Dual boot - Installing Win 8 on a preinstalled Win 7

I just puchased a Toshiba Satellite C55-A5195 Windows 7 preinstalled. But I would like to dual boot it installing Windows
8. Can I do that without messing the whole system? I know that I have to create a partition to install Win 8.

Thanks for your feedback, but I don't think your issue is the same as the one I previously explained.
The UEFI/secure boot setting is a basic configuration affecting the way the PC boots, regardless of whether it is connected to a network or not.
By the way, in the meantime I've seen in a shop exactly the same PC model which I'm using, now sold with Win 8 pre-installed, and it was working with the UEFI enabled (= BIOS "legacy support" disabled).
Therefore, the configuration I'm interested in has to be feasible, one way or another...!

Similar Messages

Dual Boot install Fails

During installation of Windows 10 (dual booting) on same SSD (main) Windows 7 Ultimate, Install fails at 58%, retry 59%, just hangs for hours. Process- created partition, run install ISO from working DVD copy, freezes at approx 58%- Getting files ready for
installation.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks

Did you use any download manager to install Windows 10 TP ISO file?
What software did you used to create Windows installer file from ISO?
Usually such a problems are due to issue with installation file is corrupted.

How can I initiate dual boot install from a CMD window...?

Laptop hardware meets sys req for Win 10 and currently runs 8.1
Samsung RV-511-S01UK
i3 380M @ 2.53Ghz
6GB RAM
Discrete Nvidia 315M 1GB dedicated VRAM
Having first tried 10 inside a VM... and it looks ok.... time to try it on real hardware instead of the restricted emulation.
I'm attempting to clean install and create a DUAL_BOOT on prepared partition
ISO downloaded direct from the correct link (SHA-1 checked)
USB... or DVD... installer created with the MS installer tool.
ALL attempts to install by booting from either installer medium, trying builds 9926, 10041 and 10049 (64 and 32 bit), end before they start....... the process stops completely at the very first screen.... the logo screen.... the indicator dots beneath
the logo screen which appear as standard to 'indicate' that a 'process' is happening in the background NEVER appear... even after an 8 hour wait in one instance.
Even if I follow the install instructions supplied on the download page here instead of booting direct:
5. Double-tap or double-click setup.exe from the installation media, and then follow the steps.
it gets to a point within the process and has to restart.... then it stops as soon as the logo screen appears just as it does when I try and boot from the created installers.
There seems to be a problem at the Windows logo screen which halts the entire installation process !!! It suggests a BIOS/Win 10 conflict, but only one way to really find out..... process log...?
The only way to discover where the error lies is to observe the process happening as it happens in real time (if that's possible) or create log file of my attempt.... from within a CMD window...? Unfortunately I don't know the language of CMD code
well enough.
I would like someone to assist with the correct code on how to initiate the install from within a CMD window so that I can see the process happen in real time within the window and therefore observe exactly where the instruction is failing.... but
as stated if running a CMD during install is not possible then a saved log file to refer to after fail and reboot into 8.1
This should make it easier to define the problem and as such discover the solution
If someone can supply the code it would be very helpful..... if no-one here knows I'll pop over to the Linux forum and ask one of the people there after setting up Ubuntu with a spare partition for the Win 10 TP
cheers

Hi base1268,
Can you find the following log files when you reboot into Windows 8.1?
C:\$WINDOWS.~BT\Sources\Panther\setupact.log
C:\$WINDOWS.~BT\Sources\Panther\setuperr.log
C:\$Windows.~BT\Sources\Rollback\setupact.log
Actually, for current situation, I suggest you use native boot to try Windows 10 Technical Preview：
http://blogs.technet.com/b/haroldwong/archive/2012/08/18/how-to-create-windows-8-vhd-for-boot-to-vhd-using-simple-easy-to-follow-steps.aspx
it still works for Windows 10 Technical Preview.
Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help, and unmark the answers if they provide no help. If you have feedback for TechNet Support, contact [email protected]

Dual Boot : Installing Windows XP on a Power Mac G5?

