[Solved ]Arch and Windows Dual Boot - Need advice [thanks]

broi · 2011-12-12 20:08:15

First of all, yes I read Wiki about Daul Booting Arch and Windows and now I'm going to tell you my experience..
I had installed Windows XP on whole HD (one partition, 80 GB, Fresh install -> Much freespace) so I wanted to rezize it to 40GB so I have some space for Arch.
I did so with GParted and I had 40GB free, unallocated space and 40GB partition where XP is, but next time I tryied to boot to XP, it didn't work and after it, I didn't even tryed to install Arch because I really want Dual Boot with XP.
Now, instead of installing XP on whole partition and resizing after that, I did oposite, I created 40GB directly from Windows Installation (not GParted) and then after creating it I installed Win on it, now again I have same (40Gb free, 40 Win XP) but now I can boot to Win.
Should I try to install Arch on remaining space? Is my Win XP going to not boot if I do? I really need advice from someone...
To re-explain:
1. Had Win XP on whole HD, then resized with GParted -> Didn't want to boot my Win XP;
2. (Now) I have win XP but resized before installing it -> Boot fine, should I install Arch now on rest of space?

Sorry for my bad english..

Last edited by broi (2012-03-10 13:38:04)

KingX · 2011-12-12 20:48:29

If you have never done a Arch Linux install before, I would recommend you try out Arch Linux in a virtual machine before you attempt on the actual machine.

Regarding your question, yes you would install Arch Linux in the free space. Refer to the installation wiki which tells you how to create the needed partitions and do the install.

blno · 2011-12-13 00:21:31

Just to clear up on the Windows boot problem (I just did the same):

When you change the order of the partitions Windows will not want to boot. You have to boot on the original Windows cd (or maybe a recovery Windows cd) and select "repair an existing installation". It will fix the boot. (note: if it can't detect the installed windows, check in gparted that the partition have the "boot" flag).

Then you can install Arch and Grub.

Boxes · 2011-12-13 06:04:06

broi wrote:

First of all, yes I read Wiki about Daul Booting Arch and Windows and now I'm going to tell you my experience..
I had installed Windows XP on whole HD (one partition, 80 GB, Fresh install -> Much freespace) so I wanted to rezize it to 40GB so I have some space for Arch.
I did so with GParted and I had 40GB free, unallocated space and 40GB partition where XP is, but next time I tryied to boot to XP, it didn't work and after it, I didn't even tryed to install Arch because I really want Dual Boot with XP.
Now, instead of installing XP on whole partition and resizing after that, I did oposite, I created 40GB directly from Windows Installation (not GParted) and then after creating it I installed Win on it, now again I have same (40Gb free, 40 Win XP) but now I can boot to Win.
Should I try to install Arch on remaining space? Is my Win XP going to not boot if I do? I really need advice from someone...
To re-explain:
1. Had Win XP on whole HD, then resized with GParted -> Didn't want to boot my Win XP;
2. (Now) I have win XP but resized before installing it -> Boot fine, should I install Arch now on rest of space?
Sorry for my bad english..

Yes it should boot fine as long as you remove the "#s" in front of the Windows section of the boot loader. The installation should ask you if you want to edit any of the configuration files, so just be sure to edit the files in (I think it shows them up as being /boot) and get rid of the "#s" in front of the Windows section. So it should look something like this:

#Windows (Boot Section thingy)
#title Windows
#chain (some name or other)
#(something else is here but I don't remember what)

and you want it to look like this (minus my comments in the parathesises):

#Windows (Boot Section thingy)
title Windows (you can have whatever you want here as long as the "title" part is left in front of whatever you want Windows to be called in the bootloader, so you could have it be: title THE GREATEST FREAKING OPERATING SYSTEM THAT EVER FREAKING WORKED ON DER OSBOXES, and it should still work..... in fact... I think I might rename mine just that just so that I can get a kick out of it every time I boot my system .)
chainloader (whatever the chain +1 or whatever it's called thing is called and don't mess with this one, just get rid of the "#" sign in front of it.)
(and whatever follows on the next line, just get rid of the "#" in front of it and when you reboot you should be able to select and run Windows. Assuming that you're using Grub, since this is just how you setup Grub. I have no idea how you setup syslinux or whatever the other bootloader offered to ya is called.)

Boxes · 2011-12-13 06:07:00

Boxes wrote:

