Installing LinuxMint 15 alongside Windows 8

B

Bertmon Dela

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Hello, i tried dual booting Mint 15 and Windows 8 which worked perfectly except that when the GRUB menu appears am not able to boot into Windows 8. I keep getting an error message that ''an error occured''. I am using an HP Pavilion dv4-5110us Entertainment PC. Can anyone be of assistance?
 


My first guess with any Win8 system is always a problem with UEFI/Secure Boot in BIOS. If you have UEFI/Secure Boot, I would try to disable them, and probably have to reinstall Mint. Disabling them might also be called something like, "Boot in legacy mode." There may be two separate settings that need to be changed. You might consider the more recent Mint 16 since there is hope that it may have corrected some problems... and maybe the problem you're having.

If you have a UEFI/Secure Boot enabled BIOS, I'd suggest further reading in the Mint Forums for specific help installing. GRUB doesn't install on the MBR with these systems, and you may have to create a special EFI partition to boot from during your setup. Or maybe your solution will be simpler. I hope so. Good luck.
 
Thanks atanere, i tried Mint 16 but still the problem persisted and i have disabled Secure Boot and its still the same. Anyway i will read further in the Mint Forums and am praying i will be lucky.<smile>.
 
Reinstall GRUB (sorry for the delay)

grub-install /dev/sdX && update-grub

Replace "X" with the appropriate letter. Most likely "a". Run this command as Root
 
The problem can be because of your partitioning scheme. can you provide your partitioning scheme? by default UEFI computers use GPT partitioning not MBR, mbr is what grub looks for when dual booting. So its possible that you installed linux mint as if you had an mbr type scheme. i have done that before and i had the same problem you have. what i did to install window 8 and fedora 20 is i first installed windows 7 on computer that does not have UEFI with mbr and upgraded windows 7 to windows 8 keeping my mbr partitioning , then i installed fedora. worked like a charm. I tried installing fedora 20 on a new laptop i had purchased that has uefi GPT as a default and it fails miserably, meaning grub only detects fedora. im curious to see if anyone here knows how to walk me through the uefi process dual booting process. i have looked up so many guides but i can never get it right. this is what i think i know. i could be wrong.

and if there is anything wrong to what i said, please dont hesitate to correct me.
 
im curious to see if anyone here knows how to walk me through the uefi process dual booting process. i have looked up so many guides but i can never get it right.
These problems add fuel to the fire that is my opinion; it is best to leave Windows behind. Virtual machines and live discs give people the opportunity I did not have; see Linux before deciding whether or not to install it. Of course, I was so frustrated with Windows being incapable of doing what I wanted it to do, I probably would not have used those technologies if they were available. If one has already decided to use Linux, there is no need to dual-boot with Windows. If Microsoft has engineered their system as much as possible to give people the choice of Windows or something else, "vote with the feet." Of course, from Microsoft's viewpoint, it is also voting with one's money, since it does not go to Seattle.
 
Bertmon Dela, Have you tried the HP forums? Now, from what I read on the, um, "H8te" forums HP can be a bit cranky to duel boot, but not impossible. And yes, there are a few computers you can not or so they say. Another venting on the evil one...

Unfortunately, Cyber-Berserker, not all of us have the luxury of being pure, and from my quite limited reading, there are many Linux users who either duel boot(s) go live or virtual and I got this from the Windows forums! I really do believe there are a lot more Linux users than the figures are showing. But that is another topic...
 
Unfortunately, Cyber-Berserker, not all of us have the luxury of being pure
But most (not all, but most) people who dual-boot with Windows do not need to. They fall into three groups:
Have the safety of a "fall back" system. (Which hinders making the switch.)
Play Windows games.
Tell their friends they use Linux, so those friends will believe they are hackers.

Yes, there are a few people who have a necessity to use Windows. Usually workplace-related, but for everyone else, Microsoft making dual-booting difficult is an incentive to either stop using Windows or only use Windows. I simpathise with those who need to use Windows and have difficulty dual-booting, but no sympathy is forthcoming for those who fit the above list. And these are not the words of a hacker. My computer skills are limited to little more than using package managers like APT and YUM.
 

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