Win7-Win8 Dual boot problems

pratnala

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Member
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Location
Jersey City, NJ, USA
Hi

I have a Lenovo G550 with Intel Pentium Dual Core T4400 @2.2 GHz and 3GB Ram. My laptop is triple booted with Windows 7 Professional Service Pack 1 32-bit, Windows 8 Release Preview 32-bit and Ubuntu 12.04 32-bit. The problem is that when I shut down from Windows 8 and the next time I start my laptop and select Windows 7, the screen just goes blank and nothing happens. I have to then force switch it off and then start it again for it to boot into Windows 7. Please help me to rectify this problem.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 11 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
Start with using Startup Repair to attempt to repair the Win8 bootloader. IME the bootloader is very polite - it even keeps working when I physically remove my Win8 hard drive (leaving me with only Win7).

To get into Startup Repair:
- create a Startup Repair disk by typing "recdisc.exe" (without the quotes) into the Run dialog (press Win key and R to open it).
- boot from the Startup Repair disk to run Startup Repair
- run it at least 3 times.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win8.1Pro - Finally!!!
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Samsung/NP780
    CPU
    Came with the laptop (i7 of some sort)
    Motherboard
    Pretty sure that it has one, but haven't checked inside the case!
    Memory
    upgraded to 12 gB from 8 gB
    Graphics Card(s)
    has switchable - Intel/ATI - Used wrong drivers, now ATI card is inop :( Will have to fix it soon!
    Sound Card
    I'm nearly deaf, so this isn't used often
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Touchscreen on laptop/32" Toshiba on HDMI (laid the Sharp TV on a mouse and cracked the screen!)
    Screen Resolution
    800x600
    Hard Drives
    One Samsung 1tB drive - 5400 rpm. Gonna switch to a 7200/10000 rpm or an SSD (if I can find $500 for a 1tB SSD!)
    - Switched to 500 gB Samsung 840 series SSD - WOW!!!
    PSU
    Why do we ask this for laptops?
    Case
    Silver with a neat Samsung logo
    Cooling
    sub-par, gotta get around to working on it soon Worked on it - still sub-par! :(
    Keyboard
    Microsoft Natural - the same one I've used since it orignally came out around 1995
    Mouse
    no Mouse - Trackball!!!!
    Internet Speed
    too slow when I'm waiting for a download to finish
    Browser
    Yes, I use this (Firefox mostly, w/IE next most)
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender and Windows Firewall
    Other Info
    I'm handsome and a snappy dresser :0)
I have no idea. This is just the first step in troubleshooting boot issues
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win8.1Pro - Finally!!!
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Samsung/NP780
    CPU
    Came with the laptop (i7 of some sort)
    Motherboard
    Pretty sure that it has one, but haven't checked inside the case!
    Memory
    upgraded to 12 gB from 8 gB
    Graphics Card(s)
    has switchable - Intel/ATI - Used wrong drivers, now ATI card is inop :( Will have to fix it soon!
    Sound Card
    I'm nearly deaf, so this isn't used often
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Touchscreen on laptop/32" Toshiba on HDMI (laid the Sharp TV on a mouse and cracked the screen!)
    Screen Resolution
    800x600
    Hard Drives
    One Samsung 1tB drive - 5400 rpm. Gonna switch to a 7200/10000 rpm or an SSD (if I can find $500 for a 1tB SSD!)
    - Switched to 500 gB Samsung 840 series SSD - WOW!!!
    PSU
    Why do we ask this for laptops?
    Case
    Silver with a neat Samsung logo
    Cooling
    sub-par, gotta get around to working on it soon Worked on it - still sub-par! :(
    Keyboard
    Microsoft Natural - the same one I've used since it orignally came out around 1995
    Mouse
    no Mouse - Trackball!!!!
    Internet Speed
    too slow when I'm waiting for a download to finish
    Browser
    Yes, I use this (Firefox mostly, w/IE next most)
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender and Windows Firewall
    Other Info
    I'm handsome and a snappy dresser :0)
You should turn off the fast start up option inside windows 8. http://www.eightforums.com/showthread.php?t=6320

It will cause extra hassles for those dual booting.