broi wrote:
First of all, yes I read Wiki about Daul Booting Arch and Windows and now I'm going to tell you my experience..
I had installed Windows XP on whole HD (one partition, 80 GB, Fresh install -> Much freespace) so I wanted to rezize it to 40GB so I have some space for Arch.
I did so with GParted and I had 40GB free, unallocated space and 40GB partition where XP is, but next time I tryied to boot to XP, it didn't work and after it, I didn't even tryed to install Arch because I really want Dual Boot with XP.
Now, instead of installing XP on whole partition and resizing after that, I did oposite, I created 40GB directly from Windows Installation (not GParted) and then after creating it I installed Win on it, now again I have same (40Gb free, 40 Win XP) but now I can boot to Win.
Should I try to install Arch on remaining space? Is my Win XP going to not boot if I do? I really need advice from someone...
To re-explain:
1. Had Win XP on whole HD, then resized with GParted -> Didn't want to boot my Win XP;
2. (Now) I have win XP but resized before installing it -> Boot fine, should I install Arch now on rest of space?
Sorry for my bad english..
Yes it should boot fine as long as you remove the "#s" in front of the Windows section of the boot loader. The installation should ask you if you want to edit any of the configuration files, so just be sure to edit the files in (I think it shows them up as being /boot) and get rid of the "#s" in front of the Windows section. So it should look something like this:
#Windows (Boot Section thingy)
#title Windows
#chain (some name or other)
#(something else is here but I don't remember what)
and you want it to look like this (minus my comments in the parathesises):
#Windows (Boot Section thingy)
title Windows (you can have whatever you want here as long as the "title" part is left in front of whatever you want Windows to be called in the bootloader, so you could have it be: title THE GREATEST FREAKING OPERATING SYSTEM THAT EVER FREAKING WORKED ON DER OSBOXES, and it should still work..... in fact... I think I might rename mine just that just so that I can get a kick out of it every time I boot my system .)
chainloader (whatever the chain +1 or whatever it's called thing is called and don't mess with this one, just get rid of the "#" sign in front of it.)
(and whatever follows on the next line, just get rid of the "#" in front of it and when you reboot you should be able to select and run Windows. Assuming that you're using Grub, since this is just how you setup Grub. I have no idea how you setup syslinux or whatever the other bootloader offered to ya is called.)

So just as a quick overview.

You want Grub to look like this in the Windows Booting Section thing:

#Windows (boot loader section stuff)
title Windows
chainloader (thingymajig)
(and whatever is on the next line by default.)

(just remember that "#" means that the rest of the line is a comment. So #dsgafdhafhsfd
would be a comment since it's all on the same line, whereas
3423sdf #asdgas
asdfasdf
sdfh
wouldn't since only "asdgas" is on the same line as # and follows after it.) Good luck.

broi · 2011-12-13 12:17:53

blno wrote:

Just to clear up on the Windows boot problem (I just did the same):
When you change the order of the partitions Windows will not want to boot. You have to boot on the original Windows cd (or maybe a recovery Windows cd) and select "repair an existing installation". It will fix the boot. (note: if it can't detect the installed windows, check in gparted that the partition have the "boot" flag).
Then you can install Arch and Grub.

Yeah I tried that from Windows Installation CD (Not recovery) which reinstall whole /WINDOWS folder but didn't boot after that.

broi · 2011-12-13 12:22:09

Hey thank you all very much I will have that on my mind when I try to install ^_^

Boxes · 2011-12-13 14:02:26

broi wrote:

Hey thank you all very much I will have that on my mind when I try to install ^_^

Just let us now if it doesn't work so that we, I mean, so that I can try duplicating the problem/fixing it.

biltong · 2011-12-13 14:06:15

IMO the easiest way to dualboot with windows is to install grub2 and os-probe from the AUR, it handles everything for you. By doing that I have arch on my secondary 250GB drive with windows on my main 500GB drive, and if I boot to the 250GB drive I can choose between arch and windows no problem

Boxes · 2011-12-13 17:09:13

biltong wrote:

IMO the easiest way to dualboot with windows is to install grub2 and os-probe from the AUR, it handles everything for you. By doing that I have arch on my secondary 250GB drive with windows on my main 500GB drive, and if I boot to the 250GB drive I can choose between arch and windows no problem

Yes, but it is better for him and for us all to learn how to do it manually in case we have to, or if we cannot run os-probe. Besides, it's always better to learn things for yourself than just relying on something else, but either way is fine.

broi · 2011-12-13 20:25:10

I installed it and it works, yay! lol
dev/sda1 is my Win XP while sda2, 3, 5, and 6 (I dont know why it switched from 3 to 5) are swap, home, root and boot, everything is fine, Grub etc. just I have network problems, so I go reread Network setting section more carefully to find out what I missed in Wiki, thanks alot this is solved.
Edit: Network problem solved lol

Last edited by broi (2011-12-13 20:37:29)

Arch Linux

#1 2011-12-12 20:08:15

[Solved ]Arch and Windows Dual Boot - Need advice [thanks]

#2 2011-12-12 20:48:29

Re: [Solved ]Arch and Windows Dual Boot - Need advice [thanks]

#3 2011-12-13 00:21:31

Re: [Solved ]Arch and Windows Dual Boot - Need advice [thanks]

#4 2011-12-13 06:04:06

Re: [Solved ]Arch and Windows Dual Boot - Need advice [thanks]

#5 2011-12-13 06:07:00

Re: [Solved ]Arch and Windows Dual Boot - Need advice [thanks]

#6 2011-12-13 12:17:53

Re: [Solved ]Arch and Windows Dual Boot - Need advice [thanks]

#7 2011-12-13 12:22:09

Re: [Solved ]Arch and Windows Dual Boot - Need advice [thanks]

#8 2011-12-13 14:02:26

Re: [Solved ]Arch and Windows Dual Boot - Need advice [thanks]

#9 2011-12-13 14:06:15

Re: [Solved ]Arch and Windows Dual Boot - Need advice [thanks]

#10 2011-12-13 17:09:13

Re: [Solved ]Arch and Windows Dual Boot - Need advice [thanks]

#11 2011-12-13 20:25:10

Re: [Solved ]Arch and Windows Dual Boot - Need advice [thanks]

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