Can this laptop be dual booted?

Can my early 2008 macbook intel core 2 duo laptop be dual booted?

Welcome to the Mac community.
Boot Camp has a great support page - I would look at it carefully if I were you.
You can install it from your Snow Leopard install disks.
Best of luck.

Similar Messages

Can Tiger run a dual boot system with the two internal hard drives

Can Mac run a dual boot system with the two internal hard drives both running Tiger?
Dual 2.5GHz G5
I am wanting to use one hard drive with Tiger to run my graphics stuff and then reboot and use the other hard drive for video.

Yes, you can set that configuration up.
(26293)

Making a Windows 7 Toshiba laptop a dual boot system (w/ XP)

I am looking to probably get a Toshiba laptop here in the next month. Most likely it will be one that will include WIndows 7. While I have another desktop with Windows 7 installed on it and like it for the most part, there are a few pieces of hardware I have that aren't running correctly right now under W7 due to drivers not being availble for it. Therefore, I made this custom desktop a dual boot system with XP & W7 on it.This way I have XP on it for when I might have to use these pieces of hardware.
I would like to possibly do the same thing for this new Toshiba laptop as well. Have XP on it in case I need it for incompatible hardware & compatibility issues that may arise. Can I easily put XP on a Toshiba laptop with W7 already installed? I would have to create a separate partition to possibly put XP on as this is the way I prefer to have it when making a dual boot system. However, I have several concerns if trying to do this. They include the following:
If I create/add another hard drive partition for XP, will I essentially make the recovery partition/software useless?
When I have made dual boot systems in the past, I usually have to start with the older OS. Then add the newer OS and it will do it automatically. Take care of everything for the dual boot menu. I have experienced problems when going backwards (like this) though. Will that happen as well & I'll then have problems getting back into W7?
If this is the case for both, do most Toshiba Laptops come with recovery software on CDs? This way I can maybe wipe the drive out, install XP and then install W7 (w/ the CDs) in order to make a correct dual boot system. Or does the recovery software/CDs need to be speically ordered directly from Toshiba & that is generally why they just put it on a recovery partition instead?
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Wise of you to investigate in advance.
Your best bet by far nowadays is to get a laptop with hardware virtualization and either the Professional or Ultimate versions of Windows 7 installed. That way, you can use XP Mode.
Windows XP Mode (Toshiba)
Windows XP Mode (Microsoft)
You can even open an XP program directly from a shortcut in Windows 7.
For current models suitable to run XP Mode, I suggest you call ToshibaDirect at 888-520-3926.
-Jerry

[solved] Can't set up dual boot Arch + Win 7 on separated disks

Hello everybody,
I'm new to this amazing project as I installed Arch just two days ago (and everything works like a charm in linux).
Anyway I have a problem and I'm very sorry to bother you with another question such this, but I tried everything and I accurately read the wiki.
The problem is that I can't manage to create a dual boot in grub with Arch on the first sata disk and Windows 7 on the second disk.
Before trying Arch I used ubuntu 10.10 dual boot with the same Windows 7 on the same secondary disk (the pc is a dell XPS L702X 17' laptop with, of course, dual disk bay) using GRUB2 which was automatically installed during ubuntu installation.
I tried to chainload windows disk in grub using map command to let windows think it's on the primary disk and not on second one.
At start I just had "BOOTMGR missing" error, then I put windows disk as primary removing arch disk and I repaired its bootloader: windows could boot then.
When I substituted disks and tried to boot, Windows 7 loading screen appeared and immediately I had a blue screen of death (or something similar) which anyway disappeared in less than a second (I was not able to read anything from that screen)
Now, when I try to boot windows either with grub or trying to enable boot straight from second hard drive in BIOS, I receive an error stating that it is necessary to use the windows repair disk to fix problems.
My question is: how can I finally fix this situation?
It would be quite important, for me, to not format neither of the disks, and I could even accept to renounce booting windows from grub as it would be ok even changing BIOS priority every time I need to use windows 7.
I really apologize for my annoying question but I really tried everything I could find without success; sorry for my poor english, too.
Anyway, this distribution seems just amazing to me! Thanks for your time.
Luca
Last edited by enigmatichus (2011-12-27 02:05:14)

