Installing Arch without wipe of primary partition?

Hello,
Basically I used to run arch on my old system and I'd like to run it on my upgraded system, but I have no way of backing up my files, so I was wondering if I could install arch on a secondary hard drive instead of wiping my main SSD. Is there any way I could do this, I'd really like to keep all my files, if I installed grub on the secondary hard drive and got my PC to boot to that on start, would that work?
Thank You

Srgg wrote:
ANOKNUSA wrote:As with any Linux distribution, Arch will be installed to whatever disk you choose to install it to. Frankly, though, if your data is at all valuable to you, you shouldn't put it at risk until you're able to make a backup.
Okay, I'm going to put off the Arch Install until I have a method of backing up my data, let's say I ran it in a Virtual Machine, what would I be losing that I'd get from native Arch? The only thing I can think of at the moment is the OS won't be utilizing my hardware completely.
OpenGL is the biggest loss I can think of. If you use GNOME 3 you'll likely be forced to use llvmpipe to render all the fancy desktop effects (llvmpipe renders over your CPU so you'll notice a very high CPU load and worse graphical performance.) You may be able to mitigate some of this if you use VirtualBox or VMWare as IIRC they have experimental hardware acceleration via specially crafted video driver that can pass the OpenGL commands to the host GPU. Qemu/KVM has no such love (yet.)
Of course none of this matters if you run a DE/WM that allows you to disable compositioning (even KDE allows you to disable compositioning so you won't have to llvmpipe.) The rest of the Arch system should run about the same in a VM as it does on bare metal. There may be a small performance penalty from the virtualization overhead but from my experience it's not noticeable and most people achieve near native performance.

Similar Messages

[Solved]Can I install arch without a swap partition ?

I only have one primary partition free to install arch, with 3 primary partition and 1 extend partition, I have no other choice except install without swap partition.
Is there any suggestion? I will try it until I get a U storage to write .img in.
Last edited by sailor (2009-03-17 00:47:31)

Sure, it's perfectly possible to use any linux system without swap. including arch.
There are 2 ways to do disk partitioning in /arch/setup:
1) autoprepare. with this method, you pick a disk (a disk you want to use entirely). you will be asked some questions (including how big swap should be). this method will create the partitions with the sizes you mention (/boot, swap, / and /home) optionally you can add additional fs'es
2) manual. the installer can launch cfdisk for you if you need to alter partitions (if you want this), and after that you can define pretty much your stuff the way you like it (eg no swap) iirc. i'm not 100% sure though.
Frankly I don't understand why you say "I have no choice", if you don't have enough partitions, you can always create additional ones.

Partitions, installing , raw- no_fs and "Bad primary partition"

I have been using Archlinux with kde-mod, installed with the Chakra live-cds for some time on a couple of different machines. You may be aware Chakra has now moved away from archlinux to roll it's own distro so this is my first attempt to install "The Arch Way".
I have an HP dv6t-2000 laptop, preinstalled with Windows 7, though I'm really fed-up with Windows at this point I do want to keep it installed on the machine.
The setup of the hard drive is currently (as shown in the Windows7 partition utility):
SYSTEM NTFS 199MB (System, Active, Primary Partition)
C: NTFS 394.12GB (Boot, Page File, Crash Dump, Primary Partition)
RECOVERY (D:) NTFS 12.85GB (Primary Partition)
(there used to be a partition titled HP_TOOLS which I deleted a while ago (that may have been a mistake, I don't think I backed it up, I think it was last time I got really pissed off with windows and wanted to install Linux immediately)
What I have trid doing, starting with the configuration as above it:
> using the windows utility to shrink the C: partition to make space
> booting into gparted live CD
> creating an extended partition
> creating boot (ext2), root (ext4), home (ext4) and swap partitions within this
> booting the archlinux 64 bit netinstall CD
> when I get to Prepare Hard drive - manually configure I see something like:
/dev/sda raw->no_fs
/dev/sda1 raw->no_fs
/dev/sda2 raw->no_fs
/dev/sda3 raw->no_fs
> If I go to manually partition hard drive for sda I get the message
FATAL ERROR: Bad primary partition 2: Partition ends in the final partial cylinder
At this point I'm getting tired and liable to do something reckless (like when I deleted the HP_TOOLS partition), I I thought I better stop, take a breather and ask some people with more experience.
I'm sorry If I am short on details here, as I say I've spent a bit too long trying to sort this out and got tired and confused, I will fill in any details that are asked for, thank you for reading.

