Arch Linux

jones

Member

Registered: 2013-03-14

Posts: 272

How to install Arch for dual-boot with Win 7 (on 2 hard drives)?

Hello,

the TLDR first: how exactly should I proceed when setting up GRUB for 2 hard drives to dual-boot Arch (64 bit)and Win 7 (64 bit)?

Long version: So, I have the following hard drive & partition layout:

• On my first hard drive (250 GB big) I have: Win 7 64 bit, all the programs for Windows and of course the EFI partition

• My second hard drive is 1 TB big and formatted in NTFS and it only contains data. It has 2 partitions, one is about 750 GB big and used for simple storage.

• Sidenote 1: sometimes my disk management (Windows' own gparted) shows either the little disk or the big one as disk 0. Don't know what exactly this means, but I have never ever experienced any problems whatsoever during use.

• Sidenote 2: the UEFI motherboard (ASRock H67M) cannot boot into Legacy mode.

I want to install Arch on a ~200 GB partition on the second hard drive (the one with 1 TB). (click here if you want to see a screenshot) I am posting this because I am confused with how exactly I should deal with the whole "2 hdds & UEFI" thing.

So how exactly should I proceed when setting up GRUB for this setup?

For partitioning I suppose I would have to use fdisk or cgdisk. I used cgdisk before and found it to be straightforward. Then, because I have experienced my fair share of problems with rEFInd, I'd like to use GRUB.

Last edited by jones (2013-06-29 14:36:56)

henk

Member

From: Weert, Netherlands

Registered: 2013-01-01

Posts: 334

Re: How to install Arch for dual-boot with Win 7 (on 2 hard drives)?

First thing you should do is become familiar with your motherboard.
http://www.asrock.com/mb/manual.asp?Model=H67M
This will probably help you out in understanding the sidenote 1 thingie (hdd's on sata3 and/or sata2 connectors)
As on sidenote 2, according to the manual it seems to be possible to boot legacy mode,  see Storage Configuration.

WonderWoofy

Member

From: Los Gatos, CA

Registered: 2012-05-19

Posts: 8,414

Re: How to install Arch for dual-boot with Win 7 (on 2 hard drives)?

Please start doing some research.  Hand holding is discouraged here.  Since legacy bios is not an option, start reading about UEFI bootloaders and grub2.