windows vista won't boot with fedora

rreese34

Member
i had windows vista and i'm in college learning fedora 15 and i installed fedora and lost my windows can some one help me get my windows back and run as a dual boot so i can experiment with fedora15 and get a grip with it :eek::eek:
 
okay, in fedora can you see the windows partition? You may have deleted it, in which case you can not get it back. But you need to make sure its there. If it is, try running
Code:
 sudo update-grub
and it should allow you to boot into windows or fedora.
 
Fedora is different then Debian. Sudo update-grub won't work.
Instead, run as root:
Code:
grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg
thus, most likely you can do it using sudo:
Code:
sudo grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg

that should find your windows OS and will be selectable on the grub menu in startup.
 
Just out of curiosity: why are you using Fedora 15? Is that the exact version your college is using or something? Fedora 15 is no longer supported, I would recommend you grab a newer version instead (unless you have a reason stay with 15, of course).

Anyway, on the actual problem: can you see your Windows partitions from Linux (just go to the file manager and see if any large-ish volumes appear that you know aren't external HDs or anything of the sort). If not, you've probably overwritten your Windows installation... which option did you choose when the installer asked about hard drive partitioning? I think the default is to wipe everything and let Fedora have the entire disc, if you went with that... everything you had on Windows is most likely gone and irrecoverable. If you see the windows partition, though, the above should do the trick (though why didn't the installer do that automatically escapes me).
 
If you see the windows partition, though, the above should do the trick (though why didn't the installer do that automatically escapes me).

Fedora is pretty funky when it comes to grub. If you are using another Linux OS and update grub, fedora won't be detected unless that partition is mounted. No other OS I've used does that.

Also, 15 is outdated, but I wouldn't get the newest version. Gnome3 isn't exactly the best DE imo, and fixing the bugs it has is a constant problem.
Case in point, the words of Linus Torvalds himself:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/102150693225130002912/posts/UkoAaLDpF4i
 
Also, 15 is outdated, but I wouldn't get the newest version. Gnome3 isn't exactly the best DE imo, and fixing the bugs it has is a constant problem.
Ho yes, I've read what Linus thinks of the horror that is Gnome 3, makes for good late night entertainment :D but anyway, one doesn't have to use Gnome, I gave Gnome 3 a go with F15 and my solution since that experience has been to not use it. I've been switching between KDE, xfce and Openbox every few weeks as of late, currently on Openbox (I still haven't figured a way to access applications that appear in the system tray thingamabobby and having to type a long dbus command just to put the machine to sleep is a bit annoying, but other than that it's great).
 
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