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#1 2010-05-27 13:51:34

tsukasa1989
Member
Registered: 2010-05-27
Posts: 17

Dual boot with Windows

Hello,

At the moment im running Windows Vista Home Premium. I have read the wiki on how to install Archlinux. But i can't pass the "Partition Hard Drives". My setup:
250GB Windows (NTFS)
25GB free space (not formatted, for the Archlinux)
20GB RECOVER (for windows)

But, i don't know how to format these partitions so it will work. I don't want to fully format my HDD. And the tool that is delivered with the net install throws an error.

Anyone know how to set it up?

Cheers,

Niels

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#2 2010-05-27 14:04:40

anonymous_user
Member
Registered: 2009-08-28
Posts: 3,059

Re: Dual boot with Windows

The Beginners Guide explains partitioning some:

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beg … ard_Drives

Also you can just use any Live CD with Gparted to partition your free space and then in the Arch Linux installer, you just have to set the mount points.

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#3 2010-05-27 14:20:07

tsukasa1989
Member
Registered: 2010-05-27
Posts: 17

Re: Dual boot with Windows

I have read:
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Win … _Dual_Boot

Do i have to make the partitions for linux ext2? And just create them with a partition tool?

So my disk will look like:
Windows 250GB NTSC
/boot - 100MB - ext2
/ - 10GB - ext2
/swap - 1024MB
/home - rest of hard disc
RESTORE 20GB

And then i dont have to configure the partitioning?

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#4 2010-05-27 14:30:49

demian
Member
From: Frankfurt, Germany
Registered: 2009-05-06
Posts: 709

Re: Dual boot with Windows

As anonymous_user suggested, burn Gparted (or Parted Magic, it's more versatile) on a CD, boot it and partition the free space on your harddrive. Once you did you can just skip the partition part of the arch installation. You still have to specify mount pounts and file systems of course.

You don't have to use ext2. In fact, I'd advise against it as it doesn't use journaling and therefore is more prone to data loss.
There are many good filesystems with journaling, the most popular/common probably being ext3 and ext4.

One thing you have to keep in mind is that you can't have more than 4 primary partitions so if you want a partition for each /boot, /, swap and /home you'll have to create them within an extended partition.
I'd skip the boot partition altogether for a normal desktop setup and instead go with
/dev/sda5 swap ~512 - 1024 MB (if you want to use hibernate choose size of ram + 30%)
/dev/sda6 root ~10GB
/dev/sda7 home rest

Regards,
demian


no place like /home
github

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#5 2010-05-27 14:45:54

tsukasa1989
Member
Registered: 2010-05-27
Posts: 17

Re: Dual boot with Windows

I have used acronis parition manager. And my /boot is primary and the others are logical. Should i make the swap: LINUX SWAP? or just a ext3 as you mantioned?
Also i will change them all to ext3.

With the following config i can't pass the partition fase.

Windows 250GB NTSC
/boot - 100MB - ext2
/ - 10GB - ext2
/swap - 1024MB ext2
/home - rest of hard disc ext2
RESTORE 20GB


--------------
EDIT
--------------

/dev/sda1 = Windows
/dev/sda2 = Recover

/dev/sda5 = /
/dev/sda6 = swap
/dev/sda7 = /home

And it worked.

Last edited by tsukasa1989 (2010-05-27 15:37:07)

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#6 2010-05-27 15:30:47

pseudonomous
Member
Registered: 2008-04-23
Posts: 349

Re: Dual boot with Windows

Yes, the swap partition should be of type "linux swap".  But you should really consider using a different file format then ext2 for most of your partitions.  Ext2 works, but as other posters have mentioned, it doesn't journal your metadata.  This makes it more likely that you will lose data after an unsafe power-off and also means that when you do a filesystem integrity check it will take much, much longer.

You can convert your ext2 partitions to ext3, with command

tune2fs -j /dev/partition

where "partition" is the partition you want to convert the type of.

Or you can just reformat the partition, ext3, ext4, xfs, jfs, and reiserfs (version 3, not version 4) are reasonable choices for filesystem formats.  Unless you have a good reason for using ext2 (like, you want to share files in between a linux and freebsd installation, or maybe you are going to mount a partition read-only and therefore don't care about journaling) it's silly not to use a journaling filesystem.