`/dev/sda1 raw->no_fs` means "you didn't tell me what's on here yet", the installer should do some autodetection but this is not implemented yet. so don't worry about this, just leave them alone.
the other one, not sure

Installing arch without usb or cd

Hey all,
I'm trying to install arch using only my hd, is this possible?
So far I made a small partition, put the install media on there using dd and tried to boot it using grub(v2).
I however, don't know anything about grub, and I didn't get it to boot, so how do I go about this?
Thanks a lot for your time!

In answer to the thread title (without regards to your post) Two techniques come to mind. Remove the drive, put it on another system, install Arch to the drive on that other system, and move the drive back. The other solution is to use a PXE environment (assuming your system can boot from a network), and set up a DHCP server and a TFTP server on another computer and boot as a thin client.
With regards to your post, how did you get grub and the iso image on to the drive without a usb or cd? Does grub come up at all? Or does the BIOS carp about not having a boot media? Is it a BIOS machine or EFI?

Installing Arch on a USB Key Partition

I'm new to Arch Linux, and installed it on a partition on my USB Key to try it out (it's cool!.... so far). One problem though. It's an 8GB drive with two partitions. I installed Arch on the first partition (2.5GB) and the rest is for storage. This is fine on computers that run Linux, but Windows only recognizes the first partition and does not see the storage partition.
Is there a way I could copy my entire Arch filesystem so I could reformat my USB Key with the partitions in the correct order? I was looking into Partimage and CloneZilla. I am also open to other solutions.

Clonezilla worked fine! For anyone else who wants to restore an image of a partition to a different partition, make sure you read this:
http://drbl.org/faq/fine-print.php?path … tition.faq
Last edited by zangderak (2011-09-10 01:19:20)

Installing arch without network drivers

I'm trying to use a live cd to install arch on my desktop, however the kernel doesn't have the drivers for my atheros ar8161.
What would be the easiest way to get my network working so that I can install arch?
I don't have any wireless adapters or any other wired adapters, but I do have a laptop and a usb to transfer files.

If you have either experience installing Arch before (the current CLI way) or with the Linux CLI in general, you could always install pacman onto a running system, install the arch boot scripts, and then do it from a working system. It should be pretty much the same (for the most part).
Alternatively, I have been told that it is possible to loop mount the iso and chroot into it, then installing to a partition that is mounted into the chrooted iso. I don't see why this wouldn't work, and then you should be booted from a kernel with the necessary network support.
In either case, if you have no experience installing a system in the fashion that Arch requires, I would wait. (Doing a Gentoo installation probably would be adequate experience, since the process is quite similar)

Install Arch on USB flash drive (partitioning and UEFI)?

I am trying to install Arch on a USB flash drive. However I have few questions... in particular about pratitioning and UEFI.
What partition table should I use? dos or gpt? and from this... what partitioning tool should I use? (cfdisk, parted, gdisk... etc)?
Also... I am going to be using this USB flash drive with a new computer that has a UEFI BIOS. Should I do anything different because of this? (Have a different boot flag?)

I think you need to read up on UEFI. Depending on what partitioner you use the boot flag can mean something entirely different.
MBR(dos) or GPT is a personal preference, so asking that is like asking someone else what your favorite soap should be. There is one exception though. I have heard of some systems that have firmware bugs that won't allow GPT/bios and some that won't allow MBR/UEFI. There are also some machines that won't do a damn thing if they aren't MBR partitioned, but those all tend to not be UEFI.
As far as the tool to use, if you want to use GPT then use gdisk and friends, of you want to use MBR(dos) use fdisk and friends. Or you can learn how to use parted, which can apparently handle both. But, for example gdisk offers a number of different tools that can all achieve the same thing. Again, it is like asking someone else if you should prefer boxers or briefs...

