Cannot install Mint Linux on SSHD with Windows 10 as Multiboot

Thanks for your efforts.

BUT

Problem is after second install, Windows says cannot find winload.exe and F8 does not even work. I cannot go to advanced options to select startup repair. I have done this a dozen times. Probably the install messes up with drive letters or something because in BCD everything seems fine.

I cannot send a screen shot (if you know how I can capture it, tell me) of the problem I am facing.
Okay you could try this : open CMD in windows - right click to run as an administrator and then run this command
sfc /scannow and press enter - once it has completed ie 100% you will see either of these two things : If problems found this :
Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them. Details are included in the CBS.Log windir\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For example C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. Note that logging is currently not supported in offline servicing scenarios.

Or if no problems this:
Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.

If that does not work - I am not sure what to suggest apart from a complete re-install which is not what you really want to do
The only other thing that I can think of is as I suggested above and this is what How to Geek says about it - actually you might try and search the sight to see if they've an answer, because apart from a complete re-install I'm lost now : https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/32523/how-to-manually-repair-windows-7-boot-loader-problems/
Let us know how you get on
 


Wow, you are really going far for me. I appreciate by the heart.

for SFC /scannow, I need to be inside the problematic windows installation, because from the 1st windows which is successfully installed and running, this command would do nothing. The link for article on howtogeek is okay, but it is valid ONLY if I can see that blue screen with options. BUT I only see the message "cannot find winload.exe" and the loader stops. If, somehow, I could get the command prompt, then DOS commands were there to take advantage of.

I feel there are no corrupted files as such, only Windows is not able to update itself, on where the 2nd install went (and missing some important info, because each and every file in the windows and windows/system32 folder are intact). Only if someone could repair the partition table which windows creates, can solve the problem.

It may appear weird to you, but on my normal disk, I have 5 windows 7 installs (2x64 and 3x32) and not even once I had any problem. Moreover, there are not many out there who would have this need: multiple windows installs. I am shortchanged for this reason.
 
Wow, you are really going far for me. I appreciate by the heart.

for SFC /scannow, I need to be inside the problematic windows installation, because from the 1st windows which is successfully installed and running, this command would do nothing. The link for article on howtogeek is okay, but it is valid ONLY if I can see that blue screen with options. BUT I only see the message "cannot find winload.exe" and the loader stops. If, somehow, I could get the command prompt, then DOS commands were there to take advantage of.

I feel there are no corrupted files as such, only Windows is not able to update itself, on where the 2nd install went (and missing some important info, because each and every file in the windows and windows/system32 folder are intact). Only if someone could repair the partition table which windows creates, can solve the problem.

It may appear weird to you, but on my normal disk, I have 5 windows 7 installs (2x64 and 3x32) and not even once I had any problem. Moreover, there are not many out there who would have this need: multiple windows installs. I am shortchanged for this reason.

It would tell you that it is okay, which would mean that the other one is corrupted somehow. As I have said this would give you the starting point. If windows is okay on this, then why not give each person who needs to long into windows a separate login, that way you would not have to keep installing windows for each person to use it. I know that the How to Geek was the next step, but that is why I suggest that you run the sfc/scannow command, it will repair the winload.exe if it needs to be done - It may well then make it possible for you to get onto the other installs as the file will be repaired.

Update problems are always caused in my experience by corrupted or missing files. The solution to which is: Download the Windows Update Troubleshooter, and then select Open or Save in the pop-up window. I would then open it not save and follow the instructions. That should solve the problem if it has to do with updates - Yet again it is a step after what I have suggested to you above.

While I admire what you have done and no it is not the first time I've come across it as I have repaired that situation before but then I had the pc in front of me so I could see what is happening as much as anyone tells you it is a matter of seeing and feeling to get an answer.

If none of these work then it is possible that your installation media has become corrupted (not your fault it happens for many reasons ) and you may have to download a fresh copy of. However before doing that, just try what I have suggested first - Okay
 
Today, I interchanged the drives and, obviously, neither 7 nor 10 booted. However, after I ran bootrec /rebuildbcd it found 5 installations. But when tried to boot again, it said missing operating system. (Please note that windows 10 was installed on the 1 TB hdd, which I now have as the main, whereas the 320 gb is now put as secondary).

I now tried to install Windows 10 on this main 1 TB disk, but it installed, but failed after reboot.

