Arch Linux

The_Shambler

Member

Registered: 2012-11-08

Posts: 7

Dual Boot Arch and Windows 8 from Windows Boot

I tried doing some research before posting but haven't had too much luck. I just upgraded to Windows 8, but after having a nice experience with Arch previously on VirtualBox, I thought I would dual boot this time... and this is my first post.

I followed the Beginners Installation Guide and the Win Arch Dual Boot and then did some reading on setting up the BCD manager in Windows following from the link in the Arch Wiki.

My setup is as follows

/dev/sda1 = Windows (>150 GB)
/dev/sda2 = /boot (100 MB)
/dev/sda3 = / (15 GB)
/dev/sda5 = /var (8 GB)
/dev/sda6 = /home (~65 GB)

The linux portions are all ext4, but after reading the above article on the BCD Manager, I realized I left out the FAT32 partition so Windows can see it (note... if I get this to work, I will try and update the wiki to mention that).

So the problem is I used up all my hard drive space and need to make room for the FAT32 section. I was wondering

a) how to resize the /home partition to make room for the FAT32 partition

or

b)if I were to delete the /home entirely and just add an sda4 (FAT32) and sda6 (/home) (since I forgot to use sda4), do I need to go through the pacstrap process again, or generate an fstab again, or just edit the fstab manually?

or

c) there is a possibility that I missed something where I shouldn't need to have an FAT32 section.

Thanks for the help!

Inxsible

Forum Fellow

From: Chicago

Registered: 2008-06-09

Posts: 9,183

Re: Dual Boot Arch and Windows 8 from Windows Boot

/sda4 is in use alright. its the name of the extended partition within which sda5 & sda6 exist. (unless you used GPT partitioning).

You can use Gparted Live CD to shrink your home (to lets say 15 gb) and create a FAT32 (remaining 50 gb) partition that you want

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chris_l

Member

Registered: 2010-12-01

Posts: 390

Re: Dual Boot Arch and Windows 8 from Windows Boot

Make your /boot partition ext2 too!
Edit: well, you are using BCD, maybe is not necessary in that case.

Last edited by chris_l (2012-11-09 03:19:43)

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The_Shambler

Member

Registered: 2012-11-08

Posts: 7

Re: Dual Boot Arch and Windows 8 from Windows Boot

Thanks for the help!

I was able to use GParted to add that extra partition and was able to generate the proper file for Windows to see, and then copy over to the C: drive (which is what's missing from the Wiki).

I unfortunately had some issues that kept me starting in emergency mode, so after some time spent in the fstab section and setting the right filesystems, I was able to get it to work!