Installing Arch without a CD Drive Or Bootable USB

Hello I have a "legacy" PC that I would like to install Arch on. I would like to know if it is possible to "Mount" the .iso over my home network that is assigned through static IPs and an ethernet switch.
Then after this would I then be able to share my connection that an XP box on my network is receiving through a Wireless NIC? I looked into network bridging but I have hit a lot of dead ends and sort of gave up on it.
The first question is not all that vital I could just put a CD Drive in it but I want to do it out of curiosity and a little project. The second is sort of Vital as I could then send intranet to my other PC's and install Arch. Thanks for all your help and my previous experience with Arch has been nothing short of amazing.

I used PXE to load arch onto an old toshiba portege, worked a charm and it's not as long winded or difficult as it looks
Good Luck.

Installing arch on extended partition/logical drive

hi there. i am a newbie to linux and about to install arch as my first linux installation.
i am using vaio AR laptop already running xp and would like to keep it and have double boot without reinstalling xp.
have 200gb hdd with recovery primary partition, system primary partition (where xp installed) and extended partition with one logical drive (D: ) of 100gb.
i was considering deleting the logical drive (and the extended partition if necessary), which if i understand correctly should give me 100gb of unallocated space.
i would then like to install arch on the 100gb of unallocated space.
i would like to know if the way i am planning to go about it is possible, and whether i can install arch completely on one extended partition devided into logical drives.
any comments or sugestions would be much appreciated...
Last edited by o12357 (2009-09-04 12:45:18)

I believe that is correct. Grub has to have a reference to the md0 raid for booting.
Please see
http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=79306
This solution to the boot problem with md0 should be helpful for your case since grub must be modified to accomodate the raid.
I am not sure the data in your raid0 is appropo for your use in booting archlinux, however. If I understand correctly, it is windows related data and not applicable to linux.
If your raid0 is partitioned, it would be possible to establish a boot for each system using grub partition references differing for linux and windows systems.
Thus, you would have grub entries complete for linux and another set complete for windows.
I think AFAICT windows has to be first in the usual dual booting but am not an expert on that, not having used dual boot. It may be somewhat different when using raid for booting dual systems.
I suggest you read the wiki on dual boots.
Perhaps you will get advice from others on the subject also.
EDIT: Your asumption that all OS'es will recognize the raid0 devices as a single drive does not apply to archlinux which does not autodetect raid arrays but must have initramfs populated with the raid data established by mdadm and initiated into initramfs by mkinitcpio. Then during boot sequences , the array is assembled and enabled as a single drive,i.e., md0. The boot sequence assembles all drives having identical UUID's in the raid array.
Last edited by lilsirecho (2009-09-05 18:23:36)

The need to install Arch over network?

When I install Arch, I need to connect to network and use pacstrap to get the packages according to the relative wiki pages.
Could I install Arch without network connection? Which command I can use to do that, say, pacman?
Why don't we provide a CD such as Ubuntu did?
My previous questions:
pacman base base-dev returns ERROR: /mnt is not a mountpoint!
When install arch, how to avoid sleep or hibertate state
order question on language,internet connection and Mount the partition
wiki：
Beginners' Guide
Last edited by photon (2012-11-18 13:05:56)

Awebb wrote:
Max-P wrote:TL;DR: Just download the packages you need and put that on some media and install with pacman -U.
Which will break dependencies, unless you go all the way and install package by package with --asdeps.
Not if you install them all at once in one command. Also works if you install them in the correct order, but just dumping all the packages in the command line fixes it because pacman reads all the package first, check depencies afterward. That way, it will see you install 100 packages, all depencies met -> no problem.
Awebb wrote:And, err, if what you want to say can be said in one line, why all the text?
Because the longer text:
Explains why Arch can't have big disk images with all packages preinstalled on it
Explains why having the packages isn't that useful in most cases (example of the 1.2Gb update)
Offers multiple ways to store the packages:
Put extra packages on another media or network share
Expand the original CD image and put them directly on the Live CD
Tells where to go for the currently downloaded packages for easy access
Plus, finally, offers an alternative way to install the system: pre-build it in a VM or chroot and just untar on the target machine(s)
The one-line version doesn't talk about all that and suggest the direct way to do it quickly, but it acts more like a summary. Next time learn to read before complaining, thanks.