I am trying to figure out if it is possible to install Windows XP on a Power Mac G5? There are several Massive Multiplayer games that are only available for Windows/PC users. I need to have access to OSX also it is what I use for everything else. I saw Boot Camp -but it is only available for Intel Macs. It seems like there should be a way to partition the hard drive and upon startup to be able to select the disk I want to start up on. I did add a 500 GB internal drive that I can use as a second hard drive. [So I have two : one is a 180 and the other is a 500.] If I install Windows on one side of the 500 GB hard drive I am afraid I wouldn't be able to switch back to OSX.? Anyway I love Macs and I am not interested or able to buy a PC and I don't have the money to buy a new mac or Virtual PC software.? Any suggestions would be awesome?

VPC's CPU emulation speed depends on the speed of the Mac CPU being used. That being said, on my G5 Quad @ 2.5GHz, VPC reports a 533 MHz "686" CPU. Video memory is limited to 16 MB.
I have not seen performance to be anywhere near as bad as you've experienced. It's definitely laggy, but any delays are at most a few seconds. I have all the WinXP eye candy disabled to speed up the interface as much as possible.
In any event, the OP won't be able to use it for games as it lacks 3D acceleration (even if it were otherwise fast enough). I had tried to run the original Grand Theft Auto game (2D), but even that was too slow to be playable let alone a modern game. GTA 2 refused to run due to the aformentioned lack of a 3D accelerator card.
MS will no longer be producing VPC now that all Macs are Intel-based. There's really no more market for it now.

Dual boot, installing arch before xp

Hi! I'm just wondering, how I can enable dualboot. I've heard that there is a way to enable dualboot even though I've installed archlinux before I installed xp. But now I cant choose whether I would like to use arch or xp. Any suggestions on how, or even an guide to enable dualboot?:P

well, if u have problem and for those who wonder what zenlord said...
boot to arch linux install CD.
when it loads and gives u a set of instructions. U wanna boot with this parameter.
root=/dev/sdxx
where xx is the partion of arch install. This will load the kernel from arch install CD and mount the file system on your HD. Once it loads u will have a CLI, login and then issue the command
grub-install /dev/sdx
x = the HD MBR u would want grub to be installed too.
then edit /boot/grub/menu.lst as u see fit to get windows working.
Last edited by jacko (2008-01-13 13:11:06)

How to install AHCI driver during a Win XP install?

Hello,
I want to dual-boot my 990FXA-GD65 board into Win XP 32bit and Win 7 64bit, but I want my SATA disks to use AHCI. I want to install XP first.
However this board doesn't seem to support a floppy drive so I can't load AHCI drivers with F6.
There are several guides on the web for doing this with Intel chipsets, but not for AMD.
Can anyone advise me how to do this with my board and its chipset?.
Thank you.

Reply first to symp:
Quote
Have you tried putting the files on a usb drive?
Using WinToFlash, I copied the slipstreamed XP install CD to a bootable USB key. However, I get exactly the same 'amd_sata.sys is corrupt' message while the install is loading drivers. I tried this with the BIOS SATA mode, first as AHCI, and then IDE, with the same result.
Reply to xmad:
Quote
Not sure if this will work with xp, try it and let me know.
I haven't tried this, but reading the m$ download page carefully says to me that this is a tool to allow the install of W7 only from a USB key.
The reference to XP seems to me to be saying that you can run the tool on an XP machine, not that you can use the tool to install XP.
When I tried to download the Image API utility (I am running on an XP machine), I couldn't get Genuine.exe to run, so I can't try it anyway.
So, where do I go from here, anyone?
Is it worth trying to use an AMD driver, instead of the MSI one?
Also, my BIOS is at v19.3 - should I change to 19.7?
pbb

[SOLVED] Advice for Arch install with rEFInd dual boot Lenovo laptop?