It worked!!! Actually I don't know what changed, I proceeded removing the first disk (arch) WITHOUT, this time, changing the position of the windows disk. I used windows 7 DVD to repair the second disk. It tooks several attempts since it failed without specifying the problem. Eventually, I was able to boot windows 7, everything worked. Then, I plugged the primary linux hard drive and booted into arch, where I used "grub-install /dev/sda" as root. It executed without errors, but when I checked menu.lst file, surprisingly I discovered that it was not changed at all by grub-install.
Anyway it must have detected windows on /dev/sdb, since I am now able to boot both arch and windows without problems.
It was a weird situation, but anyway it worked well!! Thank you for the support, I really appreciate!
Luca

Does my Laptop support Dual Boot

Can anyone let me know if my Laptop(HP Pavilion 15n007ax) support dual boot! I want to install Ubuntu and keep Windows as well.

d2211basu wrote:
Can anyone let me know if my Laptop(HP Pavilion 15n007ax) support dual boot! I want to install Ubuntu and keep Windows as well.
What version of Windows are we talking about and what do you expect to accomplish doing this? Also FYI if that laptop doesn't have drivers for the Unbuntu O/S don't expect to get help in this forum for it.
I am a Volunteer to help others on here-not a HP employee.
Replies aren't online 24/7 because of Time Zone differences.
Remember in this Day and Age of Computing the Internet is Knowledge at your fingertips if you choose understand it. -2015-

Can This Laptop Be Used For Premier Pro CS6?

Developed an interest in learning to edit video but have become confused in reading all of the posts about what is the true minimum hardware requirement/setup, as compared to what is listed as System Requirements by Adobe. Probably best to start with my initial goals.
Here is what I was looking at doing as this journey begins:
Purchased Creative Suite 6 Production Premium Classroom in a Book(CIB) after reading a review it would be a better start than Premier Pro CIB, which I plan on getting, if one has no experience in this field. During research feel that I would like to become a subscriber to the Creative Cloud as there are a number of products I would like to learn and use. Basically, I am hopeful that I may use my current laptop for the beginning of my education and further down the road look at getting a more powerful system as knowledge/skills/requirements increase. Initial video I wouild like to work with is that received from family members smart phones and will be looking at purchasing a simple video camera for short interviews and brief presentantions. Will likely desire uploading some completed projects to the web.
Current Hardware:
Laptop: Asus N53SV
OS: Windows 7 64bit
CPU: Intel i7-2670QM 2.2GHz Cores=4 Threads=8
L3 Cache: 6mb
RAM: 6MB
Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 3000, NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M 1024 MB
OpenGL: 3.1.0
Display: 1920 X 1080
Drives: (1) HD, Seagate 500GB @ 7,200 RPM partitioned as C: 186GB with OS and programs, D: 254GB some documents
E: Optical DVD-RW
F: USB 3 connected 2 TB Seagate GoFlex External HD
If this laptop can be used with current hardware, I wouild sincerely appreciate any suggestions for how to best utilize what is available to begin learning Premier Pro CS6. As I will not have any time schedules that will have to be met I can accept that this may not be the ideal system. Just hoping it can be a start.
If any further information is required about the laptop please let me know and Thank You for your time with this question.
James

JEShort01 wrote:
That's not a bad setup at all to get started with small projects.
We all have different budgets and patience. You may be OK with what you have. And if it seems too sluggish - your rig would be for me , the following would help Premiere Pro performance:
- increase RAM to 16GB (about $140 per eBay pricing from a seller with high ratings a few minutes ago)
- add another drive; my favorite choice with your laptop would be a Seagate Momentus 750gb drive installed in a NEWmodeUS.com optical bay caddy (slips into your laptop)
Regards,
Jim
Exactly what I have done, and it is great.
You can get the caddy here:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/2nd-Hard-Drive-Caddy-Adapter-Asus-N55-N73-N43-N45-N53S-N53SV-G73Jh -G73Jw-G73Sw-/320881591179
I had this setup for my old HP and have a caddy ready to install for my new Dell Precision as well. You can either get an external house for your DVD drive, or get an external one - they are quite cheap.
Ulf

Can this laptop run After effects well?

Hello,
I have acer aspire 5742g laptop, i5 480m(max 2.93ghz), Geforce 540m, 6gb ram and slow 5400rpm HDD
After effects runs quite slow if I do something more advanced so I think its time for upgrade.
I found this quite cheap for specs it provides
Asus N56JR
Intel® Core™ i7-4700HQ Processor (6 MB Cache, 2.4 Ghz)
8 GB DDR3 - 1600 MHz
GeForce GTX 760M GDDR5 2GB
1TB HDD 5400RPM(I will buy ssd later)
Notebooks & Ultrabooks - N56JR - ASUS
Will this laptop be able to handle after effects good enough?