The strange thing I noted that today is 25 July, but in the folder, both the Windows folder show as July 26 (I am uploading the screenshot)



Now I will try installing Linux Mint again and then try and see if it installs well.

(I use F12 to select the small drive, where original MBR is located and then running windows 10 which was installed on this 1 TB disk)

Another anomaly I found was the 100Mb partition windows makes on disks, on one disk it is system partition whereas on 1Tb it is a primary partition.

If you can make anything out of this jungle, please let me know.
 
Tried installing Mint. I gave 22 Gb for /, 4 Gb for swap, 23 Gb for /home and after installing and rebooting, it says, error: no such partition.

I ran boot-repair and I don't how it behaved! Despite all the above partitions, it again reiterated the same message I saw earlier "very less space exists on your Windows disk, Sdb3, only 3 GB!" Pic given below. Why you need to go there, looking for all the other partitions on my next disk?

Here is the report

Boot successfully repaired.

Please write on a paper the following URL:
http://paste.ubuntu.com/p/9WRdBdJq3g/

Please do not forget to make your BIOS boot on sda (ATA ST1000LX015-1U71) disk! (What an observation, the program does not want to do anything on its own)




Any idea folks what to do?
 
Today, I interchanged the drives and, obviously, neither 7 nor 10 booted. However, after I ran bootrec /rebuildbcd it found 5 installations. But when tried to boot again, it said missing operating system. (Please note that windows 10 was installed on the 1 TB hdd, which I now have as the main, whereas the 320 gb is now put as secondary).

I now tried to install Windows 10 on this main 1 TB disk, but it installed, but failed after reboot.

The strange thing I noted that today is 25 July, but in the folder, both the Windows folder show as July 26 (I am uploading the screenshot)



Now I will try installing Linux Mint again and then try and see if it installs well.

(I use F12 to select the small drive, where original MBR is located and then running windows 10 which was installed on this 1 TB disk)

Another anomaly I found was the 100Mb partition windows makes on disks, on one disk it is system partition whereas on 1Tb it is a primary partition.

If you can make anything out of this jungle, please let me know.
Okay without being rude I have tried to help as much as I can. I am not on windows now and have spent yesterday converting my son's garage over to Mint. It is my personal opinion that since your problems are about Windows and this forum deals with Linux may be you'd be better to go to here https://www.thewindowsclub.com/ where they deal with Windows 10 all the time and it might help you resolve your issues - I know some of the people on their and they are good with stuff as some of them are MVPs . I am sure that by going there you will get the help you need
 
Okay without being rude I have tried to help as much as I can. I am not on windows now and have spent yesterday converting my son's garage over to Mint. It is my personal opinion that since your problems are about Windows and this forum deals with Linux may be you'd be better to go to here https://www.thewindowsclub.com/ where they deal with Windows 10 all the time and it might help you resolve your issues - I know some of the people on their and they are good with stuff as some of them are MVPs . I am sure that by going there you will get the help you need

I appreciate all of the help you provided.

I just highlighted what problems I am facing while installing Linux & Windows. Forget about Windows, I would appreciate again if you could analyze the latest boot-repair report and tell me, how can I get my hands wet on Linux. (Windows was never trouble free but I feel Linux should be better programmed). Now that Chrome is available on Linux, I have more reasons to work on Linux as all my work relates to websites (I am a content writer).

I want to assure you, you are NOT rude. It is just that I want to make full use of my money I spent on SSHD and trying to explore options. Yes, I can work on Mint from the USB, but then it does not make sense to me.
 
It may appear weird to you, but on my normal disk, I have 5 windows 7 installs (2x64 and 3x32) and not even once I had any problem.
Wow! Really... WOW! @wizardfromoz runs about 40 Linux distros on a single laptop, but they are all different from each other. I cannot fathom the need or desire to run so many independent Windows copies, but no doubt you have reasons important to you.

I think your discussion is well over my pay grade, but let me again reflect on UEFI/GPT versus BIOS/MBR because I keep seeing MBR brought up. BIOS/MBR is the "old school" (since 1980's) way of managing your hard drive partitions, but you seem to be clinging to this older method. Perhaps it is necessary to run both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows systems together as you are doing. UEFI/GPT is the modern and more robust method. BIOS/MBR has a limitation of 4 primary partitions.... you must sacrifice one of them to create an Extended partition where you can exceed the limit by including Logical partitions within the Extended partition. This method is rather crude and may well be partly responsible for the issues you are now having. UEFI/GPT supports up to 128 primary partitions, and it stores bootloaders (Windows, Linux, multiple Linux, whatever) in a single, separate hard drive partition... not the MBR.The older technology of MBR may be too limited for what you are trying to do.