I am trying to plan an Arch install on a new laptop for dual boot with Windows 8.1, but I know there is a potential to cause huge problems so I have been trying to read and learn about the hard disk partition structure and how I might install the rEFInd boot files so that I am still able to boot Windows once Arch is installed. (Unfortunately for some tasks such as updating the maps on my satnav box Windows is essential). However I am really quite unsure if I am doing the right thing in the way I am thinking about the Arch install so I would appreciate any help from experts on the forum.
The laptop is a Lenovo IdeaPad Y510p which came with Windows 8 pre-installed, with the option to upgrade to Windows 8.1. The upgrade was completed without issue and I then looked into the question of hard drive partitions and boot. I had read posts on the Ubuntu forums about users who had installed Ubuntu on this same laptop and ended up being unable to boot Windows afterwards so I wanted to tread very carefully before executing anything which might cause really major damage. I had also read on the Lenovo forums replies about people who had replaced the hard drive and installed linux only to find that they could not boot to the recovery partitions, with replies from Lenovo moderators saying that if the partition structure had been changed then the laptop would have to be sent back to Lenovo for a factory repair.
On this laptop to get into the bios or boot options you do not just press the power button and hit an F key, but instead there is a special small "OneKey Recovery" button next to the power jack, which opens up with options for BIOS setup and boot options as well as normal boot or recovery. This OneKey Recovery button is therefore needed to boot a usbkey - the power button only allows it to boot to windows presumably until/unless a different bootloader and NVRAM entry is amended.
I have done all the initial ( safe!)changes necessary to move to the point at which I can execute the Arch install. From within Windows (switched off fastboot, and shrunk the "C:" drive to make space for linux partitions). I have also switched off Secure Boot from the BIOS, and made sure that Windows still boots up fine.
The current arch install iso (February 2014) boots under uefi just fine - and of course once booted I have access to the gdisk programme. That certainly showed the pre-existing partitions on the drive (8 partitions with partition number 2 being the EFI partition, and three recovery partitions!) with a GPT partition table, and it should therefore be possible to make the necessary new linux partitions in the now unallocated space on the disk that was freed up with the internal disk management facility within Windows 8.1. So at that point I created three partitions for a root partition (type 8300), a swap partition (type 8200) and another type 8300 partition which will become /opt in the installed Arch system.
In order to try and not make any changes to the partition structure I let the three new linux partitions be number 9, 10 and 11.
I am told that for a GPT disk it is a definite no-no to try to create more than one EFI partition. So I will need to use the existing EFI partition to place the rEFInd files and the kernel once I install Arch.
In this (Y510p) laptop the EFI partition contains the following structure:
BOOT/ - containing only boot.sdi
BOOTSECT.BAK
EFI/ which contains two directories Boot/ and Microsoft/
so EFI/Boot/ contains only Boot64.efi which is likely a fallback copy of the Windows 8.1 bootloader
and EFI/Microsoft/ contains a Boot/ directory - so
EFI/Microsoft/Boot/ contains loads of language specific directories like en-GB/
plus bootmgfw.efi (which I believe is the Windows main efi loader file)
bootmgr.efi
memtest.efi
The scheme that I am planning to use which I have previously used in pure Arch uefi machines, is that /boot is a directory in the root partition, /. That way /boot is an ext4 directory and will contain the kernel and initramfs plus the rEFInd linux config file.
Then I can mount the EFI (vfat) partition as /boot/efi and so I can then make a /boot partition under /. Then the EFI /BOOT/ directory would be seen in Linux as /boot/efi/BOOT/ and the Windows efi stuff would be in /boot/efi/EFI/Boot/Microsoft/Boot/ in which case I would presume that I have to make a new directory in /boot/efi/EFI/refind/ and put the refind stuff including the filesystem drivers there, and let the kernel go into the (ext4) /boot/ directory which would be preferred! However I am not 100% confident that this is what will work and I need to read more before trying to do the install. The thing that concerns me is how the system will handle the uefi boot process, and whether it would auto-detect the Windows efi file as well as the Arch refind efi file once the system has started up?
... and then there is the issue of the NVRAM entries and I am no longer confident that if I use the usual tools to create an entry (efiboomgr or bcfg), that I will get a successful dual boot system!
There is still a chance that I would irrevocably damage being able to boot to the Windows and Recovery partition boot options by messing up the EFI and/or the NVRAM so I have to tread very very carefully with this.
If anyone has gone through this kind of dual boot install with a Windows 8 or 8.1 machine using rEFInd for the bootloader, and can offer advice or help here I would very much appreciate it. I have another pure Arch system which uses rEFInd that works extremely well, but it seems that dual boot with uefi is a rather more complex animal than a pure linux system!
Last edited by mcloaked (2014-02-22 10:06:03)