That would be better but you could use a bunch more ram. After Effects is a professional app with tons of capabilities. The more complex the project the higher the demands are on the system. If you want AE to run quickly when you work on extremely complex projects and you want to run on a laptop then you need a professional workstation grade laptop not a consumer model. Dell and HP make them, Apple makes the MacBookPro R which becomes a workstation grade laptop when you max it out. Simply put, buy the most powerful laptop with the most memory you can afford, make sure the company provides excellent customer service and get a long warrantee - or take your chances with a consumer grade laptop.

Can I make a dual boot with Windows 7?

After taking every precaution I can think of for installing Windows 7 on my wifes laptop. System recovery disk, backups(2 DVD's),and an image I made over 6 DVDs.
I thought of why not just shrink the Vista Partition, install Windows 7 in the created partition and run Windows 7 to see if it will work on the laptop (gives me time to straighten things out so my wife can still use it). Then delete the Vista Partition. If the laptop was mine I would just reformat the dang thing and deal with what comes of it from there.
Then there is the Question about what to do about the EISA (Recovery Partition)?

--[http://s146.photobucket.com/albums/r244/mickey57photos/?action=view&current=EISA-Partition.jpg]--
+*B-){color:#800000}This is the best answer I could find,after several hours of seaching out what Exactly is the EISA..I will leave it{color} ;\*+
http://help.lockergnome.com/vista/Hidden-restore-Partition--ftopict41214.html
....The partition for the Toshiba Application Installer, which allows you to reinstall the applications and drivers originally bundled with your computer, only contains those installers, and its various data. It will not restore your whole operating system. You have the 2 Restore DVD's to do that. There should be a shortcut to the Toshiba Application Installer, on you computer, that will show you just what it does, and what programs/drivers you can re-install, unless you've deleted the shortcut, or removed the .exe (or .cpl) program that the shortcut targets. If the program that opens the partition is gone, the partition's contents can't be accessed, at least by normal means. Even if you were to unhide the partition, it may hold compressed files, file types, and databases that only the user interface program/control panel Wizard could discern.
....I would exercise caution regarding the removal of the partition, as I don't know whether or not your Restore DVD's need files from this partition (e,g., your specific computer info, driver info, working data, installers, etc.) should you need to use the DVD's. The forensics involved in discerning the data in the partition probably wouldn't be worth the time spent to do so, just to see if you can recover 1.46 GB of space. Too, the EISA (Extended Industry Standard Architecture) partition can be re-created only by using an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) system EISA utility. Furthermore, deleting and re-creating the partition on a dynamic disk outside of Windows, or by using means other than the OEM's utility to remove it, could lead to data loss, system startup problems, or an inability to boot, depending on just what the OEM had in mind for that partition, and how the configuration was configured. For example, an EISA configured partition may hold boot hotkey information used by your particular computer for special recovery operations, outside of Windows. (If your computer documentation has directions for a special boot hotkey, other than the usual Windows F8, then it's probably used to access the EISA partition.) This is why the partition is usually hidden in Windows, and protected by doing so.
....For the curious, on some computers, once the Wizard (if there is one) is invoked within Windows that uses the partition, the partition is un-hidden, and will appear in Windows Explorer with a drive letter. However, other OEM computers may invoke another program, such as PartSeal.exe, to continue keeping it under wraps while the Wizard uses the partition's files.

Can this laptop handle Premiere?

My home tower computer used to work well with editing short, standard videos, but now I am using large HD files and my tower just can't handle them (Dell XPS420)
My boss has graciously offered to buy me a new laptop if I can find one that will handle these bigger files.
So my question is, will the HP dv7tqe series do the trick? If not, what would you suggest? (Note, it has to be HP)

Added... and, to be ready for CS5x... one of the supported nVidia laptop versions
http://forums.adobe.com/thread/618075

MSI GT70 laptop - can this laptop work with 3D games and movies?

I don't see it indicated anywhere but I was wondering if this was possible..

It should, but not on his own screen, but extent to addiction 3D capable display.
http://www.techjailbreak.com/msi-gt70-0ne-255fr-gaming-laptop-complete-review-and-specs/
Quote
Finally, note that the GTX 680M is compatible with all technologies Nvidia (PhysX, Optimus, etc..) but some of them (such as 3D Vision) cannot be used on the machine, for lack of suitable 3D display. However, if you have the glasses and a 3D Vision screen, nothing prevents you from connecting the MSI GT70 via HDMI and 3D gaming (720p only).

