

Ask HN: Win 7 installation - misleading about multiboot?  - neilxdsouza

I am working on a compiler which i need working on linux 
and windows. I have been developing on GNU/linux all 
this time, but decided to now check that it works well 
on windows too. So I purchased a copy of windows 7 
Home premium - and installed it on my laptop.<p>It had 12 (1-3 primary and 5-13 xtended) partitions 
and I have 3 GNU/linux variants installed on it 
(you never know what you need on a rainy day)<p>When you reach the install screen on windows 7 there 
are 2 links below the "Install Now" button.<p>1. What to know before installing windows
2. Repair your computer.<p>I clicked on the "What to know ..." link and it has 
a note like this.<p>Heading: 
  "To install a custom (new) version of Windows 7"<p>Note: 
  "Use custom when you want to replace your 
   current operating system entirely;
   When you want to keep your current operating 
   system and install Windows on an available, 
   separate partition of your hard disk (multiboot); 
   or when no operating system is currently installed"<p>When I read this note I was happy, 
because it meant that I would not have to 
tweak with the boot loader after installing windows.<p>However after it finished the installation, 
there was no option to boot linux.<p>I called up microsoft support - first in the US 
and then in India (this number  +91 80 40103000).<p>In india i spoke to Shruti and then a technical supervisor
Sudhakar Bhagavanth - the IVR number is: 110414013468005<p>I pointed out the text to them, 
both of them made me put in the installation DVD.<p>They said that I had installed windows
over my linux partiton etc 
- i said no, the windows 7 installation is not 
honouring the multiboot which was shown 
on the initial screen. I had various arguments 
with Sudhakar - he first tried to argue that 
multi means 2, then said it did not work 
because i had 3 installations of linux, but would have
worked it i had say 1  Mac OS, and 1 Windows and 1 Linux,
 but not 3 versions of Linux,  about how I had 
installed windows on the linux partition, 
or Other operating Systems means Windows XP 
( it is clearly written in the note " ... keep 
  your current operating system ") - My current 
operating system is linux.<p>No, dont believe me - it's all recorded on the call
and that tape is in the call center.<p>I feel that the information presented in the note is misleading and thought I would post here just to 
figure out if others feel the same or is it just me.
======
pbhjpbhj
A couple of things.

This is a terrible wall of text that's really hard to read.

Your asking a support question and this isn't the forum for that, I'd try
LinuxQuestions.

Two quick notes, look for a partition recovery program (TestDisk from
cgsecurity maybe). Also Windows installations can get wrongly marked as
"recovery" by Grub (a popular boot manager).

Lastly, I flagged this.

~~~
neilxdsouza
Sorry about the formatting. My main gripe was about the misleading multiboot
mentioned in the Windows 7 pre-install notes screen.

Edit: I fixed it and removed the non-relevant tech question.

