Arch Linux

jmgilman

Member

Registered: 2012-10-12

Posts: 19

How to select disk to partition

Greetings,

I have a 130GB Crucial SSD and a 1TB Samsung HDD, and I'm trying to install ArchLinux on to the Samsung HDD. I have Windows 7 installed on the Crucial, so I'm pretty sure I don't need to worry about dual-booting since the installation will be on a separate HDD. The problem I'm having is that when I run the live installation media and attempt to format with cfdisk, it seems the selected disk is the Crucial SSD. I booted into the BIOS and changed the boot order so that the Samsung was first, but that didn't change anything. I think I have some serious concept errors because I don't understand how I can select the Samsung HDD for formatting and installation. So:

* Do I need to worry about a boot manager in this scenario (or can I just change the BIOS boot order for selecting which OS to boot)?
* How do I select the Samsung HDD with cfdisk?

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

- Josh

* EDIT *

After some exploring, I found that running 'cfdisk /dev/sdb' brings up the Samsung HDD. However, I still am not sure about the dual-boot issues. My knowledge goes as far as knowing there's such thing as a MBR, but I don't know how to manage it so that I can safely boot into Windows 7 on the Crucial, and ArchLinux on the Samsung. Any guidance?

Last edited by jmgilman (2012-10-12 00:57:34)

WonderWoofy

Member

From: Los Gatos, CA

Registered: 2012-05-19

Posts: 8,414

Re: How to select disk to partition

Time to do some research, eh?

headkase

Member

Registered: 2011-12-06

Posts: 1,976

Re: How to select disk to partition

See:

Windows and Arch Dual Boot

Welcome to Arch.  As you will find Arch is a "self-service" distribution.  Please use the excellent Wiki whenever possible. 

Last edited by headkase (2012-10-12 02:14:53)

FlyingHappy

Member

From: Cincinnati, OH

Registered: 2011-04-18

Posts: 192

Re: How to select disk to partition

It is possible to do what you are saying.  you will still need to have syslinux or grub2 installed.  I just hit F11 on my box and select the drive I want to boot from after the install.