I just highlighted what problems I am facing while installing Linux & Windows. Forget about Windows, I would appreciate again if you could analyze the latest boot-repair report and tell me, how can I get my hands wet on Linux. (Windows was never trouble free but I feel Linux should be better programmed).
If you want to multi-boot Linux and Windows, you cannot forget about Windows. At a minimum, these systems must work together at the bootloader level.... one bootloader to boot everything, or the ability to choose different bootloaders to load each individual system. If Wizard can run 40 distros on a single hard drive... I do not think it is Linux that needs to be better programmed! :D:D But let's be clear... Wizard uses UEFI/GPT to control his incredible multi-boot arrangement, and I doubt that it would be possible using BIOS/MBR.

You may well be correct in that your hybrid drive may be a factor in your problems too. Since I know next to nothing about hybrid drives, all I can do is speculate that your BIOS may look at it as two separate drives: one SSD and one HDD. Even still... computers can boot from two separate physical hard drives, so why not from a hybrid? I think this problem, if it is a problem, can be overcome. I think most of the trouble is in your configuration(s).... choosing MBR instead of GPT, and in requiring 32-bit and 64-bit to coexist. This is just my opinion, so not a statement of fact. Multi-booting one copy of Windows with one Linux distribution is often complicated enough for average users.... you are trying to do something extremely different and difficult.

Your pastebin shows your GRUB menu entries that was installed (but not working). If GRUB would load, it shows 4 different Windows installations that might boot from the GRUB menu, 2 for Win 10 and 2 for Win 7. Whether they would boot from this menu or not is unknown. But as Wizard said back in Post #16... it may be possible to fix GRUB from the grub rescue> prompt. We have used the link he provided before with success, but again, yours is not a typical installation either. If you want to follow the steps in the link, we will try to assist if you have trouble with it... the instructions are tedious and must be followed very carefully to work, and still may not work.

Things to consider: You cannot escape Windows 10 Updates... they are mandatory. Any given update may bring unexpected problems... and I would really fear a Windows Update breaking your Linux GRUB boot structure at some point, if you manage to get it working at all. If you find a solution to make all this work, take good notes and be prepared to come back to this. There are many reasons why people here run Linux only, and Windows Update is not least among those reasons. :eek::eek:

Some easier possible solutions: 1) Run separate computers. If you can make multi-Microsoft-boot work, keep Windows walled off to itself. 2) Install VirtualBox (a free program from Oracle) or some other virtualization software on your Windows (one, or all of them) and then run Linux inside a virtual machine. Running inside a VM is a bit better than running off of USB to allow you to learn more about Linux. And you can install many VM's... letting your test many different distros to see what you like. You can install Linux into VirtualBox directly from the .iso file and will not need to first burn the image to a DVD or USB. To take this even further... you could have just one simple single copy of Windows (or Linux) installed on a hard drive... then use VirtualBox to install all of your additional copies of Windows and/or Linux. Most of the VM's can run full-screen, or as smaller windows so that they seem to be a full operating system that is running like an application. But, a VM is also not quite as good as a full install.... so whether it would suit your needs cannot be guessed by me, but it is a rather simple thing to try. One more thing: if you want to use any virtualization software, look inside your BIOS settings.... there is often a setting there that you can enable that can help virtualization to work better.

Cheers
 
My son is 17 and me 58 and I look to keep a watch on what he does, what he downloads and ... the file manager allows me to peep inside his windows. That is one reason.

Most of his games put lot of load on windows pc (mine is a laptop with just 4 gigs RAM and an I5). When Win10 was released I found my same laptop coming to knees, processor almost steaming and I thought of using a hybrid drive. I thought he can run heavy games easily, with that 8Gb cache.

As for Linux, I have intermittently worked on Fedora, Redhat, Puppy, Peanut, Centos, Mandrake... around two dozen. That was because most employers did not have windows license. Though I still hate Linux when working on any of the Office programs, as they appear half-baked, unprofessional, but yes they get the job done.

My win7 has VM (from Microsoft, and I run win XP).

I loved DOS and have no problems using Linux commands. Although I feel Linux should have at least upgraded itself by now, and get itself rid of using sda,sdb type device names. At least naming drives could have been done.