Trying to install Arch with Ubuntu hardy already installed

I have Ubuntu already installed on my system and I want to install Arch on a separate 10gig partition ( which is already made) but when I boot from the Arch cd and go to install Arch only sees the main drive it doesn't see anything else what am I doing wrong. I only want to install arch on the 10 gig partition for now until I am more familiar with Linux
Last edited by Shadowmeph (2008-05-20 17:35:28)

I have just read that it is informative but I am not sure of what that will do inorder for me to be able to install Arch on My tem gig partition, when I am in ubuntu I stat gparted to see what the names of my partitions are and this is what it shows /dev/sda3 swap 1gig /dev/ sda2 reiserfs 10 gigs ( where I want to install Arch) sda1 / Ubuntu how do I install arch onto dev/sda 2 ) the ten gig partition) if arch doesn't see it? do I have to delete the partition or formaste the 10 gig partition differently? I am pretty new to Linux so I am not sure of how to do this.
this is what my grub looks like
# menu.lst - See: grub(8), info grub, update-grub(8)
# grub-install(8), grub-floppy(8),
# grub-md5-crypt, /usr/share/doc/grub
# and /usr/share/doc/grub-doc/.
## default num
# Set the default entry to the entry number NUM. Numbering starts from 0, and
# the entry number 0 is the default if the command is not used.
# You can specify 'saved' instead of a number. In this case, the default entry
# is the entry saved with the command 'savedefault'.
# WARNING: If you are using dmraid do not use 'savedefault' or your
# array will desync and will not let you boot your system.
default 0
## timeout sec
# Set a timeout, in SEC seconds, before automatically booting the default entry
# (normally the first entry defined).
timeout 3
## hiddenmenu
# Hides the menu by default (press ESC to see the menu)
hiddenmenu
# Pretty colours
#color cyan/blue white/blue
## password ['--md5'] passwd
# If used in the first section of a menu file, disable all interactive editing
# control (menu entry editor and command-line) and entries protected by the
# command 'lock'
# e.g. password topsecret
# password --md5 $1$gLhU0/$aW78kHK1QfV3P2b2znUoe/
# password topsecret
# examples
# title Windows 95/98/NT/2000
# root (hd0,0)
# makeactive
# chainloader +1
# title Linux
# root (hd0,1)
# kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 ro
# Put static boot stanzas before and/or after AUTOMAGIC KERNEL LIST
### BEGIN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST
## lines between the AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST markers will be modified
## by the debian update-grub script except for the default options below
## DO NOT UNCOMMENT THEM, Just edit them to your needs
## ## Start Default Options ##
## default kernel options
## default kernel options for automagic boot options
## If you want special options for specific kernels use kopt_x_y_z
## where x.y.z is kernel version. Minor versions can be omitted.
