no bootable devices found after Win 7 Ubuntu dual boot set up
 

Ok, I've been using a dual boot configuration for years (like I am now),
but recently wanted to do a fresh install of 16.04 alongside Win 7 in a
dual boot set up like I've always had (except right now I'm on 14.04).

I followed the instructions he

https://opensource.com/article/18/5/dual-boot-linux

As suggested, partitioning the drive during Win set up so that I could
install 16.04 afterwards. Set up seemed to go well, except now I am
often getting the following message at start up:

"No boot sector on internal hard drive

No bootable devices--strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility
Press F5 to run onboard diagnostics."

I am on a Dell Inspiron 1545 laptop. I don't get the message every time
as sometimes I am presented with the GRUB menu to select either OS, but
I am getting the message often. If I press F1, I then seem to get the
GRUB menu to make the selection and boot goes as normal.

Ideas as to the cause and remedy would be welcome. I currently have the
free version of EasyBCD installed on Windows and have been manipulating
it a bit, but not too much as I'm afraid of making the condition worse.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Jon

no bootable devices found after Win 7 Ubuntu dual boot set up
 

JBI wrote:
Ok, I've been using a dual boot configuration for years (like I am now),
but recently wanted to do a fresh install of 16.04 alongside Win 7 in a
dual boot set up like I've always had (except right now I'm on 14.04).

I followed the instructions he

https://opensource.com/article/18/5/dual-boot-linux

As suggested, partitioning the drive during Win set up so that I could
install 16.04 afterwards. Set up seemed to go well, except now I am
often getting the following message at start up:

"No boot sector on internal hard drive

No bootable devices--strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility
Press F5 to run onboard diagnostics."

I am on a Dell Inspiron 1545 laptop. I don't get the message every time
as sometimes I am presented with the GRUB menu to select either OS, but
I am getting the message often. If I press F1, I then seem to get the
GRUB menu to make the selection and boot goes as normal.

Ideas as to the cause and remedy would be welcome. I currently have the
free version of EasyBCD installed on Windows and have been manipulating
it a bit, but not too much as I'm afraid of making the condition worse.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Jon

Well, you know it's not a software setup issue,
because... it works sometimes. Re-installing something
isn't going to help.

Paul

no bootable devices found after Win 7 Ubuntu dual boot set up
 

On 09/16/2018 01:40 PM, Paul wrote:
JBI wrote:
Ok, I've been using a dual boot configuration for years (like I am
now), but recently wanted to do a fresh install of 16.04 alongside Win
7 in a dual boot set up like I've always had (except right now I'm on
14.04).

I followed the instructions he

https://opensource.com/article/18/5/dual-boot-linux

As suggested, partitioning the drive during Win set up so that I could
install 16.04 afterwards.Â* Set up seemed to go well, except now I am
often getting the following message at start up:

"No boot sector on internal hard drive

No bootable devices--strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility
Â*Press F5 to run onboard diagnostics."

I am on a Dell Inspiron 1545 laptop.Â* I don't get the message every
time as sometimes I am presented with the GRUB menu to select either
OS, but I am getting the message often.Â* If I press F1, I then seem to
get the GRUB menu to make the selection and boot goes as normal.

Ideas as to the cause and remedy would be welcome.Â* I currently have
the free version of EasyBCD installed on Windows and have been
manipulating it a bit, but not too much as I'm afraid of making the
condition worse.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Jon

Well, you know it's not a software setup issue,
because... it works sometimes. Re-installing something
isn't going to help.

Â*Â* Paul

Good point, and that being said, I don't like how the drives are
plugging in/ unplugging. Takes several tries each time to get it
plugged in correctly and recognized, even with my current drive. Not
good because I don't know how to remedy. I do have an adapter for the
DVD drive that allows another drive to be used in its place. I'm
tempted to install this drive into that and boot to see what happens.

no bootable devices found after Win 7 Ubuntu dual boot set up
 

JBI wrote:
On 09/16/2018 01:40 PM, Paul wrote:
JBI wrote:
Ok, I've been using a dual boot configuration for years (like I am
now), but recently wanted to do a fresh install of 16.04 alongside
Win 7 in a dual boot set up like I've always had (except right now
I'm on 14.04).

I followed the instructions he

https://opensource.com/article/18/5/dual-boot-linux

As suggested, partitioning the drive during Win set up so that I
could install 16.04 afterwards. Set up seemed to go well, except now
I am often getting the following message at start up:

"No boot sector on internal hard drive

No bootable devices--strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility
Press F5 to run onboard diagnostics."

I am on a Dell Inspiron 1545 laptop. I don't get the message every
time as sometimes I am presented with the GRUB menu to select either
OS, but I am getting the message often. If I press F1, I then seem
to get the GRUB menu to make the selection and boot goes as normal.

