Partioning question for dual booting arch+ another distro

I have a 320 partition w/ 100gigs win7 and 20 for /root arch, and rest for /home arch and a 500gig hd with data,media, pictures etc on it..
I was thinking of dual booting Mint + arch.. mint for compatability, ubuntu base and stability and arch for bleeding edge+ speed
I was thinking about 20 /root arch, 140 /home arch, 20 /root mint, 140(rest of hd) /home mint.. and using gparted to grab a 5 gig piece of the 500gig hd for /swap for both distros ( i have 6 gigs ram, i usually set swappiness to zero anyway, but i'm sure a swap is just a formality anyway)... and making the rest of the 500 accessable to both distros for my media and other stuff i have.
is the above a good scheme ^^, does the size/order matter for what I want above? or should it be /root mint /root arch /home mint, /home arch.. 20/20/140/140 (sizes are approx of course)
or would there be a "real advantage for making the 320 mint, 500 for arch.. and make 250 gigs of the 500 shared for media etc.. (20 arch / and 230 for /arch home)..
I posted this in the newbie section, because of so many possibilities and I've read alot about partitioning, I just wonder whats the best, effecient way to do this, i'm sure some of you here dual boot 2 distros (hopefully on the same hd so my question is at least relevant)
Thanks in advance for any help
Last edited by binskipy2u (2013-01-02 10:32:43)

It's your machine, so do whatever you want, because it's a very subjective matter. I have a 10 GB root ext4 without a separate /boot or /home (meaning that these folders are part of the root fs). But man, sometimes, a separate partition for /home can be a god-send. I experienced space issues countless times. Of course, it also depends on how much crap you install. If you install full-blown KDE and a bunch of games instead of something minimal like Openbox or a tiling WM, 10 GB are not enough. Wine also uses ~/.wine for games and such.
See: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Partitioning
I would probably share the home partition between the distributions (except with different user names, so that the settings don't overlap between bleeding-edge versions of the same packages).
Have fun.
You may also wanna look into LVM, which will allow on-the-fly resizing of the partitions.
Last edited by DSpider (2013-01-02 11:59:34)

Similar Messages

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.

How to add another operating system for Dual boot in Windows 7 boot configuration

Hi,
I have dell laptop with excellent configuration. On which i had windows 7 Home premium on C Drive and Windows server 2008 on D Drive.
Now i upgraded my Windows 7 Home Premium 32 bit to Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit. But after fresh installation of Win 7 Ultimate my dual boot screen has gone and Win 7 is getting start directly.
Now i want to add my Windows server 2008 again for dual boot which is still on D Drive.
Can anyone please tell me how to add windows 2008 boot option in boot configuration to active my dual boot options.
Thanks

1) Using bcdedit.exe /enum
To enable the computer to also boot Windows 7 you again use bcdedit.exe with the following command which will copy the current Windows
Boot Loader details for Windows Server 2008 to Windows 7.
bcdedit.exe /copy
{current} /d "Microsoft Windows 7"
bcdedit.exe will
respond with something like the following.
The
entry was successfully copied to {................................}.
Using
bcdedit.exe /enum to again enumerate through the current entries within the BCD store you'll see the newly added entry.
Before you can use the newly created Windows boot loader configuration, you'll need to change the partition for Windows 7 using
the following two bcdedit.exe commands.
bcdedit.exe /set {.................................} device partition=D:
bcdedit.exe /set {.................................} osdevice partition=D:
If you now reboot the system you should now be able to boot into either Windows Server 2008 or Windows 7.

[SOLVED] Dual booting arch onto an SSD that already has W7 in MBR?

I currently have windows 7 64bit installed onto a 256gb m4 SSD. I would like to be able to dual-boot W7 and Archlinux, but so far I've been getting wildly varying accounts of doom and data deletion from every source that I've looked at- and unfortunately, the Archwiki's guide to dualbooting is out of date.
So here's the questions:
First, is UEFI something I need to look at? At the moment W7 seems to be on MBR. I'm getting conflicting accounts on whether this is not even an issue or if it will attempt to make my computer eat my dog.
Next, what is going on with sectors and alignment and such? Some people ignore them, some people delve so far into it that I think I vaguely know they're still talking about a hard drive.
Which leads me into partitioning, and not doing it in a way that's terrible. I can't find any information on this anywhere that isn't buried within the above-mentioned posts, along with incredibly vague warnings of GParted moving a partition, spoken of in a way as if that data is lost to the twilight zone.
Finally... pulling all this together is the largest issue.
Do any of you know good, factual resources where I can look into this stuff?
Last edited by ilar (2013-04-03 03:53:31)

