Arch Linux

davidoff

Member

Registered: 2008-06-10

Posts: 23

Windows steals boot flag in dual boot

I have installed windows on sda1, boot on sda2, mostly replicating what is suggested in the windows dual boot article.  On arch setup, I flag 2 as bootable and 1 as not bootable.  However, when windows runs, it flags sda1 as bootable and the next time I restart, I go immediately into windows.  Is there a way to stop windows from doing this outside of windows OS?

jowilkin

Member

Registered: 2009-05-07

Posts: 243

Re: Windows steals boot flag in dual boot

Why do you need to?  Arch does not require that it is on a partition flagged bootable while Windows does.

eirika

Member

From: New York

Registered: 2009-09-14

Posts: 65

Re: Windows steals boot flag in dual boot

Did you install a bootloader like grub?
And if you did, did you install it to sda2?

It sounds  to me like this problem is due to the "makeactive" line in the grub configuration file.
That command will mark the relevant partition as the active partition.

sand_man

Member

From: Australia

Registered: 2008-06-10

Posts: 2,164

Re: Windows steals boot flag in dual boot

Like jowilkin said, the bootable flag does not matter as long as Windows can boot its ok to leave it as it is.
When you are dual booting with Windows, its easier to have grub installed to the MBR so that it overwrites Windows' bootloader. Grub can boot to just about anything.

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davidoff

Member

Registered: 2008-06-10

Posts: 23

Re: Windows steals boot flag in dual boot

Thanks for guidance.  I do have grub on sda2.  I was wondering about the makeactive line.  I'm commenting it out now and will stop posting on this thread if the problem goes away.