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#7 2010-05-27 15:37:49

tsukasa1989
Member
Registered: 2010-05-27
Posts: 17

Re: Dual boot with Windows

I got it working now. I made them ext3 and removed the /boot partition.

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#8 2010-05-27 15:39:50

pseudonomous
Member
Registered: 2008-04-23
Posts: 349

Re: Dual boot with Windows

tsukasa1989 wrote:

If i create some extended partitions, for logic partitions. How can i see the device name at GParted? Because it only says #new partition?

The device name of an extended partitions are just like the names of normal partitions, but they don't really hold any data.  Logical partitions (the sub-partitions of an extended partition), similarly are named just like primary partitions, but they are always numbered starting at 5, so the first logical partition on the first harddrive will be called "/dev/sda5" and the second "/dev/sda6, etc.

Normally, one uses the first three partitions as primary partitions and then uses the fourth partition as an extended partition.

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#9 2010-05-27 16:16:34

tsukasa1989
Member
Registered: 2010-05-27
Posts: 17

Re: Dual boot with Windows

Got my archlinux running now. And i have grub installed. At the moment im in the /boot/grup/menu.lst
And got the following line, it will not boot windows!
title Windows
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

My windows is on
/dev/sda1 = Windows
If i make the rootnoverify (hd0, 1) it will boot my backup drive.

I made a mistake with installing grub. I first installed it on my windows drive. And after that i installed it in my /boot/. How can i fix this so my Windows will boot? Reinstall windows?

Cheers,

Niels

Last edited by tsukasa1989 (2010-05-27 16:17:44)

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#10 2010-05-27 16:53:03

Inxsible
Forum Fellow
From: Chicago
Registered: 2008-06-09
Posts: 9,183

Re: Dual boot with Windows

If you have the Windows Install CD, you can put that in and choose repair MBR or something to that effect once it boots from the CD.

You could also download and burn SuperGrub disk and you can fix the Window MBR.


Another important thing is to read the documentation carefully before doing anything.

Also why would you still use ext3 when, ext4 is also available?

Last edited by Inxsible (2010-05-27 16:53:38)


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#11 2010-05-27 17:16:12

Julius2
Member
From: Canada
Registered: 2009-05-13
Posts: 68
Website

Re: Dual boot with Windows

Someone should probably write a wiki page or a section of the Beginner's Guide (which, admittedly, is already quite large) that deals with new users who want to dual-boot. I've seen stuff floating around on the web that gives step-by-step instructions for people partitioning their disks, installing Ubuntu, etc. We should make ourselves more available to people trying to come directly from Windows, rather than relying on users "graduating" from other Linux distros.


Blog .:. AUR .:. Wiki Contributions
Registered Linux User #506070.

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#12 2010-05-27 17:58:11

Inxsible
Forum Fellow
From: Chicago
Registered: 2008-06-09
Posts: 9,183

Re: Dual boot with Windows

Julius2 wrote:

Someone should probably write a wiki page or a section of the Beginner's Guide (which, admittedly, is already quite large) that deals with new users who want to dual-boot. I've seen stuff floating around on the web that gives step-by-step instructions for people partitioning their disks, installing Ubuntu, etc. We should make ourselves more available to people trying to come directly from Windows, rather than relying on users "graduating" from other Linux distros.

True. But the information is already out there if you look hard enough.


http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Win … _Dual_Boot


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#13 2010-05-27 18:12:26

tsukasa1989
Member
Registered: 2010-05-27
Posts: 17

Re: Dual boot with Windows

I found that. But while installing i did not understand how to assign what and when manually. But i fixed it now. But my windows is broken because i overwrited grub on my windows

any fixes?

Last edited by tsukasa1989 (2010-05-27 18:14:19)

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#14 2010-05-27 18:39:25

Inxsible
Forum Fellow
From: Chicago
Registered: 2008-06-09
Posts: 9,183

Re: Dual boot with Windows

tsukasa1989 wrote:

I found that. But while installing i did not understand how to assign what and when manually. But i fixed it now. But my windows is broken because i overwrited grub on my windows

any fixes?

Read my first post in this thread... I mentioned that you can use your Windows installation disk, if you have one. If you don't you can also borrow it from someone else. Note that you will not need the Product key or anything. You simply need to put in your Windows CD and boot from it. Then select Repair MBR and 5 mins later you will be all done.

In case you just cannot get your hands on a Windows CD, download the SuperGrub disk and use that.


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