Ideas as to the cause and remedy would be welcome. I currently have
the free version of EasyBCD installed on Windows and have been
manipulating it a bit, but not too much as I'm afraid of making the
condition worse.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Jon

Well, you know it's not a software setup issue,
because... it works sometimes. Re-installing something
isn't going to help.

Paul

Good point, and that being said, I don't like how the drives are
plugging in/ unplugging. Takes several tries each time to get it
plugged in correctly and recognized, even with my current drive. Not
good because I don't know how to remedy. I do have an adapter for the
DVD drive that allows another drive to be used in its place. I'm
tempted to install this drive into that and boot to see what happens.

You should be allowed to do that.

Plug into the adapter, then enter the BIOS
and verify the boot order is OK.

Paul

no bootable devices found after Win 7 Ubuntu dual boot set up
 

On 09/16/2018 07:54 PM, Paul wrote:
JBI wrote:
On 09/16/2018 01:40 PM, Paul wrote:
JBI wrote:
Ok, I've been using a dual boot configuration for years (like I am
now), but recently wanted to do a fresh install of 16.04 alongside
Win 7 in a dual boot set up like I've always had (except right now
I'm on 14.04).

I followed the instructions he

https://opensource.com/article/18/5/dual-boot-linux

As suggested, partitioning the drive during Win set up so that I
could install 16.04 afterwards.Â* Set up seemed to go well, except
now I am often getting the following message at start up:

"No boot sector on internal hard drive

No bootable devices--strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility
Â*Press F5 to run onboard diagnostics."

I am on a Dell Inspiron 1545 laptop.Â* I don't get the message every
time as sometimes I am presented with the GRUB menu to select either
OS, but I am getting the message often.Â* If I press F1, I then seem
to get the GRUB menu to make the selection and boot goes as normal.

Ideas as to the cause and remedy would be welcome.Â* I currently have
the free version of EasyBCD installed on Windows and have been
manipulating it a bit, but not too much as I'm afraid of making the
condition worse.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Jon

Well, you know it's not a software setup issue,
because... it works sometimes. Re-installing something
isn't going to help.

Â*Â*Â* Paul

Good point, and that being said, I don't like how the drives are
plugging in/ unplugging.Â* Takes several tries each time to get it
plugged in correctly and recognized, even with my current drive.Â* Not
good because I don't know how to remedy.Â* I do have an adapter for the
DVD drive that allows another drive to be used in its place.Â* I'm
tempted to install this drive into that and boot to see what happens.

You should be allowed to do that.

Plug into the adapter, then enter the BIOS
and verify the boot order is OK.

Â*Â* Paul

It wouldn't show in the BIOS, just as a device but wouldn't boot. What
I ended up doing, since I bought two identical WD drives, was reinstall
everything on the other unused new one. Since then, no more issues. My
guess is that there's something wrong with the initial drive, so I'm
going to wipe and then either return or exchange it. Thanks for your help.

no bootable devices found after Win 7 Ubuntu dual boot set up
 

😉 Good Guy 😉 wrote:
On 16/09/2018 17:18, JBI wrote:


Thanks in advance for any help.


You're in the wrong group.

No, you are. You're no good and should not be in any group.

no bootable devices found after Win 7 Ubuntu dual boot set up
 

On 9/16/2018 5:41 PM, JBI wrote:
On 09/16/2018 07:54 PM, Paul wrote:
JBI wrote:
On 09/16/2018 01:40 PM, Paul wrote:
JBI wrote:
Ok, I've been using a dual boot configuration for years (like I am
now), but recently wanted to do a fresh install of 16.04 alongside
Win 7 in a dual boot set up like I've always had (except right now
I'm on 14.04).

I followed the instructions he

https://opensource.com/article/18/5/dual-boot-linux

As suggested, partitioning the drive during Win set up so that I
could install 16.04 afterwards. Set up seemed to go well, except
now I am often getting the following message at start up:

"No boot sector on internal hard drive

No bootable devices--strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility
Press F5 to run onboard diagnostics."

I am on a Dell Inspiron 1545 laptop. I don't get the message every
time as sometimes I am presented with the GRUB menu to select
either OS, but I am getting the message often. If I press F1, I
then seem to get the GRUB menu to make the selection and boot goes
as normal.

Ideas as to the cause and remedy would be welcome. I currently
have the free version of EasyBCD installed on Windows and have been
manipulating it a bit, but not too much as I'm afraid of making the
condition worse.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Jon

Well, you know it's not a software setup issue,
because... it works sometimes. Re-installing something
isn't going to help.

Paul

Good point, and that being said, I don't like how the drives are
plugging in/ unplugging. Takes several tries each time to get it
plugged in correctly and recognized, even with my current drive. Not
good because I don't know how to remedy. I do have an adapter for
the DVD drive that allows another drive to be used in its place. I'm
tempted to install this drive into that and boot to see what happens.