If you want to multi-boot Linux and Windows, you cannot forget about Windows.

I saw you getting frustrated with mention of Windows, and hence I asked to forget it for the time being!

I know, I can't live without windows as 3-decade-old-linux frustrates me a lot.

----------
My laptop Dell Latitude E5410 does have UEFI options in BIOS, but when clicked it asks for file to be used for booting, which no one either provides or discusses about. My vendor advises me against updating the BIOS saying one glitch and you will lose your pc. Hence I am stuck with what I have.

(Though I love experimenting and two decades ago, had 43 IBM PC using hard card [hard disk on a pci slot, 20 mb each] inside a refrigerator to prevent from heating, when outside temperature was 45 degrees celsius, set up on terrace with fans for operators)

Wow! Really... WOW! @wizardfromoz runs about 40 Linux distros on a single laptop, but they are all different from each other. I cannot fathom the need or desire to run so many independent Windows copies, but no doubt you have reasons important to you.

-------
Recent Win7 installs interfere with WAMP server which I run to test my wordpress sites and as a backup. Hence I need Xp. Some programs run better on 64 bit and others 32 bit. Different partitions & installs allow me to run varied Antivirus. On a separate PC I ran virus-infected programs and there were so many floating around, the system seldom ran.

LAST
My son told Linux changes the system date while installing, and Windows feels there is some fault out there. Now I have to erase everything linux from my disk and settle for using only Windows.

I thought I would learn something new and provide some insights to my growing son. But looks the time is not just right for it.
 
I saw you getting frustrated with mention of Windows, and hence I asked to forget it for the time being!
Sorry if I seemed frustrated... I'm not.

My son told Linux changes the system date while installing
Some things can be fixed... like this (here or here). Yes, by default, Linux changes the system time to UTC, the standard time used all around the world. It then offsets your time zone from UTC to display the correct time. Windows, on the other hand, expects the system time to be local time. Windows time can also be adjusted to correct for this situation, but the advice is usually to make Linux adjustments instead.

Although I feel Linux should have at least upgraded itself by now, and get itself rid of using sda,sdb type device names. At least naming drives could have been done.
And some things can't be fixed. Actually, this is not broken... it is just different. Windows and Linux are different in many ways, and always will be. But device nomenclature is not an "outdated" problem or a design flaw... it is a choice of preference by those who maintain the kernel. With Windows, if you describe files/folders on your D: drive to someone, they do not know if it is a separate physical hard drive, or a partition on the same hard drive as C: --- with Linux nomenclature, you do know the difference.

But, no use to debate the pros and cons of each system. They each have benefits and faults, and they do not always play nice together (for many varied reasons). I am afraid that in your case, they are not going to play nice together as you wish. And except for the advice to attempt a repair from the grub rescue> prompt, I am about out of ideas to try to help you.

Good luck!
 
And except for the advice to attempt a repair from the grub rescue> prompt, I am about out of ideas to try to help you.

Right, I thought so. There is no point going further because we both are not aware of how SSHD is calling the shots and what we can do about it. As I am unique, needing multiple boot, and multiple windows, I doubt anyone will have any helping hand.

Some things can be fixed... like this (here or here). Yes, by default, Linux changes the system time to UTC, the standard time used all around the world. It then offsets your time zone from UTC to display the correct time. Windows, on the other hand, expects the system time to be local time. Windows time can also be adjusted to correct for this situation, but the advice is usually to make Linux adjustments instead.

Since you know Linux in and out, it is easy to pick. Thanks for the explanation, else I would have never known. Even Googling would have been difficult, not clear on how to word my query. Till date we just rely on automatic time zone settings and things behave well in pc and my android phone.

With Windows, if you describe files/folders on your D: drive to someone, they do not know if it is a separate physical hard drive, or a partition on the same hard drive as C: --- with Linux nomenclature, you do know the difference.

If someone could attempt at designing a graphical interface where sda could be shown as Disk C, and so on, Windows could have a competitor of sorts. It could have been much easier to use provided we had someone who charged a few dollars but dish out something worthwhile.

Anyway, now its too late as both windows & linux have come a long way ahead and its futile discussing.

-----------
Thanks for all your inputs, as all other participants kept mum and I got valuable info from you. All your links for howtogeek, windows club were truly worthy. I am afraid that since I don't know much about Linux, I will have to leave this at this. But it was wonderful talking to you. I wish I could connect with you somehow (not necessarily on Linux, but other subjects too because knowing a knowledgeable person is always a boon come true.
 
