Dual boot with (or without) UEFI

justdanyul · 2012-09-15 18:15:13

Hello,

I want to add arch to a windows box, but I dont really know how to deal with the UEFI bootloaders.

Can I just install plain old grub and do it as i'm used to? I don't know if windows 7 actually uses a UEFI bootloader or not, but in the past I could just put grub on the MBR of my linux drive and add a entry to windows from there. If i choose a UEFI bootloader, will this still be possible?

-Dan

the.ridikulus.rat · 2012-09-15 18:26:04

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Un … _Interface
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/UEFI_Bootloaders

nehaljwani · 2012-10-09 15:31:45

You don't necessarily need to dual boot Windows and Linux on UEFI. Follow the guide http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEou2dIcMSE to convert your UEFI to MBR-BIOS without loss of data.

WonderWoofy · 2012-10-09 16:51:23

@nehaljwani, seriously? Five posts of all the same thing in different threads. Do you have something against uefi?

@OP, if your windows partition is indeed booting via uefi, you can certainly still use a mbr installed bootloader w/o any negative consequences to your windows loading. You have to make sure that it is booting with uefi though... although I guess if it isn't you can aways just chainload like you probably did before. I say do it either way. When UEFI works, it is pretty great, but it can be a bit to wrap your head around to get it going.

Last edited by WonderWoofy (2012-10-09 16:53:41)

justdanyul · 2012-10-22 09:25:06

WonderWoofy wrote:

@nehaljwani, seriously? Five posts of all the same thing in different threads. Do you have something against uefi?
@OP, if your windows partition is indeed booting via uefi, you can certainly still use a mbr installed bootloader w/o any negative consequences to your windows loading. You have to make sure that it is booting with uefi though... although I guess if it isn't you can aways just chainload like you probably did before. I say do it either way. When UEFI works, it is pretty great, but it can be a bit to wrap your head around to get it going.

do you know of any way to check if windows 7 is booting with uefi or not? (google have proved rather unhelpful on this matter so far)

Last edited by justdanyul (2012-10-22 09:27:43)

the.ridikulus.rat · 2012-10-22 09:45:20

justdanyul wrote:

do you know of any way to check if windows 7 is booting with uefi or not? (google have proved rather unhelpful on this matter so far)

May be off-topic wrt Linux, but to do this boot into Windows, open "cmd" (as Administrator), and then type "bcdedit". If the "path" variable under "Windows Boot Loader" shows "winload.exe", then its BIOS-MBR boot, if it is showing "winload.efi", then its UEFI-GPT boot.

C:\Windows\system32>bcdedit

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier              {current}
device                  partition=C:
path                    \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description             Windows 7
locale                  en-US
inherit                 {bootloadersettings}
recoverysequence        {dbd20116-b38a-11e1-826f-be71072f298b}
recoveryenabled         Yes
osdevice                partition=C:
systemroot              \Windows
resumeobject            {dbd20114-b38a-11e1-826f-be71072f298b}
nx                      OptIn
numproc                 2
usefirmwarepcisettings  No
bootlog                 Yes
sos                     Yes

Last edited by the.ridikulus.rat (2012-10-22 09:47:25)

Arch Linux

#1 2012-09-15 18:15:13

Dual boot with (or without) UEFI

#2 2012-09-15 18:26:04

Re: Dual boot with (or without) UEFI

#3 2012-10-09 15:31:45

Re: Dual boot with (or without) UEFI

#4 2012-10-09 16:51:23

Re: Dual boot with (or without) UEFI

#5 2012-10-22 09:25:06

Re: Dual boot with (or without) UEFI

#6 2012-10-22 09:45:20

Re: Dual boot with (or without) UEFI

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