Windows 7/Kali linux dual boot fail

StonedHitman

So, funny thing happened to me last night. I was attempting to install kali linux alongside my current windows 7. I was following this website Dual Boot Kali with Windows | Kali Linux Official Documentation. I went through the steps, downloaded kali linux and put it on a flash drive, went into BIOS to make it boot from usb, and got into kali linux. All seemed to be going well, but things went downhill as soon as I got to the step that asked me to launch gparted. I didn't know what that was and as I was following the steps they didn't mention how to get this program(what it's supposed to do is allow you to create partitions). I decided to ignore that step(huge mistake) and manually create a second partition on my own. I could have gone back into windows 7 to create a new partition but I was already in kali linux(note: I never used linux before) and wanted to knock this out and thought I could just create a new partition like I knew what I was doing so I went to my HDD, right clicked it and saw an option that said create new(or something like that) and I interpreted it as create new partition. So I named it kali linux, hit enter and next thing I know is boom, all my files gone. I panicked, pulled out my usb and booted up windows 7 and well...I'm sure you can guess what happened after that. Here's the kicker...I had no backup. Let's just say, I learned my lesson. Luckily I had no important files, it was just a pain to download everything again, but all is good now. This was actually a good experience because I now realize I can't just wing it like I usually do. I will attempt this dual boot again, now I know what not to do and will be more cautious. It was stupid of me to try and do something this serious in the linux operating system that I've never used and doing it without a backup. Moral of the story? back your stuff up man, lol.

I do have a question: anyone heard of this gparted program? and if so, instead of using that, couldn't I have just gone into disk mngmt and created a new partition there?

wd40

I think what happened to you happened to 90% of people that try to dual boot linux with windows for the fist time and decide to skip some parts of the documentation (I am one of them - 10 Years ago ).

I think if you want to learn Linux, you should try to use linux tools including gparted.

GParted -- A free application for graphically managing disk device partitions

aspiringsoul

I've used gparted to re-partition several Servers and clients. It's a very good open source program that I highly recommend.

You should always ensure that you have a good backup before you modify the partition table (or really just in general). You might be able to recover some of the data (Using Recuva or something similar). Take a look here: Best Free Data Recovery and File Un-delete Utility


Yes, You can use the disk management MMC in Windows 7 to create unallocated space (however, Windows 7 is only able to partition the file system using NTFS). Gparted gives you the ability to partition the unallocated space as an EXT3/EXT4 file system which is required to install Linux.

One advantage that Gparted has over Windows disk management is this. Disk management MMC in Windows is only able to extend a partition if the unallocated space is contiguous (on the right side) of the partition needing to be extended.

Gparted can actually move partitions on the disk and then re-size them (always make sure to have a backup before doing this).

Maybe next time, use disk management to shrink your windows volume, and then use gparted to install an EXT3/4 file system on the unallocated space.

MacGuffin

Been there and done that, I even have the T-shirt. Now that computers are fast enough, have more than enough drive space, and other neat things that make virtualization easy I've given up on dual boot with rare exceptions. I have dual boot machines around the house, all but one pre-date my decision to give up on dual boot and do virtualization instead. The exception to my rule of no dual boot is a machine I'm playing with different virtual machine software, which is not something that can be virtualized.

I played with Kali Linux a little bit when going through my CEH training. I didn't quite understand its usefulness but I'm sure that's just a lack of vision on my part. If you do decide to do virtual machines instead of dual booting then I suggest getting at least one USB to ethernet adapter. One thing I've found is that as advanced as the network sharing is in most virtual machine software there is something lacking. A way around this is to use the USB pass through feature and let the virtual machine see the network directly with the USB ethernet adapter. This inherent limitation of networking in desktop VM software does not exist in server class stuff but using server class stuff on a desktop tends to lie somewhere between difficult and impossible.

I've used gparted before but I do not recall exactly all it can do. I was, like you, just following the directions from a how-to I found on a web search. It's like fire, it can do a lot of good but can also do a lot of damage if you are not careful.

Looks like you learned a lot with your experiment, which I guess was the point. Problem is that the lesson learned was not quite what you sought and came at a bit higher price than what you bargained for. Thanks for sharing.