**SOLVED** Advice installing windows on pre-existing arch system

Cryptix_00 · 2016-09-10 17:15:20

this is what my partitions look like right now, I have a lot of disks.

My mobo has 1 more sata slot and i was going to buy a new SSD and put windows on it, then boot back into an arch live cd and re-install grub. is this possible? will windows be able to boot from that disk even with so many others kicking around

>  ~  fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sdc: 3.7 TiB, 4000787030016 bytes, 7814037168 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: C7569A14-BFFA-42BA-92B5-0A63382A2C64

Device     Start        End    Sectors  Size Type
/dev/sdc1   2048 7814035455 7814033408  3.7T Linux filesystem


Disk /dev/sdb: 447.1 GiB, 480103981056 bytes, 937703088 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: CF2B9A1A-2AB1-49C6-AF5E-4FC2780C17EE

Device     Start       End   Sectors   Size Type
/dev/sdb1   2048 937703054 937701007 447.1G Linux filesystem


Disk /dev/sdd: 111.8 GiB, 120034123776 bytes, 234441648 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: 0x000629a1

Device     Boot   Start       End   Sectors   Size Id Type
/dev/sdd2          2048   8196095   8194048   3.9G  5 Extended
/dev/sdd3  *    8196096 234438655 226242560 107.9G 83 Linux
/dev/sdd5          4096   8196095   8192000   3.9G 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Partition table entries are not in disk order.


Disk /dev/sda: 2.7 TiB, 3000592982016 bytes, 5860533168 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 62AC639E-20FD-4745-897E-4A38408E5967

Device     Start        End    Sectors  Size Type
/dev/sda1   2048 5860532223 5860530176  2.7T Microsoft basic data




Disk /dev/sde: 1.8 TiB, 2000396746752 bytes, 3907024896 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: 0x000ce27c

Device     Boot Start        End    Sectors  Size Id Type
/dev/sde1        2048 3907024895 3907022848  1.8T 83 Linux


Disk /dev/mapper/luks-739a19f6-de61-46a4-97ee-9c5b1c668b27: 1.8 TiB, 2000393601024 bytes, 3907018752 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

Last edited by Cryptix_00 (2016-09-17 22:50:50)

headkase · 2016-09-10 18:04:12

According to Windows no other operating systems exist and it will always overwrite your boot-loader with its own that only sees itself. Reinstalling GRUB after installing Windows will work. However, on the Windows side: having a non-Windows boot-loader sometimes leads to Windows not being able to boot say when you've applied a Windows Update. Because, of course, Windows expects only itself in the boot information.

An alternative to using GRUB is to use the Windows boot-loader. It is called BCD and you can google for information about it. If you use Windows' boot-loader then the situation that Windows won't boot after a Windows Update with a non-Microsoft boot-loader just doesn't happen any more.

Cryptix_00 · 2016-09-10 18:19:40

I was told that installing windows will overwrite the 'first' drive with a boot partition because windows requires it to exist. I was thinking of unplugging all my other drives, save the windows one, installing windows, then plugging the other drives back in and adjusting grub from there, just to ensure windows doesnt overwrite any of my linux drives.

as far as updates go, i just want to play a few games on the windows computer, ill never browse the internet on it.

headkase · 2016-09-10 18:24:56

Well, with Windows 10 at least updates are mandatory. You will get them whether you like it or not. My opinion and advice is that if you're going to dual-boot then the most problem-free approach is to use the Windows BCD boot-loader. Whatever you decide though is your prerogative - do what you wish, it's your system.

Cryptix_00 · 2016-09-10 19:11:38

what do you do about the 100mb boot partition that windows writes to drive 0?

in usual duat-boot scenarios you partition a drive and install linux/windows on separate partitions, but in this case windows will overwrite some part of another drive

jasonwryan · 2016-09-10 19:29:28

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Du … th_Windows

Cryptix_00 · 2016-09-10 20:05:22

i have read this, but it suggests installing windows first followed by arch. i have arch already installed

Head_on_a_Stick · 2016-09-11 16:12:33

If you have a UEFI system then it may be as easy as resetting the bootorder with `efibootmgr -o` but the caveat here is that Windows will probably try to create it's own EFI system partition on the new drive and unless your firmware ("BIOS") is a "good" implementation then it may resort to booting Windows exclusively and ignore any NVRAM settings made by `efibootmgr` to the contrary.

The solution then would be to mount /boot in Arch to the new ESP and re-install the kernel and bootloader and copy the configuration files over.

EDIT: you don't seem to have a UEFI system,ha!

Boy, is my face red...

In that case, just re-installing the GRUB bootloader to the disk should work.

Last edited by Head_on_a_Stick (2016-09-11 16:14:54)

Cryptix_00 · 2016-09-11 23:48:39

Isn't GPT automatically UEFI? or is that something entirely different? Does windows only create that block of 100mb boot partition on other drives under UEFI?

Last edited by Cryptix_00 (2016-09-11 23:49:41)

graysky · 2016-09-13 00:34:32

I installed win7 after Arch. Just leave some space after the arch partition and the win installer will create its small partition+larger one. You'll need to reinstall your bootloader (grub in my case) and add an entry for the win partition.

Cryptix_00 · 2016-09-14 03:35:21

graysky, that would be fine if everything was ont he same drive, but windows will be on it's own drive, and i've got 4 other ext4 drives that windows could possibly re-write its boot to

graysky · 2016-09-14 11:50:05

Not really in the scope of many setups I think (5 drives and wanting Windows). Maybe post to a Windows forum.

Tutti · 2016-09-15 00:47:49

The Windows installer only overwrites the mbr, reinstalling grub will fix that (as previously mentioned). Adding a grub entry that chainloads the Windows boot loader on the System Reserved Partition (SRP) *should* prevent issues with updates.
Additionally, i believe* that Windows sets the boot flag on the drive it is installed to, and write the mbr on that drive.

The SRP is automatically created on unformatted space (e.g. new clean drive, or when deleting partitions), when using the graphical installer. The Windows installer does not overwrite existing partitions to make space for the SRP.
It is possible to prevent the creation of the SRP, but my own experience when doing that on a dual boot system is that some Windows 10 updates failed.
More about SRP:
http://www.howtogeek.com/192772/what-is … delete-it/
http://www.thewindowsclub.com/system-re … on-windows

If you're worried about Windows overwriting partitions, just do as stated in #3, you may however have to specify the drive to boot from in BIOS as you'll likely have mbr on two drives.

* take my belief with a truckload of salt, I haven't really checked and confirmed it.

Cryptix_00 · 2016-09-17 22:49:46

Thanks for the help guys, what I ended up doing is:

- plugging the new windows drive into drive 0
- unplugging all my other drives, booting into windows setup
- installing windows on drive 0.
- restarted and through my BIOS booted from my linux boot/root drive.
- did a grub-mkconfig to find the windows 7 and add it to grub,
- instead of installing grub again on drive 0 mbr, I just reordered the boot sequence of drives in BIOS

this way I havent touched the windows drive or any of the other drives, just reordered the boot sequence. it seems to be working great.

Last edited by Cryptix_00 (2016-09-17 22:50:34)

Arch Linux

#1 2016-09-10 17:15:20