vipin wrote:I have recently bought the y510p , im planning to install Arch , this is my 4th laptop , i had installed Arch in all the other 3 with no problems, but im a bit worried with the installation as this is the first laptop which has EFI , im a linux user for the past 6 years , i started with fedora , now i like Arch , mike documentation is excellent, i just had one question when i had grub , it automatically finds the new kernel when i update (grub.conf/menu.lst gets updated), does rEFInd also do that.
When there is an update to the rEFInd package you need to copy the files across to your ESP from the files contained in /usr/share/refind/ usually you need to copy the refind_x64.efi binary as well as the icons, fonts, and drivers directories. Since there is flexibility in how you configure the kernel and initrd files in terms of where they are located whether you need to do anything else when a new kernel update arrives depends on how you set your system up. If you have the /boot directory as your ESP partition which will then have the kernel and initrd files updated by default then there no need to do anything else when there is a kernel update. If the ESP is then at /boot/EFI and within that is your refind/ directory then that is where the replacement files go if refind-efi gets a pacman update. So it is actually fairly straight forward. If you configure rEFInd to look for kernels in some other directory than /boot/ then you may need to copy the files there after a kernel update but there is more information in the arch wiki about this.
During a refind-efi package update there are helpful files in the pacman output (and log) reminding you of what you need to do. eg for the latest refind-efi update you get:
[2014-06-18 18:48] [PACMAN] upgraded radvd (1.12-1 -> 1.13-1)
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] rEFInd UEFI application has been installed at /usr/share/refind/refind_*.efi
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] Other UEFI applications have been installed at /usr/share/refind/tools_*/
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] UEFI drivers have been installed at /usr/share/refind/drivers_*/
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] Copy the efi application (according to your UEFI ARCH)
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] and /usr/share/refind/refind.conf-sample to a sub-directory of <EFISYS>/EFI/
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] as refind.conf and add an entry to firmware boot menu using efibootmgr
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] or mactel-boot (for Macs)
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] rEFInd Icons have been installed at /usr/share/refind/icons/
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] rEFInd Fonts have been installed at /usr/share/refind/fonts/
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] HTML Documentation is available at /usr/share/refind/docs/html/
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] More info: [url]https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/UEFI_Bootloaders#Using_rEFInd[/url]
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]
[2014-06-18 18:48] [PACMAN] upgraded refind-efi (0.8.1-1 -> 0.8.2-1)
I hope that helps.
By the way you can also boot uefi using grub and in fact you can get rEFInd to chainload grub as a backup bootloader as an added safety factor and have both rEFInd as well as grub installed simultaneously. How that can be done is explained in the thread at https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=181906
Last edited by mcloaked (2014-06-25 17:41:12)

Dual Boot on Yoga11S (windows 8 + windows 7)

I'm trying to install Windows 7 as a dual boot with the Windows 8 preinstalled on a new Yoga 11S.. Has anyone succeeded at trying to accomplish this?

hi
You might want to follow this thread,
Yoga 11s was able to run Windows 7 but There is a screenshot of Unknown devices.
I also check the Lenovo Support site and no drivers yet for Windows 7.
You can follow neokenchi's guide there on how to parse and check the Hardware ID and then download the driver from the device Manufacturers.
http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/IdeaPad-IdeaTab-Slate-Tablets/Yoga-11s-Windows-7-drivers/m-p/1180983#M23...
Regards
Solid Cruver
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Windows 7 Enterprise 32 bit and Windows Server 2012 64 bit successful dual boot.

