mirbehroznoor/Ubuntu-Win-Dual-Legacy-Installation

Ubuntu 20.4 and Windows 7 Dual Boot Installation: Legacy BIOS

These notes are the result of lots of hours of browsing and, trial and error. Most importantly, to save myself from repeating the same mistakes.

Legacy BIOS

Check whether your laptop uses legacy or UEFI or Both How to Check if Your Computer Uses UEFI or BIOS in both Linux and Windows. Mostly, older laptops (like around 2010 or before) use legacy BIOS.

Windows 7

Follow the general instructions for installation

Ubuntu

Backup

Get a backup of home directory, better to keep a backup of important files and configurations of the previous installation:

Method 1: Pack and Unpack

Note: It will also archive files in trash bin, if you donot want to keep them, empty your trash bin before proceeding
In case of error try administrator permission: sudo tar -cvpzf backup-home.tar.gz /home/

Method 2: Copy Home Files to USB or Second Drive

# Copy the folder from one dir to other
sudo rsync -avx /dir/from /dir/to/

# In case you want to copy all files from one dir to other, add "."
sudo rsync -avx /dir/from/. /dir/to/

Installation Steps

Follow How To Install Ubuntu Along With Windows for legacy BIOS

Step 5: Create root, swap and home

Partition Sample

Partition         | Size   | System     | Partition
-----------------------------------------------------
sda               | 465,8G | Total      | Whole disk

Windows Partitions

├─sda1            | 500M   | -          | System Reserved
├─sda2            | 97,2G  | Windows    | Win OS
├─sda3            | 184,1G | Windows    | Local-disk

Ubuntu Partitions

├─sda4            | 184,1G | Ubuntu     | Extended
-----------------------------------------------------
  ├─sda5          | 56,5G  | Ubuntu     | /
  ├─sda6          | 5,6G   | Ubuntu     | SWAP
  └─sda7          | 122G   | Ubuntu     | /home

After the creation of partitions, select install. The installation will warn about Boot partition, ignore the warnings. For legacy boot, we donot need boot partition of Ubuntu.

Boot Failure:

Important

Make sure the installation completed
Connect to internet

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:yannubuntu/boot-repair
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y boot-repair
boot-repair

Tutorial 1 Ubuntu GRUB Boot-Repair Tutorial

Tutorial 2 Ubunt Boot Repair Tutorial

Basic Recommended Repair is usually sufficient,
- Advanced Options is a bit tricky for me :)

mirbehroznoor / Ubuntu-Win-Dual-Legacy-Installation