With it enabled when you shut down the next time you power up it will actually start to load windows 8 but give you the option to load another operating system instead. In my case when it was on if I chose another operating system the computer would actually reboot and then load that OS. For you it sounds like its just going black and not rebooting.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP DV7-4269WM
    CPU
    i5-480M
    Memory
    4GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Mobility Radeon HD 6370
    Sound Card
    Beats Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    17.3"
    Screen Resolution
    1600x900
    Hard Drives
    750GB (5400RPM)
    Internet Speed
    1500
You should turn off the fast start up option inside windows 8. http://www.eightforums.com/showthread.php?t=6320

It will cause extra hassles for those dual booting.

With it enabled when you shut down the next time you power up it will actually start to load windows 8 but give you the option to load another operating system instead. In my case when it was on if I chose another operating system the computer would actually reboot and then load that OS. For you it sounds like its just going black and not rebooting.

It used to happen the same way. Then one day after updating it became like this
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 11 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
If the system folder (\boot) is on the same drive as your Windows 7 installation, Windows 8 sees the drive as the system volume, and may hide it by removing the drive letter if it runs the repair option in the boot menu - which means references to that drive cannot be seen by the BCD bootloader - thus Windows 7 fails to be found and cannot boot.

Disk management usually is able to remedy that problem and give it a drive letter, like f:

One remedy would be to make a small primary partition about 500MB in size, and make it active, give it the drive letter b: and using BCDBOOT transfer both systems' boot files to that partition by elevated command prompt -first from the working windows 8:

bcdboot c:\windows /s B:

and after that has successfully completed, the system files from Windows 7

bcdboot f:\windows /s B:

Depending on the way you have Ubuntu booting on the system, you may then have to reinstall Grub2 to the first disk - I used to find this always worked for me, but you'ld have to change sda, sdb5 for your actual active disk and then your partition designations:

Code:
When windows reinstallation wipes out grub, boot into a live Linux installation either on CD or USB - I use Mint 8 Helena,

These instructions were found at 


[URL="http://www.webupd8.org/2009/05/fix-restore-grub-boot-loader.html"]Fix / Restore GRUB Boot Loader ~ Web Upd8: Ubuntu / Linux blog[/URL]






$ sudo fdisk -l ----------------------------list the storage volumes


The output should have several lines like this:


device        boot    start    end    blocks    id    system
/dev/sda1     *    nnnnn    nnnnn    nnnnn    7    HPFS.NTFS ---------------BOOT DISK sda
etc
/dev/sdb5         nnnnn    nnnnn    nnnnn    83    LINUX     ---------------FIRST LINUX PARTITION


$ sudo mkdir /mnt/system  ------------------make a directory for the system


$ sudo mount /dev/sdb5 /mnt/system ---------mount the linux volume there


$ sudo -i ----------------------------------elevate permissions to root


you are now root, the prompt has changed


# mount -o bind /dev /mnt/system/dev -------to get inside the device so that changes can be made


# chroot /mnt/system -----------------------become root of the installed system


# grub-install /dev/sda --------------------install grub to the boot record on the boot disk 


I always see a load of failure errors, but it says grub installed successfully  at the end!
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP COMPAQ Presario CQ57
    CPU
    AMD E- 300 APU with Radion HD Graphics 1.30GHz
    Motherboard
    inbuilt
    Memory
    4GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI
    Sound Card
    High Definition Audio on-board
    Monitor(s) Displays
    notebook
    Screen Resolution
    1366x768
    Hard Drives
    Seagate ST9500325AS
    Google drive 15GB
    Skydrive 25GB
    BT Cloud
    PSU
    external 20v
    Case
    Laptop
    Cooling
    pretty good
    Keyboard
    inbuilt
    Mouse
    touchpad
    Internet Speed
    BT Infinity Unlimited - 80 up 20 down =70/16 really
    Browser
    Chrome Canary usually
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender and Malwarebytes
    Other Info
    no Start menu modifications
    Upgraded with no issues to 8.0 and to 8.1
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