I wiped the SSD clean.
  • Changed booting from UEFI to legacy mode
  • Installed Windows 7
  • Did a partition of 30 gb unallocated space.
  • Then live-booted ubuntu with an usb-pen.

Then here comes the tricky part - either people get Ubuntu to ask if you like to install Ubuntu along windows 7/8/8.1 and then there wouldn't be any problem or ubuntu doesn't detect that there is already an operating system installed and then gives the other options of doing a clean install - removed all prior files. or "something else"

As other people have done on the internet I go with something else.

My partition can't be seen/doesn't work, so I create a new one, and a Swap and a root partition.

Then I install it Ubuntu, and when that is installed and running nicely. I can't boot windows 7, so I am pretty clear that Ubuntu just overwrote Windows 7 and installed itself.

I've tried this multiple times, with minor changes, the result is always that it can only find or boot up Ubuntu.

Is Windows still installed somewhere, do I somehow have the option to dual boot?

How can I get Ubuntu to detect Windows when I try to install Ubuntu along windows, so everything will work as planned?

3 Answers 3

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Firstly, Install Windows 7 and then instead of installing it from the live cd. Install it from within windows using wubi installer on a NTFS partition. First change UEFI to legacy in BIOS.

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If you did everything fine, yes, Windows is still there but GRUB (Ubuntu boot manager) does not recognize it. Open Terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run:

sudo update-grub

This will make GRUB search for OSs in all of your partitions. After update-grub command is done, reboot and you should see Windows as an option at GRUB menu.

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Have you tried to use gparted from an ubuntu stick or dvd? You should be able to see the partitions, note them, mount them, and check for data. If it doesn't recognize windows during the ubuntu install prompts, Ubuntu hasn't overwritten it, yet. It might be a grub issue. gparted will search and report what OS is where. if the Windows disk manager is used, MS won't recognize some partition types. Gparted does. Think Knoppix on a stick. F12 boot menu.

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