How to dual-boot Linux Mint Debian Edition and Windows 7
This is the “Edit Partition” window. For the boot partition, be sure to select /boot as the mount point. For the file system, you may select ext2, as in this example, or ext3 or ext4. For the root and home partitions, /dev/sda7 and /dev/sda8, the mount points must be / and /home respectively, and the file system can be any available journaling file system except btrfs. Keep in mind that Ext4 is the default on virtually all Linux distributions. Do not format the swap partition, just mount it as swap.
If you are satisfied that the mount points and file systems types have been selected, click Forward to continue with the rest of the installation.
By default, the installer installs GRUB, the boot loader, on the Master Boot Record of the hard disk. Because of the recommendation made at the start of this article, we want to install GRUB in the boot partition of the LMDE installation. In the scheme used in this tutorial, the boot partition is /dev/sda5, the first logical partition. Select it from the dropdown menu and click Forward.
After installation of LMDE is completed, the system will reboot into Windows 7, and that is because Windows is not aware that it now shares the hard drive with another OS. The final task then is to add an entry for LMDE in Windows’ boot menu. The easiest method of doing that is to use EasyBCD, a proprietary but free application from NeoSmart Technologies. So, download EasyBCD, install and launch it. Click on the Add New Entry tab, then click on the Linux/BSD tab. From the Type dropdown menu, select “GRUB 2″ (LMDE uses GRUB 2 as its boot loader). Click “Add Entry” button, then on the Edit Boot Menu tab.
By default, Windows 7 will be booted first, but you may change that to LMDE. If you make any changes here, click on Save Settings before exiting EasyBCD.
On every reboot, you will get this.
And if you select LMDE, you will get this. If for any reason you change your mind, you can still boot into Windows from here by selecting the Windows 7 entry.
You can have quality articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader or inbox by subscribing via RSS or email.
Subscribe by email
Thanks for the tutorial. It worked perfectly!
I wish I would have left some space in my HDD to try Linux Mint 13 when its released… Would I be able to partition more space from the Linux partition we created here?
If you have unallocated space or unused space left, yes.