1) If you knew what UEFI was you should have known it wasn't an option, and shouldn't have asked about it.
2) (G)parted and gdisk (if you go with GPT at some point) handle SSD sector alignment automatically, and have for some time. A google search could have revealed that.
3) Whether one uses an SSD or HDD, dual-booting will be the same: 2+ partitions devoted to separate operating systems. While SSDs and HDDs may be fundamentally different constructs, booting from them is not different at all. That's why you aren't finding anything saying such.
4) As for the wiki being out-of-date, the specific reason (as stated page's in the header) is that GRUB legacy is no longer officially supported in Arch. Disregard that information and use GRUB2/Syslinux/LILO and the process remains the same: Install the operating systems side-by-side and chainload the secondary OS. It doesn't matter one bit: I've dual-booted every Linux distro I've used over the past four years with Windows, from Ubuntu to Mint to SuSE to Sabayon to Arch to whatever, and I've done it all the exact same way, using HDDs and an SSDs and both in combination. There's plenty of information out there on this, and your time could better have been spent looking it up rather than arguing with people here.
5) Welcome to Arch.

[Success] Dual Booting Arch and Windows 7 [Advice / Confirmation]

So I have been trying to get Starcraft II to work with wine and no luck.
I have decided to install windows back on my computer, besides it might come in handy since I'm heading back to school soon.
Anyways I have tried dual booting arch and windows in the past, and my results have never been stable.
Today I will try using the program gparted.
Let me give you my thoughts on how I plan to go through this and please give me some advice so I don't loose everything I have worked for on my linux box
1.Currently I have two hard drives, one for all my main programs and one for my media files (mounting usb, dvd, etc, and it actually has no files in it xD).
I plan to use gparted to re-size my second harddrive (media drive), create an extended partition, and a logical ntfs partition within it.
2.I pop in my windows cd that I recieved with my laptop and install it on the space I have partitioned for windows.
3. If my grub gets wiped out my windows (which I hope it doesn't not sure how the MBR stuff works) I insert a Ubuntu live cd and do
sudo grub
> root (hd0,0)
> setup (hd0)
> exit
4.Configure grub to boot windows 7.
5.Be happy with no headache.
SO....
If someone with past experience with dual booting windows and arch could please give me some advice, as I do not want to lose all my data, start over, and have another headache.
I know I must learn to backup arch, which I will before september.
But if anyone has any protips, or sees a flaw in my plan please point it out!!!
Thank you very much for taking the time to read this and even more if advice has been given to boost my confidence!
For now I will wait
Thank you fellow archies.
Last edited by Jabrick (2011-07-03 01:29:36)

satanselbow wrote:
1) Windows must be installed to a primary partition - attempting to install it to an logical partition will result in an epic fail
2) Physically disconnect the harddrive you do not want windows on as windows typically installs the bootloader on the 1st hardisk (ie /sda) regardless of installation drive (ie /sdb)
3 / 4) Complete the windows installation then reattached your Arch drive and edit /boot/grub/menu.lst (as root) pointing the W7 entry to (hd1,0) - no need to reinstall grub
5) Hey it's windows - anything could happen
If you create an NTFS partition right at the beginning of the the drive before you start the W7 install you can prevent it greedily using up 2 of you 4 primary partitions - I would also completely update you new W7 installation past SP1 before reattaching the other drive to further prevent W7 going mental
satanselbow thank you so much!
Everything works great I had no stumbles, and I hope no problems in the future!!
I will post exactly what I did in case someone has the same issue.
1. Partition you're secondary harddrive as primary ntfs with gparted
2. Reboot, and if you get a file system check error, check you're udev rules. (For my case in particular I had to change the udev rules I got for auto mounting usb, ext harddrive, etc.
3.Power off your computer and physically remove the harddrive that contains all your linux goodies
4. Plug in your windows cd and install in the partition you created
5. Update your windows OS
6. Plug in Ubuntu live CD and reboot
7. Use commands to get grub to overwrite the windows boot loader (In my case I put grub everyone hd0,0 hd0,1 just to be sure, but you might want to do things cleaner)
8. Reboot and see if grub loads up
9. Use Ubuntu live CD again and launch Gparted, select the boot to your extra linux space (if you had one, not sure if this is needed)
10. Plug in your linux harddrive and reconfigure /boot/grub/menu.lst and your good to go
Once again shout outs to satanselbow!!! For without him I might've failed brutally!
Cheers!