## e.g. kopt=root=/dev/hda1 ro
## kopt_2_6_8=root=/dev/hdc1 ro
## kopt_2_6_8_2_686=root=/dev/hdc2 ro
# kopt=root=UUID=18573b0e-4906-4c7f-8e32-b544fd854ab5 ro
## Setup crashdump menu entries
## e.g. crashdump=1
# crashdump=0
## default grub root device
## e.g. groot=(hd0,0)
# groot=(hd0,0)
## should update-grub create alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. alternative=true
## alternative=false
# alternative=true
## should update-grub lock alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. lockalternative=true
## lockalternative=false
# lockalternative=false
## additional options to use with the default boot option, but not with the
## alternatives
## e.g. defoptions=vga=791 resume=/dev/hda5
# defoptions=quiet splash
## should update-grub lock old automagic boot options
## e.g. lockold=false
## lockold=true
# lockold=false
## Xen hypervisor options to use with the default Xen boot option
# xenhopt=
## Xen Linux kernel options to use with the default Xen boot option
# xenkopt=console=tty0
## altoption boot targets option
## multiple altoptions lines are allowed
## e.g. altoptions=(extra menu suffix) extra boot options
## altoptions=(recovery) single
# altoptions=(recovery mode) single
## controls how many kernels should be put into the menu.lst
## only counts the first occurence of a kernel, not the
## alternative kernel options
## e.g. howmany=all
## howmany=7
# howmany=all
## should update-grub create memtest86 boot option
## e.g. memtest86=true
## memtest86=false
# memtest86=true
## should update-grub adjust the value of the default booted system
## can be true or false
# updatedefaultentry=false
## should update-grub add savedefault to the default options
## can be true or false
# savedefault=false
## ## End Default Options ##
title Ubuntu 8.04, kernel 2.6.24-16-generic
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-16-generic root=UUID=18573b0e-4906-4c7f-8e32-b544fd854ab5 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-16-generic
quiet
title Ubuntu 8.04, kernel 2.6.24-16-generic (recovery mode)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-16-generic root=UUID=18573b0e-4906-4c7f-8e32-b544fd854ab5 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-16-generic
title Ubuntu 8.04, memtest86+
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet
### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST
ok edit two I think that I have Arch install but I am not sure of which way to use
Dual booting with other linux distros
This is done exactly the same way that Arch linux is loaded. Here we assume that the other distro is on partition [s/h]da3.
title Other Linux
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz (add other options here as required)
initrd /boot/initrd.img (if the other kernel uses/needs one)
[edit] Dual booting with other linux distro (Chainloading)
To avoid maintenance nightmare, you might want to chainload the GRUB in the MBR to another bootloader you might have installed in the bootrecord of a partition [(hd0,2) in our example] instead of the MBR. This way the auto-magic stuff of some distro will manage the menu.lst on (hd0,2) (if it is grub) for its own distro and you will boot with all the option needed (like the correct last kernel) without the need to copy/paste some part of that menu.lst into yours.
In our example [1], GRUB is in the MBR and some other bootloader (BL) (be it grub or lilo) is in the Boot Record of (hd0,2).
| | | | % (hd0,2) |
| M | | | B % |
| B | (hd0,0) | (hd0,1) | L % Other |
| R | | | % Distro |
| | | | % |
| ^
| chainloading |
Then, you simply use in your menu.lst:
title Other Linux distro
root (hd0,2)
chainloader +1
Last edited by Shadowmeph (2008-05-20 17:56:20)

