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How to boot into Centos after installing Windows 7. Urgent

7 posts · originally from https://geek.digit.in/community/threads/how-to-boot-into-centos-after-installing-windows-7-urgent.187233/

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rakesh-the gilli Original post #1
Sep 25, 2014 at 1:57 PM
I have a laptop in which i have installed two operating systems CentOS and Windows 7 in dual boot configuration [my friend configured the whole thing]. I am now about to install Windows 7, by formatting [deleting through windows setup] the already existing Windows 7 partition and reinstalling. Will i face any problems like not being able to boot into already existing CentOS after installing Windows 7? Kindly reply as soon as possible as i need to reinstall it today.
Desmond
Desmond #2
Sep 25, 2014 at 2:52 PM
Yes. Windows will replace the GRUB bootloader and you will lose access to CentOS. However, it is possible to reinstall GRUB using a Live CD after installing Windows.
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rakesh-the gilli #3
Sep 25, 2014 at 6:11 PM
DeSmOnD dAvId said:
Yes. Windows will replace the GRUB bootloader and you will lose access to CentOS. However, it is possible to reinstall GRUB using a Live CD after installing Windows.
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Is it possible to use EasyBCD and make changes, if not can you provide info on how to reinstall GRUB using a Live CD like you have mentioned
Desmond
Desmond #4
Sep 25, 2014 at 6:21 PM
You could give it a shot. I have never personally used EasyBCD so I cannot comment on how it works.
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rakesh-the gilli #5
Sep 26, 2014 at 8:34 AM
DeSmOnD dAvId said:
You could give it a shot. I have never personally used EasyBCD so I cannot comment on how it works.
Click to expand...

Ok so which LiveCD distribution should i go for, CentOS LiveCD? I formatted my drive yesterday. Can't boot into linux :(
Desmond
Desmond #6
Sep 26, 2014 at 12:11 PM
Do you still have the Linux partition or that's formatted too?

I don't know if the CentOS Live CD has the grub-install utility. You could use the Ubuntu Live CD instead it has grub-install and it will work just fine.
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rakesh-the gilli #7
Sep 27, 2014 at 9:05 AM
DeSmOnD dAvId said:
Do you still have the Linux partition or that's formatted too?

I don't know if the CentOS Live CD has the grub-install utility. You could use the Ubuntu Live CD instead it has grub-install and it will work just fine.
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Hi DD. I tried it out with EasyBCD and it worked like a charm. After installing Windows 7, i installed EasyBCD (within Win7), under "Add new entry" setting, selected "Linux/BSD " tab and selected "LegacyGRUB" under "Type", gave it a boot display name [CentOS] under "name" and selected the partition [100 mb in size] that contains Linux boot files i suppose (how do i know? the other linux partition failed to boot when i added its entry) and also checked "automatically find and locate". After adding this entry i restarted and voila i could boot into CentOS. Thanks for your tips too :)