How to install windows on a system already running Arch? [SOLVED]

d15d18a · 2014-12-18 02:42:01

Hello.
I use Arch for my daily use, but I'm having a big problem, my little brother. He wants to play videogames on the laptop and that's it, I know you can do it from Arch but I honestly don't want to install Steam neither anything else than what I need so I'm going to install Windows for him to play. I'm currently partitioning my HDD, but I was reading and I found out that you need GRUB in order to dual boot, I use syslinux, so my main question is, can I simply install windows and then install GRUB? Or do I have to do something before this?

Any help is welcome as I'm really new to dual booting Linux with Windows and the last time I used Windows was in 2006. So please help me or refer me to a good article as I'm scared to break something.

Last edited by d15d18a (2014-12-24 04:28:58)

the_shiver · 2014-12-18 02:52:18

syslinux lends itself to dual booting just as well as grub

see https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dual_boot for details

d15d18a · 2014-12-18 06:57:41

the_shiver wrote:

syslinux lends itself to dual booting just as well as grub
see https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dual_boot for details

But Syslinux (as far as I know) only supports certain types of formats for my partitions, in this case, I'll need an NTFS partition and Syslinux does not support NTFS but GRUB does. I mainly have the doubt about how to delete syslinux and install grub after I have installed Windows.

x33a · 2014-12-18 10:13:53

d15d18a wrote:

But Syslinux (as far as I know) only supports certain types of formats for my partitions, in this case, I'll need an NTFS partition and Syslinux does not support NTFS but GRUB does. I mainly have the doubt about how to delete syslinux and install grub after I have installed Windows.

Syslinux supports NTFS perfectly fine. I have used syslinux with a dualboot XP (NTFS)/Arch machine.

Awebb · 2014-12-18 10:45:47

If you had read the wiki article the_shiver gave you, you would be free of doubts.

TheSaint · 2014-12-18 10:51:22

OP should specify which version of windows wants to install. In particular if it requires UEFI partition and BIOS support it.
Linux boot loader doesn't need much to know about windows FS, they just chain load the windows boot loader, that could start from the second partition block.
If it is a MBR booting method, better to save the MBR before attempting to install windows. Mostly it will be modified.

d15d18a · 2014-12-21 00:05:50

I have it installed without anyproblems, it was easier than I thought... The only problem I have is that the Windows Machine doesn't poweroff, I can reboot it, and I get to the bootloader again but when I try to power it off, it kind of reboots inside the Windows machine, so the only way to poweroff the Windows machine is by restarting, and powering it off via Syslinux, wich is kind of annoying... But well, this seems more like a Windows problem than an Arch/Syslinux problem...

Thanks for your posts!!

TheSaint · 2014-12-21 01:47:29

Are you sure that there isn't fast boot enable in the BIOS? Depending whether is win8 or 7 with UEFI enabled, I think.

d15d18a · 2014-12-23 20:10:38

Syslinux works great!! And yeah, I had an option like that but it was inside Windows power management, not in my BIOS, I've dissabled it and it works like a charm... But I'm angry, I did all this, I bought this mother f***er 3 Steam games for more less 80 bucks, a 30 bucks PC gaming controller from Radioshack and he ended up downloading a Gameboy Emulator and playing some Pokémon game

Thank you very much for the help, everything works fine now. And merry Christmas

TheSaint · 2014-12-24 02:23:02

Please, put [SOLVED]
& Merry Xmas

Arch Linux

#1 2014-12-18 02:42:01

How to install windows on a system already running Arch? [SOLVED]

#2 2014-12-18 02:52:18

Re: How to install windows on a system already running Arch? [SOLVED]

#3 2014-12-18 06:57:41

Re: How to install windows on a system already running Arch? [SOLVED]

#4 2014-12-18 10:13:53

Re: How to install windows on a system already running Arch? [SOLVED]

#5 2014-12-18 10:45:47

Re: How to install windows on a system already running Arch? [SOLVED]

#6 2014-12-18 10:51:22

Re: How to install windows on a system already running Arch? [SOLVED]

#7 2014-12-21 00:05:50

Re: How to install windows on a system already running Arch? [SOLVED]

#8 2014-12-21 01:47:29

Re: How to install windows on a system already running Arch? [SOLVED]

#9 2014-12-23 20:10:38

Re: How to install windows on a system already running Arch? [SOLVED]

#10 2014-12-24 02:23:02

Re: How to install windows on a system already running Arch? [SOLVED]

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