Client Windows 7 Enterprise 32 bit SP1, Windows Server 2012 64 bit successfully install for dual boot. Even deleted Windows 7 Enterprise from msconfig, moved Windows Server 2012 partition, for dual boot installed Windows 8.1 64 bit (now posting from),
deleted Windows Server 2012 from msconfig, moved Windows 8.1 partition, just for knowledge.

Hi,
After referring to your post, I can understand you are trying to install 32 bit and 64 bit OS on same system. Are you trying to perform that? Here providing you thread link for detail.
dual boot windows 32 bit and 64 bit at same pc
Hope it helps to understand!
Regards.

How to implement a dual booting PXI system using windows 7 and labview RT

Good Day
My name is Mariano Ocana from the University of Manitoba, and I want to implement a dual system using windows 7 and labview RT in a PXIe-1082 chassis with a PXIe-8102 embedded controlled (the chassis came with windows 7 installed). What are the steps to use both systems (windows and RT) in the same chassis?, in the NI help comes an example implementing a dual system using windows xp and RT, it is the same procedure?.
Thank you in advance for all your help.
Regards
M. Ocana

Greetings, Mariano.
The real issue you have to contend with is whether or not you have a LabVIEW RT license. If the 8102 controller was purchased Windows-Only, you likely do not have a license to run LabVIEW RT on the controller - you can purchase one, I think it's about $500, and at that point you can request a LabVIEW RT Configuration CD (that's not what it's called, but the sales guy will know what I'm talking about). The Config CD is a CD that will partition your controller correctly with both FAT32 and NTFS filesystems (in the appropriate way) to allow you to run Windows 7 and LabVIEW Real-Time on the controller correctly. Once done, you can then switch within the BIOS between LabVIEW Real-Time and Windows in order to dual-boot.
Either way, you likely need to contact NI sales to either purchase an RT license (if one was not received at the time of purchase) or to request a Configuration CD (it might also be called a dual-boot install CD or similar).
-Danny

HP Notebook 250 64 bit Windows 7+ Ubuntu Dual Boot - Not starting!

Hello,
I have dual boot installed on the above mentioned laptop. While working, I was prompted to update flashplayer. Once the update was complete, the computer restarted and the usual dual boot menu did not appear. The machine keeps attempting to load it, fails then reverts back to shutting down and starting again. I ran diagnostic and the machine passed both hard drive and memory tests.
I have UEFI on the machine and have therefore tried to look for solutions here:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?cc=us&lc=en&docname=c01442956#N150
nothing applies since I don't get any error messages. Nevertheless, I tried a system reset, which did nothing.
This is some of what my system information outputs:
Notebook Model: HP 250 G1 Notebook PC
Product Number: H6Q66EA#ABU
Serial Number: [edited]
System Board id: 1854
Bios Version : F.3A
Any help would be valuable. Thank you!!!!

Hi,
I was prompted to update flash player while workign and did so. After restarting, the laptop won't start. No error messages, no login menu, no dual boot menu. I ran diagnostics and both memory and hard drive tests passed. I have UEFI on the machine and therefore tried the link:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?cc=us&lc=en&docname=c01442956#N150
However, none of the options apply since I don't get any error messages. I nevertheless tried a system reset, which did nothing.
My product number is: H6Q66EA#ABU
Any help would be appreciated. Thank you!!!

How to set time in Dual-boot config with Windows 8.1

Hi,
I have been trying to workaround this problem i am having with Arch linux and Windows 8.1 time settings.
According to Installation guide on Wiki I set hardware clock to UTC and added my local time zone too.
But my Windows 8.1 uses hardware clock a local time and it is really confusing me.
I did tried to setup Windows 8.1 to use UTC (http://superuser.com/questions/494432/f … bios-clock)
but that settings is not working on my side (most Windows 8.1 users are also getting the same problem)
Please help.