You should be allowed to do that.

Plug into the adapter, then enter the BIOS
and verify the boot order is OK.

Paul

It wouldn't show in the BIOS, just as a device but wouldn't boot. What
I ended up doing, since I bought two identical WD drives, was reinstall
everything on the other unused new one. Since then, no more issues. My
guess is that there's something wrong with the initial drive, so I'm
going to wipe and then either return or exchange it. Thanks for your help.

Dual boot is a minefield because both operating systems think they want
to control the boot process.
If you install both OS's in the correct order, it should work...right up
until the time that it quits working. That will likely be at the next
update of either system.

In the old days, you could use two drives and use the bios boot
menu to select which. Newer operating systems can trash each other's
boot system anyway.

I gave up on dual boot. I put in two different drives with power switches
so that only one can run at a time. That solved most of my boot issues.

Suggest you clone your working drive to the non-working drive and swap
them. I bet that it will work as well as the good system...up until
the next major update.

no bootable devices found after Win 7 Ubuntu dual boot set up
 

On Sun, 16 Sep 2018 12:18:28 -0400, JBI wrote:

Ok, I've been using a dual boot configuration for years (like I am now),
but recently wanted to do a fresh install of 16.04 alongside Win 7 in a
dual boot set up like I've always had (except right now I'm on 14.04).

I followed the instructions he

https://opensource.com/article/18/5/dual-boot-linux

As suggested, partitioning the drive during Win set up so that I could
install 16.04 afterwards. Set up seemed to go well, except now I am
often getting the following message at start up:

"No boot sector on internal hard drive

No bootable devices--strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility
Press F5 to run onboard diagnostics."

I am on a Dell Inspiron 1545 laptop. I don't get the message every time
as sometimes I am presented with the GRUB menu to select either OS, but
I am getting the message often. If I press F1, I then seem to get the
GRUB menu to make the selection and boot goes as normal.

Ideas as to the cause and remedy would be welcome. I currently have the
free version of EasyBCD installed on Windows and have been manipulating
it a bit, but not too much as I'm afraid of making the condition worse.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Jon

It's worth having SuperGrub on a usb stick. This will find all the
bootable systems available and let you boot into one. However, if you are
getting inconsistent boot problems, you probably have a hardware issue.

no bootable devices found after Win 7 Ubuntu dual boot set up
 

On Mon, 17 Sep 2018 18:06:44 +0200, Weatherman wrote:

No, you are. You're no good and should not be in any group.

Long ago I killfiled the deranged person "GoodGuy".
I only see his moronic posts when people respond to him.

It's best for everyone that you killfile the bullying troll.
Or, if you're not plonking him, at least don't respond to his idiocy.

(I'll respond to the OP separately as I have a hint for him.)

no bootable devices found after Win 7 Ubuntu dual boot set up
 

On Mon, 17 Sep 2018 10:22:15 -0700, mike wrote:

Dual boot is a minefield because both operating systems think they want
to control the boot process.

I wrote a couple of tutorials which may help the OP if there's an
intermittend hardware issue of some sort.

For example, this was an issue with RAID bits left on the hard drive:
Why doesn't Ubuntu 18.04 ask to install next to Windows 10 Pro
single HDD as a dual boot?
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.os.linux/D7E7FQ1NLNk%5B1-25%5D

It sounds like the OP worked around the problem where it's well known that
the dual-boot process (I'll call it "GRUB" for lack of a better term) does
strange things when it "thinks" there is a hardware problem.
Have you ever seen a Grub that wouldn't respond to the keyboard?
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt.os.linux/yQmtemiHcVk/glo2kUA2CAAJ

This thread shows what happens when "GRUB" thinks that a RAID controller
was in existence (when it wasn't):
Quick question asked of how to install ubuntu (as a dual boot)
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt.os.linux/5Xl7DPopNnE/fBpSed9gAwAJ

This thread shows what happens when "GBUB" thinks that the keyboard has an
issue (when it doesn't):
Proactive setup instructions for dual boot with Windows & Ubuntu
via Grub using legacy keyboards
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt.os.linux/WltumTFjzU8/98HTzaNuCAAJ

In the first case, the solution was to literaly wipe every single bit on
the hard drive, including the normally inaccessible bits at the beginning
and end.

In the latter case, the solution was to mess with the BIOS.

Hope this helps the OP. I realize the solution I wrote up are detailed, and
specific to two hardware issues:
a. Grub wouldn't recognize the USB keyboard (under the given circumstances)
b. Grub wouldn't recognize the HDD (under the given circumstances)

I only present these to the OP in terms of how to approach debugging &
resolution, since both problems were successfully debugged & resolved.