Dual boot with vista, need help to get into linux ubuntu

Asked by ben

Hi, hopefully someone with more linux experience can help, i have installed vista, then linux and partitioned my hard drive, I have a 100 MB partition I want the bootloader on, then 10gb partition for windows, as its only for itunes to put songs on my iphone and about 100gb for ubuntu. just one problem. I can only boot into windows. Can anyone provide assistance? apparently I need to follow this guide

http://apcmag.com/how_to_dualboot_vista_with_linux_linux_is_already_installed.htm?page=5

But im stuck, I can't run grub as root from a live CD can someone help?

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Wyatt Smith (wyatt-smith) said :
#1

I suspect the order of operations was exactly the reverse of what you described. Did you partition first, install linux next, and finally install Vista? That would be more consistent with the problem you are describing.

First I would like to make some general comments. 10GB does not seem to be enough space for Vista, as the recycle been takes 15% of the partition, windows page file takes 1.5xRAM size, and the hyber.sys file can take up even more space. I would allocate 20-30GB minimum for the smallest VISTA/WIN7 footprint.

The guide you are referring to is more than 3 years old and should not be followed. It is best to use a LiveCD or USB and boot to ubuntu desktop and reinstall grub back the MBR. Here a links to Community Docs which should help.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RecoveringUbuntuAfterInstallingWindows
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair

Hope this helps

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