Cross-reading files in a dual boot machine

Hi --
I just finished installing and setting up Windows 8.1 Enterprise on a Windows 7 Ultimate laptop. Windows 8.1 was installed on an unused disk partition, making this laptop a dual-boot machine.
The machine is not attached to a domain (at least not yet or for the foreseeable future), but it does have several local user accounts (on the Windows 7 side -- so far it just has one account on the Windows 8 side).
The Windows 7 partition can be accessed from Windows 8 (it shows up as Drive E). This is rather convenient, because that partition has several very large folders containing thousands of document files, which can be easily opened from either OS now.
However, there are a number of these data folders that are locked down to just one local user. And this is where I'm having the problem.
User Bob on the Windows 8 side is a different user than user Bob on the Windows 7 side. So if Bob, running Windows 8, tries to open one of these folders on the Windows 7 partition, Windows won't allow him access.
And I can't figure out how to give him access. From the Windows 8 side, the folder's security settings show that the owner is an SID that Windows 8 doesn't recognize. And from Windows 7, I don't know how to give "the other Bob" access to the folder.
I thought about setting up a Homegroup, but I don't think that will work, since at any given time either the Windows 7 "PC" or the Windows 8 "PC" will be offline.
Is there a way to map a Windows 8 user's SID into a folder on the Windows 7 partition? Or another way to allow a Windows 8 user access to a Windows 7 folder -- short of copying all the data over to the Windows 8 side?
For the time being, this needs to remain a dual-boot machine. I currently have it set up with identical application sets on both sides. Windows 8 is being made the principal OS, but in case of any problem affecting usability, the user will boot into Windows
7 to get his work done.
Thanks,
CL

Hi Chuck,
When you boot into one system, another system partition will appear as data drive instead of OS drive. Thus you could access it.
From your description “However, there are a number of these data folders that are locked down to just one local user. And this is where I'm having the problem.”, we need to confirm some information:
1. What data you cannot access?
2. What's the type of this user? This issue occur just on one user not all, right?
3. What's the exact prompt information when you attempt to access those data.
And then, I have to tell you there is no method to map one user SID into another user SID. Even they have a same user name, they still are have different identifier. I would like to suggest you use different name.
Karen Hu
TechNet Community Support

[SOLVED] Advice for Arch install with rEFInd dual boot Lenovo laptop?