Dual booting Arch and Ubuntu

Hi, I would like to dual boot Arch and Ubuntu using GRUB2.
I already have Arch, set up as it's described in the Beginner's Guide, with GRUB2 installed. How would I go about dual booting Ubuntu, preferably without overwriting the existing bootloader?
I haven't tried anything yet, but the problem that I can see is resizing my /home; is this possible on the Ubuntu liveDVD? If not, would I be able to resize /home with my gParted liveCD?
Unfortunately, I have no backup media to use, so I wouldn't be able to transfer anything away as a backup.
Here is my partition table:
%lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda 8:0 0 931.5G 0 disk
├─sda1 8:1 0 30G 0 part /
├─sda2 8:2 0 12G 0 part [SWAP]
├─sda3 8:3 0 5M 0 part
└─sda4 8:4 0 889.5G 0 part /home
sda1 is my root partition, sda2 is swap, sda3 is GRUB's boot partition, which I was told that I needed in the guide, and sda4 (/home) occupies the "rest of the disk".
I am using a GPT-partitioned drive, as I read this has many advantages and I do not plan to triple-boot Windows.
So, can someone tell me what I do if I want to dual boot Ubuntu? I'm very sorry if this should have been posted on the Ubuntu forums, but I'm just more familiar with Arch, and I already have it installed. Please ask if you need any other files like my fstab. I have my Ubuntu liveDVD, GParted live CD (and Arch CD) at hand.
Thanks in advance, rberyl.
(Also, does anyone else think it's a bit of a backwards thing to put the output of "date -u +%W$(uname)|sha256sum|sed 's/\W//g'" as a sign-up question? )
Last edited by rberyl (2012-12-29 11:45:23)

Hi rberyl,
You can change your partitions using an inbuilt tool like cfdisk, or if you'd prefer a GUI gparted can be installed from the Arch repos. This will allow you to shrink sda4, and set up the new partitions for your Ubuntu OS. Although this shouldn't cause any data loss, its best practice to back up just in case.
When installing Ubuntu, be sure to opt-out of bootloader creation. I think you have to use the alternate installation media to get this option. You can add your Ubuntu partition to the existing bootloader by running osprober (available from the repos) and then running grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg . Alternatively, you can manually edit your GRUB config. See https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GR … NU.2FLinux for instructions.
Good luck!
Last edited by smazza (2012-12-29 16:04:08)

Dual Boot Arch & Mac OS X(Boot device didn't show up after 30 seconds)

I was trying to Dual Boot Arch & Mac OS X on my new Mac book pro, I followed the steps (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/MacBookPro)
Dual Boot (Arch & Mac OS X)
Two possibilities:
- Install Bootcamp, resize the Mac OS X partition
When Mac OS X installation is finished. Go on http://refit.sourceforge.net and download rEFIT (Mac disk image)
To install rEFIT, mount the rEFIT.dmg file (it is normally automatic).
There is an other way (refer to rEFIT documentation) but you can open a terminal then you copy /Volumes/rEFIT/efi/ to /
# cp -r /Volumes/rEFIT/efi /
To install rEFIT :
# cd /efi/refit/
# ./enable.sh
Now we can synchronized MBR with GPT partition table thanks to rEFIT so you restart your computer. You can see rEFIT, you press down key to access to the Partitioning Tool. You press y to accept.
Put your Arch Linux CD in the CD-ROM drive first then restart the computer. You can press C to boot from the CD or you can choose it in the rEFIT menu.
Now it is the typical Arch Linux installation.
So I burn the archlinux-2010.05-core-i686.iso to an blank disc on mac then restart the computer , press C to boot from the CD.
After choose to boot Arch linux and then I got this
Waiting for 30 seconds for device /dev/disk/by-label/ARCH-201005...
ERROR:boot device didn't show up after 30 seconds...
Falling back to interactive prompt
You can try to fix the problem manually, log out when you finished /bin/sh: can't access tty;
job control turned off
[ramfs /]#
[ramfs /]#
Any ideas?
Thanks!

heleos wrote:
This line:
Waiting for 30 seconds for device /dev/disk/by-label/ARCH-201005...
You need to make sure that's the exact name of your iso disc. If it's not, it isn't a big deal. I've run into problems on this with my arch USB drive.
Once you get to the [ramfs /]# prompt, type in:
mv /dev/disk/by-label/(insert name of the current cd here) /dev/disk/by-label/ARCH-201005
exit
It should then be able to boot from the cd
did:
mv /dev/disk/by-label/(insert name of the current cd here) /dev/disk/by-label/ARCH-201005
exit
shows:
ERROR: mounting was successful, but /bootmnt/isomounts file doex not exist.
Then I checked:
cd /bootmnt
ls
archlinux-2010.05-core-i686.iso
exit
shows another problem /boot/init does not exist
exit
kernel panic!

