Arch Linux

Ben9250

Member

From: Bath - England

Registered: 2010-06-10

Posts: 208

Website

Windows 7 after Linux

I decided I want to put Windows 7 bak on my laptop so I can play a lot more of my games and useArch for mor serious stuff and I'd like to dual boot them. I've read http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=94947 but apparantly Windows 7 likes tobe on sda1, which is currently where my root partition is. I don't want to install  windowsand find it take over grub with somthing else, stopping me from geting into Arch. Some people said it's posible to reinstall grub with a live image and such. Although the last time I messed about with booting stuff I well and truly screwed my machine up. So A). Does windows HAVE to be on sda1? and B). Can anyone tell me how / point me to a decent guide on how to achieve a dualboot with Arch and WIndows 7? I did think of backing everything up,then wiping the hard drve and then putting on windows and then arch and use backus of /home and /etc and packagelists to get all my stuff back. But I'd raher not if there is a better way.

Cheers.

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"In England we have come to rely upon a comfortable time-lag of fifty years or a century intervening between the perception that something ought to be done and a serious attempt to do it."
  - H. G. Wells

amphiboid

Member

Registered: 2008-05-28

Posts: 3

Re: Windows 7 after Linux

Windows doesn't have to be on the first partition, but I believe it does have to be on a primary partition or it complains.

Anyway, you'd probably be safe resizing your largest primary partition and installing Windows in the empty space. This would kill your bootloader however, so you'd need to boot back into your LiveCD and reinstall that.

I read recently about 7 and GRUB not mixing well though.
Edit: Quick searching reveals that it is apparently more troublesome to a few people and others don't even notice. Good luck.

Last edited by amphiboid (2010-07-10 19:24:07)

Ben9250

Member

From: Bath - England

Registered: 2010-06-10

Posts: 208

Website

Re: Windows 7 after Linux

Hey thanks for the reply -  I've not used the Arch disk (mines on usb) for anyting other than installing the system, can this be used as a live CD to put GRUB back on? I'm guessing if it can its through setup - skipping all the steps until the install bootloader phase? Or by using some other command? I've never used it in this way before.

Last edited by Ben9250 (2010-07-10 19:43:23)

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"In England we have come to rely upon a comfortable time-lag of fifty years or a century intervening between the perception that something ought to be done and a serious attempt to do it."
  - H. G. Wells

moljac024

Member

From: Serbia

Registered: 2008-01-29

Posts: 2,676

Re: Windows 7 after Linux

Maybe issues with GRUB and Windows 7 are related to legacy GRUB?

Last edited by moljac024 (2010-07-10 22:06:49)

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The day Microsoft makes a product that doesn't suck, is the day they make a vacuum cleaner.
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JohannesSM64

Member

From: Norway

Registered: 2009-10-11

Posts: 623

Website

Re: Windows 7 after Linux

I have Win7 on sda4 with legacy GRUB with no problems

Misfit138

Misfit Emeritus

From: USA

Registered: 2006-11-27

Posts: 4,189

Re: Windows 7 after Linux

Just saw another member with Win 7 troubles: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=100797

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Ben9250

Member

From: Bath - England

Registered: 2010-06-10

Posts: 208

Website

Re: Windows 7 after Linux

I hope mine won't give me such trouble, JohannesSM64, did you have to reload GRUB after installing Windows 7 on sda4?

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"In England we have come to rely upon a comfortable time-lag of fifty years or a century intervening between the perception that something ought to be done and a serious attempt to do it."
  - H. G. Wells

Proofrific

Member

Registered: 2008-01-05

Posts: 215

Re: Windows 7 after Linux

I hope mine won't give me such trouble, JohannesSM64, did you have to reload GRUB after installing Windows 7 on sda4?

Yes, I think you will have to reinstall GRUB since Windows will install its own bootloader, which will overwrite GRUB.

Hey thanks for the reply -  I've not used the Arch disk (mines on usb) for anyting other than installing the system, can this be used as a live CD to put GRUB back on? I'm guessing if it can its through setup - skipping all the steps until the install bootloader phase? Or by using some other command? I've never used it in this way before.

Yes, you can use any "live CD" (including USB) to reinstall GRUB.

tobier

Member

From: Stockholm, Sweden

Registered: 2010-07-05

Posts: 11

Website

Re: Windows 7 after Linux

I installed Windows 7 on sda4 after installing Arch Linux; I just had to re-install GRUB and everything works just fine.