I have two laptops which are dual booted arch and Windows 8.1. For both of those machines I set the Windows clock to be UTC instead of local using the method in https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ti … in_Windows (i.e. creating the .reg file and executing it - take care that the .reg file is created correctly with the .reg extension or it won't execute). I still allow Windows 8.1 to update its time from the network and it does not cause a problem, though the advice is to let Arch do the time synchronisation. (That may be because it is not yet summertime so I will also disable time sync in Windows before the change to summertime at the end of this month). I also followed the normal install advice for Arch and have the hardware clock in UTC, and have chrony set up to keep time in sync. Additionally I use KDE and have my normal timezone with DST adjustments for summertime. I have not had any problem with that way of working on either of my two machines.
I presume that if the Windows clock registry hack is done after the dual boot install it should not matter but I made that change before installing Arch.
Last edited by mcloaked (2014-03-21 10:46:04)

Running Dual boot windows 8 and win 7 pro with xp mode installed!! I love it!!

It took over 2 days to figure out how to adjust the bios to get my win 7 pro DVD to boot and install dual boot on this GREAT MACHINE!!
Step 1: using diskmgmt.msc you have to shring the C partition. I shrunk it so I had 80GB remaining as unallocated space.
Step 2: You have to enter the machine Bios adn set the BIOS to Both and UEFI as first
Step 3: Connect your usb dvd
Step 4: Put your win 7 pro dvd in the usb dvd drive
Step 5: Reboot your machine and when it starts press F12 to get the boot menu and select the usb dvd drive then press enter
The machine restarts
Message on screen says press a key to boot from cd/dvd
Press space and it boots up the win 7 pro DVD
After files copy and load the setup screen asks to accept the agreement and where to install win 7
BE SURE TO SELECT THE 80GB location
Then follow thru the win 7 prompts to load it.
When the machine restarts you will see a dual boot screen with Windows 7 on top as first selection and Windows 8 below it as 2nd selection.
Make sure to hit enter with windows 7 selected
The win 7 installation completes.
You will see many items with drivers not installed dont fret.
You can load most of the drivers by highlighting the device in control panel/device manager and pick update driver then select BROWSE for DRIVER and be sure to put in drive D:\ which is now the windows 8 drive and hit search.
Many of the windows 8 drivers installed with no issue.
The Realtek driver was an exception .. goto to the lenovo site and pick the x100e tablet and download the LAN driver from there about (4MB). Copy it to flash drive and install it in win 7 from the .exe file. The driver for LAN will install sucessfully. The version of the driver is 7.46 something the 7.11 versions do not workl.
I have only 3 drivers that I could not find - 2 list as unknown and are related to ACPI or power management and 1 lists as USB controller but all the USB stuff works without it.
Be sure to either shutdown the system or sign out of win 8 when your done so you get the dual boot menu. If you shutdown while logged into win 8 the next time you start up it will go right to win 8 until you signout and restart.
Just to let you know an easy way to shutdown is go to the desktop and press ALT + FN + F4 and a shutdown menu comes up on the desktop.
Once win 7 pro is installed you can download the XP mode free from Microsoft and install it.
This is of course AFTER you have ACTIVATED WINDOWS 7 ONLINE with YOUR ACTIVATION KEY(you supply).
ENJOY! This is the BEST machine I ever had!

It's been many, many years since I don't do dual boot anymore. Don't find the reason to do it, either. Different kinds of virtualization should be enough. Anyway...
dfw1417 wrote:
It took over 2 days to figure out how to adjust the bios to get my win 7 pro DVD to boot and install dual boot on this GREAT MACHINE!!
ENJOY! This is the BEST machine I ever had!
WHICH machine?
Cheers.
If I helped you, please give me some kudos! ^^

How to install Arch for dual-boot with Win 7 (on 2 hard drives)?

