[ltp] Trying to dual boot Linux & Windows 7 on an X200s

[John Magolske]

I just picked up a brand new X200s and would like to set it up to dual
boot Linux and the Windows 7 (32-bit) OS that came with it. Following
a post on the Ubuntu forums [1], I set out to try the approach below,
but I'm getting stuck at the point of trying to install Windows 7 into
a specifically created NTFS partition -- the Windows recovery discs
just reformat the entire drive and restore it to the state it was in
when the backup was taken.

I see there's something on thinkwiki [2] about dualbooting an X201s,
but that approach has the Windows boot manager select which operating
system to boot. I'd rather use Grub.

The distro I'm installing is Debian, using the GRML live CD [3].


Here's what I've tried so far:


1.
Obtain a copy of Windows 7 - a Windows 7 disc didn't come with my X200s,
so I used the ThinkVantage tools to create a "Rescue and Recovery" disk
(Create Rescue Media) as well as a complete disc backup, which created
these discs: 1C, 2C, Final SP, Final Q, Final C


2.
Partition disk such that there is an NTFS partition where Windows
will be installed (the idea is to not let the Windows 7 installation
process create this partition). Use fdisk to get:

  % fdisk -l
  Disk /dev/sda: 320.1 GB, 320072933376 bytes
  255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
  Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
  Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
  I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
  Disk identifier: xxxxxxxxxx
     Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
  /dev/sda1   *           1       36975   297001656   83  Linux
  /dev/sda2           36976       37338     2915797+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
  /dev/sda3           37339       38913    12651187+   7  HPFS/NTFS
 

3.
Install Windows 7 in the above created NTFS partition (/dev/sda3)
...got stuck here, can't see how to install to a specific partition,
the recovery discs reformat the drive to:

% fdisk -l
[...]
   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1         154     1228800    7  HPFS/NTFS
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2             154       37639   301100032    7  HPFS/NTFS
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda3           37639       38914    10240344    7  HPFS/NTFS


4.
Boot from a Linux live CD and from terminal type:

  sudo grub-setup -d /media/disk/boot/grub /dev/sda

where disk is the partition where Linux is installed and /dev/sda
refers to the MBR to overwrite in order to boot from Linux on the
next reboot.


5.
Restart and from terminal type:

  sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

in order to list Windows 7 in the Grub menu on startup.


[1] http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1035999&page=22

[2] http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Installing_Fedora_14_x86_64_on_a_X201s-Dualboot_config_with_Windows_7_64_pre-installed

[3] http://grml.org


Thanks for any help,

John


-- 
John Magolske
http://B79.net/contact