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Ask HN: Win 7 installation - misleading about multiboot?
I am working on a compiler which i need working on linux
and windows. I have been developing on GNU/linux all
this time, but decided to now check that it works well
on windows too. So I purchased a copy of windows 7
Home premium - and installed it on my laptop.
It had 12 (1-3 primary and 5-13 xtended) partitions
and I have 3 GNU/linux variants installed on it
(you never know what you need on a rainy day)
When you reach the install screen on windows 7 there
are 2 links below the "Install Now" button.
1. What to know before installing windows
2. Repair your computer.
I clicked on the "What to know ..." link and it has
a note like this.
Heading:
"To install a custom (new) version of Windows 7"
Note:
"Use custom when you want to replace your
current operating system entirely;
When you want to keep your current operating
system and install Windows on an available,
separate partition of your hard disk (multiboot);
or when no operating system is currently installed"
When I read this note I was happy,
because it meant that I would not have to
tweak with the boot loader after installing windows.
However after it finished the installation,
there was no option to boot linux.
I called up microsoft support - first in the US
and then in India (this number +91 80 40103000).
In india i spoke to Shruti and then a technical supervisor
Sudhakar Bhagavanth - the IVR number is: 110414013468005
I pointed out the text to them,
both of them made me put in the installation DVD.
They said that I had installed windows
over my linux partiton etc
- i said no, the windows 7 installation is not
honouring the multiboot which was shown
on the initial screen. I had various arguments
with Sudhakar - he first tried to argue that
multi means 2, then said it did not work
because i had 3 installations of linux, but would have
worked it i had say 1 Mac OS, and 1 Windows and 1 Linux,
but not 3 versions of Linux, about how I had
installed windows on the linux partition,
or Other operating Systems means Windows XP
( it is clearly written in the note " ... keep
your current operating system ") - My current
operating system is linux.
No, dont believe me - it's all recorded on the call
and that tape is in the call center.
I feel that the information presented in the note is misleading and thought I would post here just to
figure out if others feel the same or is it just me.
- pbhjpbhj 16y agoA couple of things. This is a terrible wall of text that's really hard to read. Your asking a support question and this isn't the forum for that, I'd try LinuxQuestions. Two quick notes, look for a partition recovery program (TestDisk from cgsecurity maybe). Also Windows installations can get wrongly marked as "recovery" by Grub (a popular boot manager). Lastly, I flagged this.
- neilxdsouza 16y agoSorry about the formatting. My main gripe was about the misleading multiboot mentioned in the Windows 7 pre-install notes screen. Edit: I fixed it and removed the non-relevant tech question.