Installing Arch Linux after Windows 7 64bit dual boot

Total noob here ^^
Im trying to install Arch Linux after my installation of Windows 7, without fucking up that one...
I freed up 50GB and removed it from my Windows boot partition, so Arch can be installed there, I have almost absolutely no experience with this kind of stuff since I've only used Ubuntu and Kali Linux before.
I've got a working arch image on my usb stick and i somehow can't figure out, how to install it without touching the existing partitions.
Is it possible to create a working dual boot, without changing my windows configuration?

yes its possible. What research have you done in order to install Arch. We do not hand hold here in this community. Go read up the appropriate wiki pages and ask specific questions with details in case you get stuck.
Start with the Beginners Guide.

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.

Recover/install Win7 onto multi-boot system - too many primary partitions?

I have a few questions: (first a background question, and then I'll get to the heart of the issue)
First, on a new laptop with factory installed Win7, I see there are 3 primary partitions - a 1.5GB "MBR-0", a ~10GB recovery partition, and the main installation partition. What is the 1.5GB one for, and what's on it? An MBR certainly doesn't need 1.5GB. Does Win7 create that, or is that something unique for Toshiba?
If I'm using a 3rd party boot-manager (BootitNG via an EMBR on its own partition), can I just wipe that 1.5GB partition? And, can the recovery installation be set up to create the Toshiba-Win7 recovery partition (and that 1.5GB one) as extended volumes within the Win7 primary partition, and not to make them as its own new primary partition?
And now to the main problem: (the gist of it is, how many partitions will the Win7 recovery disks create? and can I customize it?)
I have a new toshiba c650 laptop that came with Win7 installed. I created the one-time recovery DVDs first thing (it made 4 of them - Disk 1,2,3, and "64-bit environment").
I then wanted to set up a multi-boot system between Win7, and 2 instances of XP (one of which is a fresh install, the other being an image backup off a computer that died). I want each OS on its own primary partition, where each only sees/knows of itself. Also, I'll have one small, 50MB primary partition for the boot-manager program.
Of course, a drive can only have 4 primary partitions (if working with standard tools like fdisk, etc). To get around that (if needed), my boot-manager program will support as many primary partitions as I want, provided I use only it alone to manage/create my partitions.
Skipping the details, here's what I have now: I wiped the hard drive, except for that 1.5GB MBR-0 partitition, for now, till I find what it is. (Since XP doesn't recognize Win7, using XP's install cd would overwrite the factory Win7 installation, so I installed XP first on its own primary partition - and it's working fine). I have the boot manager program on a second primary partition. I then created 2 more primary partitions - one to place the XP-drive-image into, and one to install Win7. So, the entire drive is now fully utilized and partitioned.
But here's the problem...
starting with the boot manager program, I'm pointing to boot from the empty Win-7 partition, which upon finding no OS, will cue it to boot from the DVD, and go on about its installation business. So far so good. At this point, Win7 will only "see" the empty partition reserved for it. However, if Win7 tries to create an extra 1 or 2 new primary partitions (like how it came from the factory), the drive will end up with 6 primary partitions - not good. So, my XP partitions would likely get overwritten.
Having 6 primary partitions wouldn't be a problem, as long as I create/manage them only with the boot manager - but in this case the Win7 installation would likely create them during installation instead. If I pre-create those partitions (the 1.5GB one, and the 10GB one) with the boot manager, can I point Win7 during the installation to utilize those? How?
One more side note: When I'm in XP now, XP only "sees" it's own partition, but still senses that there's more room on the drive - it just considers it all as unallocated space. I'm guessing Win7 would do the same thing? And if it does, I'm worried it would start sticking its own new partitions there into what it "sees" as "unallocated space", even though my other partitions are there.
If you made it through this longwinded mess, thanks for what help you can provide! How should I get Win7 on there, without damaging the existing partitions?

Ok, so I finally got it all to work.
In case anyone else runs into this question where you have to use the Toshiba recovery DVDs to reinstall Windows 7, without damaging other existant partitions, here's the trick: You have to pre-create an NTFS primary partition at the very front of the disk (1st primary partition), make it at least 20GB (preferably more, since this will be where you run Windows7 - unless you also later create another partition solely for data/programs/etc). Then during the recovery, select the option to keep current partitioning intact. Everything will be placed in that first partition alone (the contents of which which the Win7 setup will erase), and the rest of your disk will be fine.
If you have other partitions already there, and on the rest of the disk, you'll have to first resize the existing partitions to create enough room for this new 1st primary partition. Then you'll have to shift or slide the current partitions up toward the back end of the disk (with 3rd party software). I also deleted the 1.5GB partition originally at the front of the disk (it's the startup repair partition, I learned), and I had previously deleted the 10GB recovery partition that came factory-placed at the back end of the disk.
The XP-partition I already had on the disk is tested and working fine, and wasn't touched at all by the Windows7 recovery installation. Installing additional XP-images or other OS's should be simple enough now.

Re-install OSX without losing Windows7 partition? (preserving Bootcamp)