Hello,
the TLDR first: how exactly should I proceed when setting up GRUB for 2 hard drives to dual-boot Arch (64 bit)and Win 7 (64 bit)?
Long version: So, I have the following hard drive & partition layout:
On my first hard drive (250 GB big) I have: Win 7 64 bit, all the programs for Windows and of course the EFI partition
My second hard drive is 1 TB big and formatted in NTFS and it only contains data. It has 2 partitions, one is about 750 GB big and used for simple storage.
Sidenote 1: sometimes my disk management (Windows' own gparted) shows either the little disk or the big one as disk 0. Don't know what exactly this means, but I have never ever experienced any problems whatsoever during use.
Sidenote 2: the UEFI motherboard (ASRock H67M) cannot boot into Legacy mode.
I want to install Arch on a ~200 GB partition on the second hard drive (the one with 1 TB). (click here if you want to see a screenshot) I am posting this because I am confused with how exactly I should deal with the whole "2 hdds & UEFI" thing.
So how exactly should I proceed when setting up GRUB for this setup?
For partitioning I suppose I would have to use fdisk or cgdisk. I used cgdisk before and found it to be straightforward. Then, because I have experienced my fair share of problems with rEFInd, I'd like to use GRUB.
Last edited by jones (2013-06-29 14:36:56)

First thing you should do is become familiar with your motherboard.
http://www.asrock.com/mb/manual.asp?Model=H67M
This will probably help you out in understanding the sidenote 1 thingie (hdd's on sata3 and/or sata2 connectors)
As on sidenote 2, according to the manual it seems to be possible to boot legacy mode, see Storage Configuration.

Dual booting win 7 and arch: cannot install grub to partition

I have read the arch wiki page on dual booting and several other sources on line, but I am still struggling to get this to work.
I am trying to dual boot arch and windows 7 on my lenovo ideapad s205. the machine comes with windows 7 pre-installed.
I shrank the win 7 partition and added an extended partition with 3 logical partions for /boot, swap, and /.
I am able to install and run arch by installing grub to the mbr. when I do this, though, I cannot boot windows. (the windows section of grub menu.lst is uncommented and points toward hda0,0. I have tried hda 0,1 as well).
I have also tried to use the windows boot loader to load arch, as described in the arch wiki page on dual booting. The problem here is that, taking this approach, I should install grub to my /boot partition, but when I try to do this, the installer only allows me to install grub to sda or sdb (the usb stick).
I have read that grub should be able to boot linux from a logical partition. Is this so?
Is there something wrong with the arch installer that it is not giving me the option of installing to a partition rather than the mbr, or is this a problem with my partition scheme, or something else?
I am tempted to remove lenovo's recovery system, but on the other hand, I have already needed to use it several times while monkeying around with installing arch.
Thanks for any help.
UPDATE:
I now have the laptop dual-booting win 7 and arch. My solution ( adapted from here: http://helms-deep.cable.nu/~rwh/blog/?p=177) was to:
1. installed arch on the partitions I had created for it, but skipped the "install bootloader" stage.
2. in win 7, I downloaded and installed EasyBCD and made an entry for arch in it. I checked the option to "Use EasyBCD's copy of GRUB"
3. When I restarted, I got a grub error because the entry in grub's menu.lst was pointing at the wrong partitions for the kernel and root.
4. So I went back into the arch live disk, mounted the boot partition and edited menu.lst.
Now when I start the laptop, the windows boot loader starts and I can choose between win 7 and arch. when I select arch, grub4dos starts and gives me the option to start arch. this is not particularly elegant (nor is it fast), so I think this solution is less than ideal, but it does work.
I'd be interestd in any thoughts about what went wrong and what a better solution would be.
thanks.
Last edited by ratchet (2011-10-10 19:09:16)

ratchet wrote:II am able to install and run arch by installing grub to the mbr. when I do this, though, I cannot boot windows. (the windows section of grub menu.lst is uncommented and points toward hda0,0. I have tried hda 0,1 as well).
Is this a typo in your post or how it was in menu.lst? Surely it should be hd0,0 and not hda0,0? The entry I have in my menu.lst is as follows:
# (2) Windows
title Windows
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1
What was yours?
Last edited by JHeaton (2011-10-10 20:18:22)

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