Dual booting arch (usb) and ubuntu (grub2)

Greetings,
I'm trying to dual boot Arch linux (installed without a bootloader on a USB SSD) and Ubuntu 10.04 (installed on a hdd with GRUB2) but can't get Arch to boot. (Oh and I already have windows dualbooted)
The entry grub autogenerated:
menuentry "Arch Linux [/boot/vmlinuz26] (on /dev/sdb3)" {
insmod ext2
set root='(hd1,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 95d9208a-44e4-48ba-abd2-a365d1ac25ff
linux /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda3 ro
initrd /kernel26.img
Why did it input root=/dev/sda3 as it says (on /dev/sdb3)?
The entry I figured would work:
menuentry "Arch Linux" {
set root=(hd1,0)
linux /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sdb3 ro
initrd /boot/kernel26.img
Output from fdisk -l:
Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xbc4264d9
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 13 102400 7 HPFS/NTFS
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2 13 5286 42353664 7 HPFS/NTFS
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda3 5286 19458 113831937 5 Extended
Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda5 18971 19458 3905536 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 5286 6502 9764864 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 6502 18971 100155392 83 Linux
Partition table entries are not in disk order
WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sdb'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.
Disk /dev/sdb: 8019 MB, 8019509248 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 974 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 13 104391 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2 14 111 787185 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb3 112 685 4610655 83 Linux
/dev/sdb4 686 974 2321392+ 83 Linux
/dev/sdb3 is the root partition
The content of /dev/sdb1
grub
kernel26-fallback.img
kernel26.img
lost+found
System.map26
vmlinuz26
- If I try to edit the root=/dev/sda3 to /dev/sdb3 it begins booting but doesnt find /dev/sdb3.
Thanks in advance for any help,
Oskar

Greetings,
I'm trying to dual boot Arch linux (installed without a bootloader on a USB SSD) and Ubuntu 10.04 (installed on a hdd with GRUB2) but can't get Arch to boot. (Oh and I already have windows dualbooted)
The entry grub autogenerated:
menuentry "Arch Linux [/boot/vmlinuz26] (on /dev/sdb3)" {
insmod ext2
set root='(hd1,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 95d9208a-44e4-48ba-abd2-a365d1ac25ff
linux /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda3 ro
initrd /kernel26.img
Why did it input root=/dev/sda3 as it says (on /dev/sdb3)?
The entry I figured would work:
menuentry "Arch Linux" {
set root=(hd1,0)
linux /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sdb3 ro
initrd /boot/kernel26.img
Output from fdisk -l:
Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xbc4264d9
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 13 102400 7 HPFS/NTFS
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2 13 5286 42353664 7 HPFS/NTFS
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda3 5286 19458 113831937 5 Extended
Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda5 18971 19458 3905536 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 5286 6502 9764864 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 6502 18971 100155392 83 Linux
Partition table entries are not in disk order
WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sdb'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.
Disk /dev/sdb: 8019 MB, 8019509248 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 974 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 13 104391 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2 14 111 787185 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb3 112 685 4610655 83 Linux
/dev/sdb4 686 974 2321392+ 83 Linux
/dev/sdb3 is the root partition
The content of /dev/sdb1
grub
kernel26-fallback.img
kernel26.img
lost+found
System.map26
vmlinuz26
- If I try to edit the root=/dev/sda3 to /dev/sdb3 it begins booting but doesnt find /dev/sdb3.
Thanks in advance for any help,
Oskar

Attempted to install windows 7 for dual boot but OSX installation now missing???

I've tried to install Wndows 7 on my macbook air for dual boot but got the kernal error on boot.
I loaded from the CD again and it sucessfully installed win 7 but when I start the macbook air up it only appears to have windows installed?
How can I get my OSX back?

For some odd reason when you use bootcamp to install the second OS bootcamp is defaulted as the primary OS you will need to hold option key to select the apple OS then in the sys preference under startup disk select apple as primary.

Help needed for Dual Booting purpose.

If I want to install Windows 8.1 Enterprise and Windows Server 2012 R2 together for dual booting purpose, then which OS should be installed
first to get a successful dual boot configuration.. Please help me regarding this matter..

This one may help.
http://blogs.technet.com/b/blainbar/archive/2012/09/25/step-by-step-4-ways-to-dual-boot-microsoft-windows-8-and-windows-server-2012-with-or-without-windows-7.aspx
Regards, Dave Patrick ....
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
Disclaimer: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties or guarantees , and confers no rights.

How do I add another operating system for Dual boot in Windows 8.1 boot configuration?