Recently my computer stopped booting into mac OS (apparently unfixable, details on that deduction are below).
The question:
I plan to reinstall MacOSX (from my startup disc).
However, I'd like to be sure that this won't destroy Bootcamp's partitioning. (because windows7 currently still starts fine).
Can anyone confirm that losing bootcamp is not a concern?
I'm worried that maybe it is just assumed that reinstalling OSX will destroy the old Bootcamp setup?
(my google searches haven't brought up any examples of my specific situation).
More details:
After moving my iMac (i7, 27") to a new desk, I started it up and walked away. the power supply started beeping horribly (its backup battery had lost charge, i assume). I stupidly pressed the power button to turn the UPS off, to stop the beeping, even though the iMac was still starting up. This killed the power. oops.
I could swear I was able to restart in OSX that night... but maybe my memory is flawed- because ever since, the iMac has hung up while starting up. maybe "freezing up" is the better term? except pinwheel is still spinning... (I'd also swear I left the mac in sleep mode that night, but when I came back the next day it was turned off. not sure if my memory is flawed... or if gremlins are tormenting me)
The next morning when I started up, I noticed a progress bar beneath the Apple logo, which i'd never seen before. after a couple minutes this bar went away, and I was just left with the spinning pinwheel below the apple logo. I let this run for more than an hour before giving up (giving up == holding the power button for several second to force it to power off).
- I restarted with option held down, and was able to load the windows partition just fine. (and am still able to).
- I restarted with cmd-v held down to enter verbose mode and see what's up. seemed to become hung up after printing " Rebuilding catalog B-tree"
- I rebooted with cmd-option-p-r keys held down, to reset pram and nvram. no change.
- I restarted with cmd-s held down so I could type something at the command line. I entered the suggested "/sbin/fsck -fy" text.
here is quick snapshot of what it displayed, when this failed:
http://www.warrenblyth.com/remote/probs/iMacHOME-commandLine_s.jpg
(basically, it went from "rebuilding catalog B-tree" to "the volume Macintosh HD could not be repaired")
- I restarted with d key held down and ran the quick version of diagnostics. it said there were no hardware problems. (i did not run the longer version). I rebooted to the same hung-up problem.
- I held c to boot from my startup disc (which took maybe 3 minutes? long time?). ... (sidenote: I thought this would just let me into the old desktop, like booting windows into safe mode. but instead it was just a limited menu set, like I was stuck in a program I couldn't quit. I believe it was prompting me to start installing OS. I managed to switch over to the disc utility program, by attempting to exit the default program, I believe. I get so frustrated/angry/emotional over epic computer problems that it seems to affect my memory).
- In Disk Utility I clicked "verify disk permissions" button. It predicted this would take 7 minutes, but it just stopped runnig after maybe 2 minutes. no results were displayed.
- So I clicked "verify disk".
here is a quick snapshop of results:
http://www.warrenblyth.com/remote/probs/imac-verifyDiskFAIL_s.jpg
(basically, it says problem can't be fixed and I should reformat)
This is when I decided it was a lost cause and my only remaining option was to reformat the mac partition. (yeah? make sense?)
Bonus:
- I restarted in Windows and copied everything I could think of off of the old mac portion of the hard drive. I had to reformat my WDmyBook external HDD to windows friendly formatting for this. I noticed this when looking at disk partitions:
http://www.warrenblyth.com/remote/probs/homeMac-partitions_s.jpg
probably nothing interesting here. I just thought it weird that there were 4 partitions instead of two. Wondered if one of these partitions was devoted to startup, and could be fixed without destroying the core mac partition.
My gut says there is probably just some start up glitch, and if I was smarter I could fix it without erasing all the old Mac files and installed programs. Though I'm also worried it may be a physical disc error, and reinstalling OSX won't solve anything. maybe I've ruined the machine and should seek replacement HW. ?
Really just posting here to see if anyone has advice. and to help anyone else who might be in same spot of confusion.
Thanks for any tips.

#1 You need a more robust program to fix the Mac boot drive like Alsoft Disk Warrior.
I stopped bothering with using Apple First Aid.
#2 You can lose Windows
#3 Try SuperDuper to clone Mac volume to another HFS+ partition.
HFS has its weaknesses. You probably continued using OS X after freezes or other problems.
Ideal is to reformat and restore both.
If there was a bad sector that is something chkdsk could deal with.
If the bad sector is in the hidden partition tables, you have to reformat.
Reformat is the best way going forward.
Even replacing a disk drive is something you can do. You probably want backup drive for each OS though.
And there are 3rd party disk maintenance programs. And should always be backed up and ready to restore a system without exception. Even if possible to doing trial runs to make sure how to.
I would spend the money to fix the directory in Mac OS X rather than the free reinstall of OS X - after making a bootable clone with SuperDuper, and repairing the clone as well first.
You may (dare I say "should") install Mac OS only just 30GB partition on a hard drive to use for fixing your system, instead of using CD or DVDs. And a partition large enough to hold your current Mac system to use for backup clone.
Windows HFS9 driver from Paragon allows read and write ability. They also have an NTFS drive for OS X to add write support. Good Windows backup tools.
Paragon for Mac
SuperDuper
DiskWarrior

Installing Arch without wipe of primary partition?

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