I am trying to plan an Arch install on a new laptop for dual boot with Windows 8.1, but I know there is a potential to cause huge problems so I have been trying to read and learn about the hard disk partition structure and how I might install the rEFInd boot files so that I am still able to boot Windows once Arch is installed. (Unfortunately for some tasks such as updating the maps on my satnav box Windows is essential). However I am really quite unsure if I am doing the right thing in the way I am thinking about the Arch install so I would appreciate any help from experts on the forum.
The laptop is a Lenovo IdeaPad Y510p which came with Windows 8 pre-installed, with the option to upgrade to Windows 8.1. The upgrade was completed without issue and I then looked into the question of hard drive partitions and boot. I had read posts on the Ubuntu forums about users who had installed Ubuntu on this same laptop and ended up being unable to boot Windows afterwards so I wanted to tread very carefully before executing anything which might cause really major damage. I had also read on the Lenovo forums replies about people who had replaced the hard drive and installed linux only to find that they could not boot to the recovery partitions, with replies from Lenovo moderators saying that if the partition structure had been changed then the laptop would have to be sent back to Lenovo for a factory repair.
On this laptop to get into the bios or boot options you do not just press the power button and hit an F key, but instead there is a special small "OneKey Recovery" button next to the power jack, which opens up with options for BIOS setup and boot options as well as normal boot or recovery. This OneKey Recovery button is therefore needed to boot a usbkey - the power button only allows it to boot to windows presumably until/unless a different bootloader and NVRAM entry is amended.
I have done all the initial ( safe!)changes necessary to move to the point at which I can execute the Arch install. From within Windows (switched off fastboot, and shrunk the "C:" drive to make space for linux partitions). I have also switched off Secure Boot from the BIOS, and made sure that Windows still boots up fine.
The current arch install iso (February 2014) boots under uefi just fine - and of course once booted I have access to the gdisk programme. That certainly showed the pre-existing partitions on the drive (8 partitions with partition number 2 being the EFI partition, and three recovery partitions!) with a GPT partition table, and it should therefore be possible to make the necessary new linux partitions in the now unallocated space on the disk that was freed up with the internal disk management facility within Windows 8.1. So at that point I created three partitions for a root partition (type 8300), a swap partition (type 8200) and another type 8300 partition which will become /opt in the installed Arch system.
In order to try and not make any changes to the partition structure I let the three new linux partitions be number 9, 10 and 11.
I am told that for a GPT disk it is a definite no-no to try to create more than one EFI partition. So I will need to use the existing EFI partition to place the rEFInd files and the kernel once I install Arch.
In this (Y510p) laptop the EFI partition contains the following structure:
BOOT/ - containing only boot.sdi
BOOTSECT.BAK
EFI/ which contains two directories Boot/ and Microsoft/
so EFI/Boot/ contains only Boot64.efi which is likely a fallback copy of the Windows 8.1 bootloader
and EFI/Microsoft/ contains a Boot/ directory - so
EFI/Microsoft/Boot/ contains loads of language specific directories like en-GB/
plus bootmgfw.efi (which I believe is the Windows main efi loader file)
bootmgr.efi
memtest.efi
The scheme that I am planning to use which I have previously used in pure Arch uefi machines, is that /boot is a directory in the root partition, /. That way /boot is an ext4 directory and will contain the kernel and initramfs plus the rEFInd linux config file.
Then I can mount the EFI (vfat) partition as /boot/efi and so I can then make a /boot partition under /. Then the EFI /BOOT/ directory would be seen in Linux as /boot/efi/BOOT/ and the Windows efi stuff would be in /boot/efi/EFI/Boot/Microsoft/Boot/ in which case I would presume that I have to make a new directory in /boot/efi/EFI/refind/ and put the refind stuff including the filesystem drivers there, and let the kernel go into the (ext4) /boot/ directory which would be preferred! However I am not 100% confident that this is what will work and I need to read more before trying to do the install. The thing that concerns me is how the system will handle the uefi boot process, and whether it would auto-detect the Windows efi file as well as the Arch refind efi file once the system has started up?
... and then there is the issue of the NVRAM entries and I am no longer confident that if I use the usual tools to create an entry (efiboomgr or bcfg), that I will get a successful dual boot system!
There is still a chance that I would irrevocably damage being able to boot to the Windows and Recovery partition boot options by messing up the EFI and/or the NVRAM so I have to tread very very carefully with this.
If anyone has gone through this kind of dual boot install with a Windows 8 or 8.1 machine using rEFInd for the bootloader, and can offer advice or help here I would very much appreciate it. I have another pure Arch system which uses rEFInd that works extremely well, but it seems that dual boot with uefi is a rather more complex animal than a pure linux system!
Last edited by mcloaked (2014-02-22 10:06:03)

vipin wrote:I have recently bought the y510p , im planning to install Arch , this is my 4th laptop , i had installed Arch in all the other 3 with no problems, but im a bit worried with the installation as this is the first laptop which has EFI , im a linux user for the past 6 years , i started with fedora , now i like Arch , mike documentation is excellent, i just had one question when i had grub , it automatically finds the new kernel when i update (grub.conf/menu.lst gets updated), does rEFInd also do that.
When there is an update to the rEFInd package you need to copy the files across to your ESP from the files contained in /usr/share/refind/ usually you need to copy the refind_x64.efi binary as well as the icons, fonts, and drivers directories. Since there is flexibility in how you configure the kernel and initrd files in terms of where they are located whether you need to do anything else when a new kernel update arrives depends on how you set your system up. If you have the /boot directory as your ESP partition which will then have the kernel and initrd files updated by default then there no need to do anything else when there is a kernel update. If the ESP is then at /boot/EFI and within that is your refind/ directory then that is where the replacement files go if refind-efi gets a pacman update. So it is actually fairly straight forward. If you configure rEFInd to look for kernels in some other directory than /boot/ then you may need to copy the files there after a kernel update but there is more information in the arch wiki about this.
During a refind-efi package update there are helpful files in the pacman output (and log) reminding you of what you need to do. eg for the latest refind-efi update you get:
[2014-06-18 18:48] [PACMAN] upgraded radvd (1.12-1 -> 1.13-1)
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] rEFInd UEFI application has been installed at /usr/share/refind/refind_*.efi
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] Other UEFI applications have been installed at /usr/share/refind/tools_*/
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] UEFI drivers have been installed at /usr/share/refind/drivers_*/
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] Copy the efi application (according to your UEFI ARCH)
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] and /usr/share/refind/refind.conf-sample to a sub-directory of <EFISYS>/EFI/
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] as refind.conf and add an entry to firmware boot menu using efibootmgr
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] or mactel-boot (for Macs)
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] rEFInd Icons have been installed at /usr/share/refind/icons/
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] rEFInd Fonts have been installed at /usr/share/refind/fonts/
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] HTML Documentation is available at /usr/share/refind/docs/html/
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] More info: [url]https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/UEFI_Bootloaders#Using_rEFInd[/url]
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]
[2014-06-18 18:48] [PACMAN] upgraded refind-efi (0.8.1-1 -> 0.8.2-1)
I hope that helps.
By the way you can also boot uefi using grub and in fact you can get rEFInd to chainload grub as a backup bootloader as an added safety factor and have both rEFInd as well as grub installed simultaneously. How that can be done is explained in the thread at https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=181906
Last edited by mcloaked (2014-06-25 17:41:12)

