Windows 7 and Linux live together on the same hard disk in perfect harmony. I had Windows 7 installed first, and a few GBytes of free space at the end of the hard drive which I left unpartitioned. Here is how to install Ubuntu:
- Download Ubuntu and burn the ISO on a CD.
- Boot from the CD, and install it. Make sure that you choose an empty partition, and also make sure that you select to install the boot loader on the Linux partition (example: on “/dev/sda3”, and not on the main MBR “/dev/sda”).
Until here you have an Ubuntu installation which you cannot boot, yet.
Here is how to configure the Windows 7 boot loader to include Ubuntu in the boot choice menu:
- Download EasyBCD and install it. EasyBCD is free for non-commercial use and offers a nice GUI to edit the Windows 7 boot loader menu.
- Do the following in EasyBCD — Add New Entry -> Operating Systems -> Linux/BSD:
- Type: GRUB 2
- Name: Ubuntu
- Device: (Automatically configured)
- Finally, click on “View Settings” in EasyBCD. You should see something similar to the following:
Entry #2
Name: Ubuntu
BCD ID: {1d486d61-64cc-12a5-7d94-af2f5df01535}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \NST\AutoNeoGrub0.mbr
EasyBCD ships the “stage1” boot loader of GRUB2 (\NST\AutoNeoGrub0.mbr), so you don’t have to do anything else. Just reboot your Windows 7, and the boot menu should present a choice between “Windows 7” and “Ubuntu”.
A note of caution: It is highly recommended that you do a backup of your whole hard disk before you try to install Ubuntu or modify the boot loader options.
P.S. There is no “boot.ini” in Windows 7. You could modify “boot.ini” in Windows XP to achieve the same result, but this does not apply for Windows 7.
References:
/contrib/famzah 
May 29, 2012 at 1:28 pm
I’ ve followed that procedure. But when i reboot and I chose ubuntu I obtain: grub4dos grub> prompt. ANY idea?
May 29, 2012 at 3:34 pm
If you installed Ubuntu properly, most probably after the installation the order of your disks changed. The following article should help: GRUB only offers a rescue shell.
March 3, 2014 at 8:02 pm
I too followed same procedure. same problem as mentioned by frnaco. Grub How do i solve it? I am sure that I installed everything properly. The link u provided helped. But every time i have to do it
March 3, 2014 at 8:48 pm
If you are able to boot Linux successfully using the info in the provided link, you probably just need to re-configure and re-install Grub using the correct partition name. The following article should help: http://superuser.com/questions/419876/grub-reinstall-after-partition-name-change
Please make sure that you install Grub on the Linux partition (ex. “/dev/sda2”) and not on the MBR (ex. “/dev/sda”).
June 5, 2012 at 11:03 pm
I followed this and was able to get to the Windows boot loader screen. When I select Ubuntu though it gets stuck at Try (hd0,1): …My Linux bootloader is saved to sda5 and my linux partition is sda4.
I also tried changing the settings inside EasyBCD to set Ubuntu to boot from BOOT instead of C: and that brings up a failed to start screen stating “The selected entry could not be loaded because the application is missing or corrupt”.
Any advice?
June 6, 2012 at 7:35 am
Sorry, I haven’t tried this with different partitions for “/boot” and the rest of the file-system. If you have no data on the Ubuntu installation, I’d suggest that you re-install it and use only one partition for “/” and “/boot”; “/home” could still be on a different partition, if you need to. Let us know the outcome.
June 6, 2012 at 4:47 pm
The issue was using GRUB2 when setting it up with EasyBCD. For some reason it doesn’t create the ang0 file that’s required to boot. Redoing it using Grub(Legacy) instead fixed it.
October 3, 2012 at 2:06 pm
Thank you! That howto saved my day.
June 11, 2013 at 10:11 am
These instructions worked beautifully, thanks!
In the Ubuntu setup, I manually made the first partiton of free space of about 100 MB with a mount point of /boot (in my case, was /dev/sda3). Made remaining partitions for / (using most of the free space) and for swap (using a few gigs), then used the drop-down menu to select /dev/sda3 (where /boot would be installed) for installing GRUB, rather than /dev/sda.
May 27, 2014 at 10:32 pm
I used an external grub on a usb drive to boot my ubuntu installation after Windows 7 was encrypted.
April 2, 2015 at 7:17 pm
Thank you, this worked perfect! I typically install Ubuntu AFTER I have a Windows 7 system up and running and no changes need to be made for a seamless dual boot using GRUB configured during the Ubuntu install. This time I was adding Windows AFTER Ubuntu and was having fits until I found this page. Thanks again!