Preserving windows while blowing away ubuntu?

bradgillap · 2014-10-18 05:16:19

I'm really annoyed with Ubuntu right now. I have Windows on one SSD and Ubuntu on another SSD. I'd like to install Arch without interrupting my windows boot or install. Right now I have whatever Ubuntu setup for my boot loader to handle ubuntu and windows.

Is there just like a good step by step guide for this or do I just blow away ubuntu and pound away with arch until I figure it out?

bradgillap · 2014-10-18 05:39:52

I'm already breaking all the rules with this. I get it.

My Ubuntu install is on SDA

NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda 8:0 0 111.8G 0 disk
├─sda1 8:1 0 476M 0 part /boot
├─sda2 8:2 0 1K 0 part
├─sda5 8:5 0 107.6G 0 part /
└─sda6 8:6 0 3.7G 0 part [SWAP]
sdb 8:16 0 55.9G 0 disk
├─sdb1 8:17 0 100M 0 part
└─sdb2 8:18 0 55.8G 0 part
sdc 8:32 0 596.2G 0 disk
├─sdc1 8:33 0 293G 0 part /media/300gb
└─sdc2 8:34 0 303.2G 0 part
sr0 11:0 1 1024M 0 rom

jasonwryan · 2014-10-18 05:41:18

Please don't bump your thread: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fo … te#Bumping

There is a step-by-step guide to dual booting on the wiki...

lucke · 2014-10-18 08:19:23

Just replace Ubuntu with Arch and set Arch's bootloader to load Windows.

scryan · 2014-10-18 23:38:42

Have you read through installing arch? This doesn't seem like it should be much of a question if you have gone through the guide, as all the partitioning and hard drive setup is done manually and you will have to manually choose what partition your installing to, ect...

But basically, you just reformat the ubuntu partition...

Xyne · 2014-10-19 00:00:14

If you want to keep application configuration files then you should back those up on another disk/system. If you have all of your personal data on a separate partition then you can preserve that partition and remount it later in Arch, but in that case be very careful during the partitioning steps of the installation guide. If you don't have a separate partition for personal data or if you don't want to keep such a partition (e.g. because you want to try a different partitioning scheme) then back that data up elsewhere as well.

After that, you follow the installation guide and overwrite Ubuntu with Arch on the partitions currently used by Ubuntu. Installation replaces an existing system, it doesn't convert it, so bye-bye Ubuntu.

Blasphemist · 2014-10-22 21:15:27

From what I can tell, you have UEFI and an ESP that mounts on /boot which is sda1. There is a program named efibootmgr that is used by Ubuntu and that you use during the Arch installation to set the proper entries in UEFI NVRAM to cause UEFI to hand the boot process off to a bootmanager or bootloader. Right now that is undoubtedly Grub that is the bootloader for Ubuntu. Removing/reformatting/overwriting Ubuntu won't change the bootloader on the ESP nor the entry pointing to it in UEFI NVRAM. Is this all making sense?

So this isn't quite so simple as people offered above but it's just a matter of thinking it out and thinking it through. Yes you need to just format the Ubuntu partition, sda5. You will need to install Arch to that partition and follow the instructions for installing a bootloader for UEFI and GPT (verify that you have a GPT, GUID partition table, not MBR but that is what it looks like from this post). Grub is still the most common bootloader choice but you could choose others including rEFInd or elilo.

Say so if this is not enough information. I don't want to lay out a ton of steps if you don't need them.

Arch Linux

#1 2014-10-18 05:16:19

Preserving windows while blowing away ubuntu?

#2 2014-10-18 05:39:52

Re: Preserving windows while blowing away ubuntu?

#3 2014-10-18 05:41:18

Re: Preserving windows while blowing away ubuntu?

#4 2014-10-18 08:19:23

Re: Preserving windows while blowing away ubuntu?

#5 2014-10-18 23:38:42

Re: Preserving windows while blowing away ubuntu?

#6 2014-10-19 00:00:14

Re: Preserving windows while blowing away ubuntu?

#7 2014-10-22 21:15:27

Re: Preserving windows while blowing away ubuntu?

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