[Solved]Which partitions...removed on Windows 8.1...laptop...dual boot

I'm looking to dual boot Arch Linux and Windows on my laptop I recently purchased. It came with the following partition setup.
I assume I can remove the backup partitions, but can I remove the 500 MB EFI partition and replace it with a new EFI System Partition? Will I also need a separate boot partition as well (or can the kernel images just go on the Linux partition)?
Also, this guide does all of the partition management on Windows itself. Is this safer than using the gparted live-cd?
Thanks in advance.
Original title: Which partitions can be removed on Windows 8.1 OEM laptop to dual boot
Last edited by avr (2015-01-24 21:27:48)

Stop.
Breathe.
Read up on UEFI, EFI System Partitions, and EFI boot managers.
avr wrote:
WorMzy wrote:
avr wrote:can I remove the 500 MB EFI partition and replace it with a new EFI System Partition?
Why would you want to do this?
Save space.
This makes no sense.
I heard the order of the partitions for booting on a UEFI system matters.
It doesn't. Your ESP doesn't even need to be on the same disk as your OS.

Changing Boot Order on Dual Boot Windows 8 and Ubuntu

Hi there,
Recently got a HP Pavilion g6 2213sa which came with Windows 8 (spit!) and this disgusting UEFI BIOS replacement (double spit!).
Anyway, I need to dual boot Ubuntu on my system, so I installed Ubuntu. Normally, on a non UEFI system, a "Grub" bootloader installed by Linux would take over the startup process, and allow you to choose between either Windows 8 or Ubuntu on startup.
However, on this computer, startup is just booting straight to Windows 8 despite the fact that Ubuntu and Grub IS installed.
Now, upon startup, if I press F9, then I get to change the boot-device on a one-time basis. I can either select "OS Boot Manager", which loads Windows 8, or "Ubuntu" which loads the Grub bootloader which allows me to select Windows 8 or Ubuntu.
However, when I press F10 to enter the Bios Setup with the intention of changing the boot order permanently, the Ubuntu option isn't there. Instead it has OS Manager, USB Disk, CD Rom, USB CD Rom and Network Card.
Thanks, HP for, the crappily designed BIOS.
Anyway, can anyone PLEASE provide me a way of changing the boot order so that GRUB is loaded first and NOT this crap Windows 8 rubbish (that I would happily bin if I didn't need it for work).