Morning all, just on my 3rd coffee :)

@Batata when installing Linux, do you remember if you made an active choice to align to cylinder heads or to align to MiB? Cylinder alignment is only for very old computers, and MiB is more accurate.

If you have not already tried the article by Carla Schroder I linked to re Grub Rescue, then you are perhaps doing yourself a disservice, but that is your call.

The figures for the Linux kernel in use is
4.15.0-20-generic

... from your Pastebin report.

It appears that you have UEFI on the SSD is that so?

I would be inclined to reformat the drive from MS-DOS to GPT and then reinstall all, but that is a lot of work with all the Windows you have.

Only having 3 GB left on the Windows 7 is likely to cause problems, cleaning that up should be a priority.

I hope you are not giving the XP internet access? Its EOL (end of life for support) was 4 years ago last April.

Anyway, good luck in whatever you endeavour :)

Cheers

Wizard
BTW
as 3-decade-old-linux frustrates me a lot.
I'd be more inclined to worry about a 4-decades old OS that has left in place restrictions to exercise freedom of choice with other OSes, but that's just me :cool:
http://linux.oneandoneis2.org/LNW.htm
 
I am too tired to look into that MiB jargon!

I would be inclined to reformat the drive from MS-DOS to GPT and then reinstall all, but that is a lot of work with all the Windows you have.

When I convert to GPT, UEFI boot entries in the BIOS-UEFI menu are empty and so when we boot I am greeted with the blinking cursor. Also Windows does not allow me to install on GPT partition.

It appears that you have UEFI on the SSD is that so?

It looks you are confused (we are on the same boat ...). I do not have an SSD (instead it is SSHD)

I have a Seagate FireCuda 1TB laptop SSHD, which has a 8GB transparent cache, i.e. windows cannot see it. What is to be written on it is decided by the SSHD firmware. And that is the problem.

I hope you are not giving the XP internet access? Its EOL (end of life for support) was 4 years ago last April.

XP is only on Virtual PC, using that only for some of my files I formatted using PageMaker.

Morning all, just on my 3rd coffee :)

Same here, instead I drink lots of tea.

If you have not already tried the article by Carla Schroder I linked to re Grub Rescue, then you are perhaps doing yourself a disservice, but that is your call.

If something runs as instructed I feel okay. But when commands like insmod normal & insmod linux says no such partition, I get stuck and then quit. Anyway, that article had too many commands that I could not decipher. I would have preferred to get a straight installation than to go to the inside.
 
I understand.

If Windows 7 is the problem, Google keywords

"windows 7" install on gpt

... be sure to use the quotes around windows 7, there seem to be plenty of options there.

Cheers

Wizard
 
wizardfromoz said:
If I'm not here, I'm working on The Blog, https://wizardfromozblog.wordpress.com/ , or having a beer ... or both ...

I wonder why you not host your own blog? At least friends can see your choice of themes, your layout and how you configure your server for max speed etc.?

If Windows 7 is the problem,

Problem is SSHD, and no one has found any problems yet. Right now even Linux is behaving like Windows and I have no clue.
 
I understand, I will look further into SSHD, soon.

I wonder why you not host your own blog? ... and how you configure your server for max speed etc.?

At the moment "a bit beyond my paygrade". :)

I have the best intentions for the blog, but since I (of my own choice) made myself so busy helping here over the last 15 months, I have had little time.

If I were to spend more time on the computer than I am now, my wife Elaine would likely be acquitted by a jury of 12 of her peers of justifiable homicide. :D:D:rolleyes::eek:

Later

Wizard
 
I have the best intentions for the blog, but since I (of my own choice) made myself so busy helping here over the last 15 months, I have had little time.

I fully understand. Around two decades ago, I looked for answers in Microsoft newsgroups and a member like you answered many questions. I had one peculiar problem in Excel, creating program in VBA, where the macro did record steps, but when running, did not recognize the "\" character (used for separating folders). That member gave me a whole script which first converted that character into something else, and when needed converted back to "\". Problem is I still don't know the member's name but still feel obliged.

I can visualize how the beneficiaries feel about your helping them. Please keep up the good work and forget about my suggestion of creating a blog. This work is more worthwhile. (I try to do the same on Quora.com, not as frequently as you do, but still ...)
 

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