Migrating from Arch to Dual Boot (Arch 64 + Win8.1 64).

Question

Hello my friends.
I used to have a dual boot system (MBR, if I'm not mistaken), with Arch Linux on hda (1TB) and Windows 7 on hdb (300GB). I did this installation more than 3 years ago.
The disk with windows died recently, and because I need it for work (virtual machine is not an option), I decided to make a "refresh" on my machine.
I bought two new disks, a 240GB SSD and a 3TB HDD.
What I would like to do is to install both Windows 8.1 and Arch Linux on the SSD disk (100GB for Windows, 140GB for Arch, my main system), and use the 3TB (for Arch) and the 1TB (for Windows) disks as storage.
While doing a research on how to do the installation, some questions arised.
I know that I must (or at least should, for make the processe easier) install Windows first. I will install in the EFI mode, as my machine alread has it.
1. Which boot loader I should use when installing Arch Linux?
From what I'd read, to keep things simple, I should opt for a bootloader like gummyboat, that will recognise the Windows without manual intervantion. Is this right?
2. Will I have problems with the Windows Update?
I read here https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=187194 that when Windows update, it mess with the EFI partition and will make the Arch stop booting (the boot will enter directly on Windows). Is this correct? Is this related only to "automatic" updates (and manual updates can be made without problem)? There is any way to avoid this?
3. After installing both systems, will Arch Linux recognize my 1TB disk?
My 1TB disk has my actual Arch linux installation, and data. I would like to copy this data to the 3TB disk and then, under Windows, format it to serve as my Windows storage disk.
I can do this BEFORE installing the system, or after. But the second option causes me some concerning regarding the rights and so on, so that I do not know if my "new" system" will be able to copy things from the old system.
Should I make the copy before installing Arch Linux?
I think this is it.
If you could helping me with these questions and pointing problems/flaws with my approach, I'll be immensely gratefull.
Chhers,
Eduardo.

Answer 1

Hello elken
While I could maintain the system under BIOS/MBR, and I don't had any problem with this in the last 2 years, I want to change my system to EFI/GPT.
I found that Windows under EFI must be under GPT (As pre-installed Windows 8.1), while under BIOS it must be under MBR. So, as my system is (will be) a DUAL one, and It is not a MAC system (that would allow to the EFI/GPT loader to chain a BIOS/MBR, I have to choose between EFI/GPT or BIOS/MBR.
Because my system can be setup under EFI/GPT, and because sooner or later BIOS/MBR will start to disappear, I want to change it now. This will mke it easier in the future to upgrade my system, I think.
Not to mention that GPT has some nice advantages over MBR. For example, GPT can handle my 3TB disk without problems, while MBR not. (At least, fdisk wasn't able to deal with it).
So, you could say that despite BIOS/MBR being fully funcional right now, it's a matter of personal taste (and learning) to me, this desire to completely change my system to EFI/GPT
For now, I decided to mantain the LINUX and WINDOWS separated (as they are now), i.e., on separate disks. This should solve the problem of windows messing with the boot loader when upgrading (point 2).
About the bootloader, I think I'll change to gummybot, to test it. I think I could still use grub 2 (I'm not entirely sure), but Gummybot seems simple and fair enough.
As an aside, I think I will try to migrate my system to the new HDF using rsync and making the necessary adjustments (like in fstab).
It seems not to difficult, and there are many documents out there on how to do this.
When I finish, I'll post here how I did and what worked and what not
Cheers,
Eduardo