There is the same problem in HP 2000 laptops (in my case specifically, HP 2000-2D22DX). I did some investigation using trial and error, and this is what I found out:
There is some sort of a "recovery feature" or so that on every boot sets the very first UEFI load option to point to one of the two locations, in this order:
\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi
\EFI\Boot\bootx64.efi
This option is displayed as "OS boot Manager" (for the first path) and something akin to "UEFI partition" for the second path, completely ignoring the actual name given to it (when you look at the EFI variables through efibootmgr, you can see that what is displayed as "OS boot Manager" actually is set to the name "Windows Boot Manager"; why anyone would do such renaming is beyond me). If you try to change the boot order so that this slot isn't the first, the UEFI will overwrite the BootOrder variable on next boot and reset it to point to "OS boot Manager" anyway.
By default, both of the paths above contain the same Microsoft bootloader (if you check the md5sum of both, you'll see they match).
So, until HP releases an updated UEFI that allows turning this "feature" off or rearranging boot options through the F10 UEFI setup, this is what you can do to get dual boot with the least amount of hackiness:
In Windows, mount the UEFI partition (mountvol S: /S mounts it as the S: drive) and copy the file \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi to use some other name (for example, I copied it to "\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi~", but you can change the name to anything else).
In the Windows command prompt, update the Windows UEFI entry to point to the new name: bcdedit /set {bootmgr} path \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi~ (adapt to your set name accordingly).
Optionally, change the name of the Windows boot loader so that you would be certain that it points to the new file location: bcdedit /set {bootmgr} description "Fixed Windows path"
Install the other OS. In my case the bootloader was installed into \EFI\opensuse\grubx64.efi.
Delete the two files, \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi and \EFI\Boot\bootx64.efi.
Use efibootmgr to delete the "OS boot Manager" entry: sudo efibootmgr -b 0000 -B
Set the new OS bootloader to be the default bootloader by using efibootmgr with the -o option. In my case, I had an entry called "opensuse" in slot Boot0001 and the updated path Windows entry in slot Boot0002, so I had to do sudo efibootmgr -o 0001,0002
Update GRUB to point the Windows entry to your renamed file (you'll have to create a new file in /etc/grub.d and rerun grub-mkconfig).
And that's it, now the UEFI will boot GRUB by default (it won't regenerate the "OS boot Manager" entry since it won't be able to find either of the two hardcoded paths and will "fall back" to properly reading the BootOrder variable), and the F9 menu will still allow choosing to boot Windows directly.

Dual Boot Ubuntu and Windows 8.1 on HP ENVY dv7

Okay, I've installed 14.04 LTS with EFI and Secure Boot enabled. My problem is that the HP automated boot process ignores the presence of Ubuntu and boots directly into Windows. The only way I can boot into Ubuntu is to intercept the boot process by pressing the Escape key immediately, selecting Boot Device options (F9). choosing "Boot from EFI File", then pressing Enter on the next page (a description of the hard drive), choose EFI from the next screen, select "<ubuntu>" from the subsequent list, the select "shimx64.efi" from the next screen, which gives me the Grub list (without, I might add, any reference to Windows!) So, while it works, it is a laborious process at best. Have tried to follow the following post from an HP help forum:
So, until HP releases an updated UEFI that allows turning this "feature" off or rearranging boot options through the F10 UEFI setup, this is what you can do to get dual boot with the least amount of hackiness:
In Windows, mount the UEFI partition (mountvol S: /S mounts it as the S: drive) and copy the file \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi to use some other name (for example, I copied it to "\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi~", but you can change the name to anything else).
In the Windows command prompt, update the Windows UEFI entry to point to the new name: bcdedit /set {bootmgr} path \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi~ (adapt to your set name accordingly).
Optionally, change the name of the Windows boot loader so that you would be certain that it points to the new file location: bcdedit /set {bootmgr} description "Fixed Windows path"
Install the other OS. In my case the bootloader was installed into \EFI\opensuse\grubx64.efi.
Delete the two files, \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi and \EFI\Boot\bootx64.efi.
Use efibootmgr to delete the "OS boot Manager" entry: sudo efibootmgr -b 0000 -B
Set the new OS bootloader to be the default bootloader by using efibootmgr with the -o option. In my case, I had an entry called "opensuse" in slot Boot0001 and the updated path Windows entry in slot Boot0002, so I had to do sudo efibootmgr -o 0001,0002
Update GRUB to point the Windows entry to your renamed file (you'll have to create a new file in /etc/grub.d and rerun grub-mkconfig).
Was able to do everything as posted except "Delete OS boot Manager", because there is no entry for that item when I run efibootmgr in Ubuntu terminal. I did reorder the boot order using efibootmgr so that Ubuntu was first and Windows was second, but the HP OS boot Manager changes it back!
Would really appreciate any help. Thanks in advance.
SamJ20109

Hey vikas_g,
Welcome to the HP Forums!
With Ubuntu not recognizing your partitions during installation, some information that may be of assistance to you, could be in this document 'Frequently Asked Questions About Linux (FAQs)'.
If your question is not answered from this document, I would suggest asking your question on the Ubuntu Forums.
I hope this information helps!
I worked on behalf of HP

Can this laptop be dual booted?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for