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OK, so I wanted to dual boot Ubuntu 13.10 64bit with Windows 7 64bit on my Sony VAIO laptop. I installed Ubuntu to a separate partition (/dev/sda6) and placed the boot loader with Ubuntu on /dev/sda6. I rebooted and was taken straight back to windows. It was expected, and I used EasyBCD 2.2 to edit my boot menu and add a GRUB2 (automatically locate and load) to the menu. I rebooted and when I selected it, I got a message saying "Windows Failed to Load". I retried EasyBCD, trying different possibilities like selecting partition 6 instead of the automatic option. It did not work. I re-installed Ubuntu and put the boot loader in /dev/sda instead. I rebooted and I found myself, again, at the windows bootloader. I used EasyBCD to no avail. I re-installed Ubuntu again with the boot loader back in /dev/sda6 and re-did EasyBCD, and again, failure. The error code was 0xc0000098. I looked through the partitions that were already set up on my system and I found 6:

  • /dev/sda1 - fat32 - SONYSYS - hidden
  • /dev/sda2 - ntfs - Recovery - hidden, diag
  • /dev/sda3 - fat32 - [no label] - boot
  • /dev/sda4 - unknown - [no label] - msftres
  • /dev/sda5 - ntfs - [no label] - msftdata
  • /dev/sda6 - ext4 - [no label, ubuntu 13.10 install] - [no flag]

What should I do? Can I please have detailed, specific instructions, because all answers I found did not work for my scenario.

Edit: in case I was unclear, the fail to load error is for Ubuntu, I can still use windows fine.

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  • You are showing standard UEFI partitioning for Windows. The sda3 FAT32 partition is the efi partition where UEFI installs place boot files. You do not need EasyBCD. But you have to install Ubuntu in UEFI mode not BIOS mode. How you boot installer is how it installs. askubuntu.com/questions/221835/… and: help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFI
    – oldfred
    Dec 24, 2013 at 4:48
  • But what should I use for the "Device for boot loader installation"? Edit: and I can't mount the EFI partition to /boot/efi like the UEFI page says. However, it is used as the "EFI Boot partition", which appears to be automatic, so it must have done that all the other times, also. Dec 26, 2013 at 15:46
  • You still choose the drive like sda for bootloader install. With UEFI it knows to install to the efi partition or if BIOS install it does install to the MBR of sda. With UEFI the grub install to an efi partition adds the entry to fstab automatically.
    – oldfred
    Dec 26, 2013 at 17:21
  • I did that and it booted into the windows boot loader after installing. Should I choose /dev/sda3 for the boot loader instead and try again? Dec 26, 2013 at 20:06
  • Should I do that? I really want to get Ubuntu working. Dec 28, 2013 at 22:56

1 Answer 1

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You need to repair your windows bootloader and then make grub2 as default bootloader.To do that follow the below steps,

  • Boot windows installation disk then select the "windows repair" or "repair your computer" option before you go into the installation process.

  • After selecting windows repair option,it will take you to the next screen.In that screen select the "command prompt" option

  • Then run the below commands,on it.

    bootrec /fixmbr
    bootrec /fixboot
    bootrec /rebuildbcd
    
  • This will repair your windows bootloader.

  • Atlast boot boot-repair-disk and click on the recommended repair option.Now it works.

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  • Would a flash drive that was used to make a recovery disk suffice as a windows installation disk? Dec 30, 2013 at 19:26
  • Did you want to recover datas? Dec 31, 2013 at 1:13
  • I have no issues with Windows nor any issues booting into Windows. I just can't boot into Ubuntu, and therefor Ubuntu has no data that has any worth. Dec 31, 2013 at 3:12
  • then run boot-repair,it will reinstall your grub. Dec 31, 2013 at 3:20
  • Recommended mode or advanced? Will recommended mode work with UEFI? Dec 31, 2013 at 14:55

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