Linux Mint... Windows 7 not listed in boot menu (triple boot)

[Humble_Phenom]

Hey guys,

I've triple booted Windows 7, Windows XP, and Linux Mint 9. I can boot to Windows XP, and Mint with no problems, but there's no Windows 7 option in the boot menu. How can I get Windows 7 to show up so that I could boot to it?

I tried sudo update-grub, but Windows 7 didn't show up.

Your help is appreciated.

[rokytnji]

what does

sudo fdisk -l /dev/sda

show?

My Grub 2 guide link is in my signature

[Humble_Phenom]

Here are the fdisk results

Disk /dev/sda: 120.0 GB, 120000000000 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14589 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x23383ed3

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 1824 14647296 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 1824 4012 17576961 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 1824 3648 14647296 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 3648 4012 2928640 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sdb: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x23383ecf

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 14024 112640000 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb2 14025 60800 375728220 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sdb5 14025 45895 256003776 7 HPFS/NTFS


I have two hard drives, Windows 7 and Windows XP are on one drive. And Mint on the other one.

[meton_magis]

in what order did you install the 3 operating systems? and which partitions on sdb are XP and which is win 7?

[Humble_Phenom]

Oss were installed in this order: Windows 7, then Windows XP, and finally Mint.

Windows 7 = sdb5
Windows XP = sdb1
Mint = sda1

[yancek]

Oss were installed in this order: Windows 7
, then Windows XP
, and finally Mint.

That's your problem. If you had installed windows 7 after xp, I doubt you would have any problems. Grub doesn't boot windows, it chainloads which basically means it points to the area on the partition where the bootloader for windows should be. windows 7 will boot earlier systems but xp won't boot vista or win 7 without some manual intervention on your part. This is a windows issue and I don't think anything you do with Grub will help. You might google boot win 7 from xp and hopefully there will be a windows forum explaining how to do this.

if this is all new installation and you don't have a lot of data, it would probably be easier to install them in the correct order: xp, win7, mint.

[devils casper]

I agree with yancek. Its a Windows Boot Loader problem.
Unplug Linux Hard Disk and boot up from second Hard Disk. Does Windows Boot Menu having options to boot Windows 7 or XP appear at startup?

[hatebreed]

you could add windows 7 to the xp boot loader by manually. You would have to do some research on what your config line would have to look like, as far as drive specs that the boot loader looks for. I also agree that the easiest way to fix it would be to reload the windows OSs. Just unplug the linux drive and install the windows OSs on the same drive they are on now but in the different order.