Arch Linux

tabdalla96

Member

Registered: 2017-08-24

Posts: 3

Change from gpt to mbr

I want to install windows 7 beside arch linux .. if i changed the whole drive to mbr .. what to do in order to not to lose arch linux .. i have already found a wizard to change from gpt to mbr without losing the data .. but i was wondering if i'll be able to boot arch linux agian or not !? Thanks

tabdalla96

Member

Registered: 2017-08-24

Posts: 3

Re: Change from gpt to mbr

How to dual boot arch linux with windows 7 with a shared partition !?

Slithery

Administrator

From: Norfolk, UK

Registered: 2013-12-01

Posts: 5,776

Re: Change from gpt to mbr

By reading the wiki.

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No, it didn't "fix" anything. It just shifted the brokeness one space to the right. - jasonwryan
Closing -- for deletion; Banning -- for muppetry. - jasonwryan

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Blasphemist

Member

From: Colorado

Registered: 2013-01-17

Posts: 160

Re: Change from gpt to mbr

I don't think you will be able to do that without some tricky work. And I'd be real careful about using a wizard to change the partition table type. I personally would only do it using gdisk where I could do what seems to need done and get any warnings or errors before the change is written to disk. I think you need to be sure you are prepared for the event that you have to change the UEFI mode to legacy and wipe everything out before creating an all new partition table and new partitions. Not saying this can't work but you will have to hold your mouth just right through the whole procedure. Rod Smith is pretty much the expert about this kind of thing so I'd read this real carefully and plan extensively.
http://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/mbr2gpt.html
Would installing windows in a virtual machine not be better?

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Simple and Open

Blasphemist

Member

From: Colorado

Registered: 2013-01-17

Posts: 160

Re: Change from gpt to mbr

You'll have to give more detail and he's right, start in the wiki and let us know when you run into trouble in the planning. Make sure you know if the system is currently operating in UEFI mode, do you have GPT and an ESP, does your windows 7 DVD give you an option to boot in UEFI mode? Does using a virtual machine for win 7 end up meeting your needs but being a whole lot easier to do? Is everything securely, externally backed up?

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Simple and Open

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 20,045

Re: Change from gpt to mbr

Merged your two threads that are dancing around the same topic.

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olive

Member

From: Belgium

Registered: 2008-06-22

Posts: 1,490

Re: Change from gpt to mbr

gdisk (from gptfdisk) is able to convert from MBR to GPT and vice versa. I don't know the tool you use but beware of automagical tools that you don't know what they really do. Although not a limitation of BIOS or UEFI, Windows boot only in EFI mode from GPT and in BIOS mode from MBR. In Linux, you can boot from both modes in both partitions scheme (provided, the EFI firmware understand MBR, which is almost always the case).

If you convert from one partition type to another one, the only thing you really have to do is to reinstall the bootloader. This should not be a problem if you have installed Archlinux yourself. Be carefull to install the bootloader correcty according to the fact that you are running in BIOS or EFI mod. It's better to do all the work from a bootable disk, for example, the Archlinux install disk.

Note that you can install Windows 7 (the 64 bits version) in UEFI/GPT mode; which is maybe the best solution.

Last edited by olive (2017-09-05 19:55:36)