OT, To say thank you.

[J Harp]

Thanks kendall,

This is a laptop, I don't think I want to try installing extra hard drives on it. About all I had on it was pictures which are also stored in other places, so no big deal there.

If my wife should need something which she had on win 7, I think she would be able to download it from online backup to her Win 10 computer. I have emailed the backup provider to ask about that.

[kendall]

Windows is gone, boot repair finds no trace of it. Thanks for the interest.

ouch.

An alternative is to run two drives, one internal, the other esata, or as I do, all esata. That way you choose what OS to boot into by turning on the drive you want, no worries about boot loaders, and if you need access to a file on the other drive turn it on after booting. Advantage is that even if a drive fails, you will have another OS to use for attempted recovery.
Can do same with most computers using two internal drives, install OS on each drive while that is the only drive connected, disconnect that one, install alternate OS on other drive, then connect both and use F12 to select boot drive when starting.

Edit: multiple internal drives won't always work if you have two installs of the same microsoft operating system, windows update will update the windows install on the first drive regardless of which one you are booted into

One problem, if you plan on going with W10 is that sometimes it will 'lock' the drive it's installed to on shut-down so you can't access it from a different OS, trying to access it from Linux. W7, or XP will make you think the drive has failed.

[J Harp]

Windows is gone, boot repair finds no trace of it. Thanks for the interest.

[J Harp]

I did some more searching, found boot.repair, loaded and ran it. It showed repair successful, I can get to a Microsoft screen, but no idea what to do there, nothing seems to work.

Sent a paste-bin report to boot.repair at gmail dot com, and am awaiting their response. We probably shouldn't continue this OT thread here, but I will report the outcome, success or failure. I was surprised to learn that windows might still be hiding out in this machine, I thought it was gone.

Thanks to all who have responded.

[Juiceclone]

been a long time since I started using it (2014) and I see no version number on it. ..Just be sure you're getting it from a 100% reliable ..well known.site.

[J Harp]

Return from gdisk-l



Juicealone, what version of rescatux grub rescue should I download, there seems to be lots of versions?

Sent from my SCH-I435 using Tapatalk

[J Harp]

It says something like problem reading, file doesn't exist. I'll post pic after Dr. appt.

[Juiceclone]

find a program called "rescatux grub rescue" ...iso file so you have to burn it to a cd. Boot the cd and follow your nose and it will try and find all operating systems on your computer and give u a door to open them thru grub.

[boslab]

I think you are being optimistic there Mark. I immediately thought cave dweller would be more appropriate!

Given I bricked up the front windows as they are being moved her indoors said its like living in a cave so I think you got it nailed there, I have been asked what on earth are you doing so I told them that the Welsh government are bringing window tax back as it's the only way to pay for assembly members holidays in Bermuda
Mark

[RichR]

What does this return:

gdisk -l

[J Harp]

Well back to tapatalk to fix that, posted two pic's of the same thing.

Think I got it this time, Pic's on the phone are so small it's hard to tell them apart.

[J Harp]

Trying again.

Sent from my SCH-I435 using Tapatalk

[J Harp]

OK, first time I've tried posting with Tapatalk. I was getting nowhere with fdisk, did some snooping and tried gdisk, now if I can just post the pic.



Update grub returns this.



I think the last image may hve been the poor quality one.

I can't see anything in either of these to show that win 7 is there. Might be that I just don't know how to read them. Thanks for trying to help.

Sent from my SCH-I435 using Tapatalk

[RichR]

Hi Jim
Open a terminal and enter:

fdisk -l > disks.txt

That's a lower case L not a one after the dash. That will create a file called disks.txt that you can open with an editor so you
can copy and paste the results and post them here.

[J Harp]

Thanks for the good words Mark. I try to treat others as I would want to be treated, but sometimes I can become a bit lax and forgetful.

Linux does have a learning curve, but there is lots of help available, at least for Ubuntu which is the only variety I have tried. Your biggest problem would probably be deciding which variety of Linux you want, there are many varieties, Ubuntu seems to be one of the most popular, Linux Mint also gets a lot of praise.

Programs and other software is easy to install. Most of what you'll need is in the package which you download to install Linux, you just choose what you want, and install it, most things will install pretty quickly.

I'm just a user, not a programmer or developer, there are lots of terms, acronyms, and ways of doing things which I don't know the meaning of, but by searching and asking questions I usually get by.

RichR, create and install a new partition was what I was trying to do, but I thought I had failed. When I have a bit more time, I'll search for how to add an entry to the bootloader. If I don't find the answer, I'll come back and ask you. Thank you for the hint.