[techkid]

Hi all.

I recently reformatted my computer after some issues, and installed Windows 7. After updates and such, I proceeded on installing Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. The whole process went perfectly, I installed it in its own partition (45GB ext4 partition, 5GB swap partition), completed without errors, and rebooted.

The reboot is where it gets weird. Where it should normally go to the GRUB bootloader, it goes straight to Windows. Does anyone know what may have happened here?

Thank you in advanced.

[saikee]

If you know Grub you can run the Ubuntu as a Live CD and restore it any time you want, assuming you are not running one of those silly efi motherboards.

[techkid]

Nah, no UEFI motherboard (judging by how much of a pain they seem to be, I doubt I'll be getting one any time soon either).

And, no I'm not very proficient on GRUB, either. You can rebuild GRUB from the live CD? I'll check it out (good thing for backups, because I can see this will not end well...).

[TerryNet]

Not sure what you did wrong, but in somewhat similar situations I succeeded in getting the desired dual boot with this Repairing a Broken GRUB 2 Boot-Loader on Ubuntu

[saikee]

Originally Posted by techkid

Nah, no UEFI motherboard (judging by how much of a pain they seem to be, I doubt I'll be getting one any time soon either).

And, no I'm not very proficient on GRUB, either. You can rebuild GRUB from the live CD? I'll check it out (good thing for backups, because I can see this will not end well...).

You don't need to rebuild it. Grub is always part of the installation and inside the folder /boot/grub.

What you need is to restore it in the MBR. Task K3 of Just Booting tips in my signature refers.

Every installation CD or DVD has a function to rescue its boot loader, be it a MS Windows or a Linux. So use it.

[jrbuergel]

Or you can use the Windows 7 Boot Manager along with the EasyBCD multi-boot tool. So then just use the start up repair on the Windows 7 DVD to put back the boot code on the MBR, and here is EasyBCD; http://neosmart.net/EasyBCD/ , then just go down that page to bottom left for the free version link to download and install that boot tool. Then you add in your Ubuntu to the list and select which is the default boot O/S.