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New Mint does not seem to do that
The user guide to Mint lives here: http://www.linuxmint.com/documentation.php. It includes the installation steps, and those make it pretty clear it is not a drive-by process. There are quite a few checks and questions to be answered before it installs to the drive.

I would first get positive confirmation that there is not a DVD in the drive, and the any flash drives have been removed before rebooting the laptop and see what happens then. If not the flash drive, whoever hacked an activated Windows on that laptop may have used a Mint DVD to transfer the image and then left it behind.

If Linux is indeed installed on the laptop then things get a bit more complicated. The user guide will help you walk your friend through the steps to pull up the file manager (Nemo). See page 22 of the 17 edition. I would expect the Windows partitions to show up under the Devices branch in the left sidebar, although they may be labelled like "125 GB filesystem" rather than e.g. "Windows System".

Assuming the Windows partitions are still there*, the simplest way forward will be to get a dual boot going, then setting Windows as the default OS.

*I fear they're gone. Mint uses the Grub 2 boot loader and by default, it will add entries for other OSes to the boot menu. I would actually expect 2 entries for Win 7 as it will pick up the small Win 7 boot partition as well as the main system partition as separate installs.
New Re: Mint does not seem to do that
How can I tell him to set up a dual boot menu?




Satan (impatiently) to Newcomer: The trouble with you Chicago people is, that you think you are the best people down here; whereas you are merely the most numerous.
- - - Mark Twain, "Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar" 1897
New Need to figure out what is there first
Ctrl + Alt + T should open a terminal window.

sudo fdisk -l

This will list all available partitions.

Sample output*:

Disk /dev/sda: 298.1 GiB, 320072933376 bytes, 625142448 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x877d3b07

Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sda1 2048 2099199 2097152 1G 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 2099200 625139711 623040512 297.1G 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 2101248 33558527 31457280 15G 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 33560576 54534143 20973568 10G 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 54536192 75509759 20973568 10G 83 Linux
/dev/sda8 75511808 85278719 9766912 4.7G 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda9 85280768 625137663 539856896 257.4G 83 Linux


See if there are two of type NTFS. If they are not there, then Windows is gone. If they are, but not the same /dev/sd?? as the Linux partitions, then something is still interfering with the boot process and is launching Mint off a different drive.

If everything is on the same device, run

sudo update-grub2

to redetect other operating systems. That should add Windows to the boot menu.


* Use the source, Luke... The forum software escapes the PRE tags and then proceeds to mangle the table. You can see the nice one under View Source.
     Need suggestions - (lincoln) - (13)
         What is on the flash drive? - (scoenye) - (7)
             He's not Linux literate - (lincoln) - (6)
                 on the phone with him now - (lincoln) - (5)
                     you sure its not booting from the flash drive? -NT - (boxley) - (1)
                         Re: you sure its not booting from the flash drive? - (lincoln)
                     Mint does not seem to do that - (scoenye) - (2)
                         Re: Mint does not seem to do that - (lincoln) - (1)
                             Need to figure out what is there first - (scoenye)
         my friend is a moron! - (lincoln) - (4)
             told ya :-) -NT - (boxley)
             Teehee! ;-) -NT - (scoenye)
             Your "friend" ... right :-P -NT - (drook) - (1)
                 ain't my laptop - (lincoln)

Where?
66 ms