So after many days of trying to get Mint to dual-boot with win 8.1 on separate drives and breaking windows multiple times, had to re-install twice. I'm at a loss. I've tried multiple online guides to get it to work, each one just breaks the windows bootloader. What do?
To be more specific about what guide i followed the closest it is this one
I've followed both the Ubuntu one and the guide specific to mint.
You could try to install them without the other drive plugged in. If you do it that way grub won't see Windows but you could add it manually after or just use your motherboards boot selection menu.
Simple ! Two different drives and when you boot go to bios and choose which drive to boot. Easy as pie. :)
Where are you putting your bootloader for Linux? And what isn't working, does grub show up? Do you have UEFI & fast boot on?
Well all is well as when i reinstalled windows the 2nd time around I disconnected my Linux SSD. After i used macrium to get my original windows state back I re-connected my linux SSD and can now choose what disk i want to boot into from BIOS with no issue.
Which i kind of find to be odd because when i first tried this, when i would select the Linux SSD as a boot override in BIOS it would still boot windows.
Even though this isn't as convienent as GRUB findind both windows and Mint, I will deal. I'm tired of breaking my OSes.
Screw the windows bootloader. I do this all the time. If you have a windows drive already then install linux second. Always install windows first, then linux, and set up grub IN the linux installation.
What @Aremis said...Always install windows first and then Linux. The windows bootloader will screw up everything.
And btw you do not screw up the installation but the bootleaders...The installations are fine.
Also try bootrepair from the Mint Live usd after you installed everything if the bootloader does not work.It should repair grub just fine. Just make sure you do an ¨update-grub¨ on Mint afterwards if grub does not see Windows and you are set.
It mostly saves time and trouble from dealing with grub issues. It is hard to say what windows might do next ?
Truth. But now i broke mint, trying to get nvidia drivers. Oh well XD I'm still experimenting with distros, so debian is next on deck
Check uefi or legacy. I'd use legacy so it doesn't fuck up. This article touches base on the frustrations with uefi.
Dual-boot Windows 8 and Ubuntu 12.10 in UEFI mode
Debian is a great and stable starting distro.
Use the driver from the Driver manager application. They always work. DO not download from the Nvidia site unless you know exactly what to do. An other option is to use a repository. But the easiest way is to use the Driver Manager. The dirvers there might be a bit older but are stable and it does not really make that much of a difference for Linux.
Debian is amazing but needs a lot of setting up. It is not recommended for new users.
It usually takes more than bad drivers to actually break Linux. So long as you can get a terminal / command prompt you're still good. If you installed bad drivers, you just uninstall the bad ones, and reinstall the good ones. No biggie. :) A link that might help
PS. "No biggie" does not mean "So easy you shouldn't ask questions" on the contrary, it means "Ask away, and we'll solve it together, then next time you get the problem you'll be able to solve it in 5 minutes" :D
PPS. When trouble shooting stuff like this, sometimes live help can be a great help. Thus a general good tip is to visit the appropriate IRC chatroom, eg. ##Ubuntu on irc.freenode.net, the people are generally super helpful with all sorts of live trouble shooting tips. Just make sure you show the curtesy of prefacing your question with "Hey, I've googled, and tried a bunch of guides, but to no avail, please help. "
Great tips, I am obviously very n00b to linux. I know i didn't actually "break" linux, but it's acting funny. StartX doesn't work it just says that cinnamon has crashed and drops into a very basic DE. No terminal emulator, have to go into the tty terminals.
If you're going to play with debian look around on www.distrowatch.com . Theres a lot to look through and a lot to play with.