Hello,
I am trying to create a dual-boot Windows 8.1 Pro system to allow both 32bit and 64 bit Windows 8.1 versions. I currently have Windows 8.1 32bit installed. Appreciate some background on how to add 64bit Windows 8.1.
Thanks, in advance.

The easiest way is to do this (this assumes some technical knowledge as well as access to the currently installed operating system and the 64bit install files)
1: launch diskpart from run or cmd
2: select the current OS disk using "select disk 0"
3: select the current OS volume using "select partition x" where x is the number of partition (you can use "list partition" to see all current partitions)
4: enter "shrink minimum=xxxxx" where xxxxx is the size in megabytes you want to new OS to have
5: Enter "create partition primary"
6: Enter "format quick fs=ntfs label="Windows x64""
7: Enter "assign letter y"
8: select your current system partition using "select partition x" where x is the number of partition. If you have a UEFI install on a GPT disk, this partition will be formatted in fat32. Otherwise, it will be a 100mb NTFS partition
9: Enter "assign letter s"
10: exit diskpart, and open up an administrator cmd prompt
11: Enter "dism /get-imageinfo /imagefile:e:\sources\install.wim" where e: is the drive letter that you have your .iso mounted in. If you have the iso extracted, you can just point to the current extracted area then \sources.install.wim. This will
show you a list of indexes that the .wim file supports. A standard retail version of the .iso will have Windows 8 Pro be index 1. If it is not, just change the index number in the next command.
12: Enter "dism /apply-image /imagefile:e:\sources\install.wim /index:1 /applydir:y:"
13: Enter "bcdboot y:\windows /s s: /f UEFI" (if you are using a MBR disk and not UEFI with a GPT disk, enter /f BIOS instead)
14: Reboot, select the x64 partition in the menu that comes up, and you are good to go!
You can also just create a new partition using disk manager then boot to the x64 disk and install it to the new partition, but that runs the risk of accidentally installing over something that shouldn't be if you select the wrong disk.

[solved] Can't set up dual boot Arch + Win 7 on separated disks

Hello everybody,
I'm new to this amazing project as I installed Arch just two days ago (and everything works like a charm in linux).
Anyway I have a problem and I'm very sorry to bother you with another question such this, but I tried everything and I accurately read the wiki.
The problem is that I can't manage to create a dual boot in grub with Arch on the first sata disk and Windows 7 on the second disk.
Before trying Arch I used ubuntu 10.10 dual boot with the same Windows 7 on the same secondary disk (the pc is a dell XPS L702X 17' laptop with, of course, dual disk bay) using GRUB2 which was automatically installed during ubuntu installation.
I tried to chainload windows disk in grub using map command to let windows think it's on the primary disk and not on second one.
At start I just had "BOOTMGR missing" error, then I put windows disk as primary removing arch disk and I repaired its bootloader: windows could boot then.
When I substituted disks and tried to boot, Windows 7 loading screen appeared and immediately I had a blue screen of death (or something similar) which anyway disappeared in less than a second (I was not able to read anything from that screen)
Now, when I try to boot windows either with grub or trying to enable boot straight from second hard drive in BIOS, I receive an error stating that it is necessary to use the windows repair disk to fix problems.
My question is: how can I finally fix this situation?
It would be quite important, for me, to not format neither of the disks, and I could even accept to renounce booting windows from grub as it would be ok even changing BIOS priority every time I need to use windows 7.
I really apologize for my annoying question but I really tried everything I could find without success; sorry for my poor english, too.
Anyway, this distribution seems just amazing to me! Thanks for your time.
Luca
Last edited by enigmatichus (2011-12-27 02:05:14)

It worked!!! Actually I don't know what changed, I proceeded removing the first disk (arch) WITHOUT, this time, changing the position of the windows disk. I used windows 7 DVD to repair the second disk. It tooks several attempts since it failed without specifying the problem. Eventually, I was able to boot windows 7, everything worked. Then, I plugged the primary linux hard drive and booted into arch, where I used "grub-install /dev/sda" as root. It executed without errors, but when I checked menu.lst file, surprisingly I discovered that it was not changed at all by grub-install.
Anyway it must have detected windows on /dev/sdb, since I am now able to boot both arch and windows without problems.
It was a weird situation, but anyway it worked well!! Thank you for the support, I really appreciate!
Luca

Can you dual-boot arch linux with Windows 7 ?

Here is my current dilemna; I have Windows still on my netbook for the only reason that I use it for gaming .
Other than that I have Linux Mint dual-booted with it .
Now my question is, can I just instruct arch to install into the already existing linux partition, formatting it and making it it's home, or do I have to delete it, thus rendering my computer inoperable until I successfully dualboot arch with it ? o_O
Or should I take a different approach altogether, and triple boot my netbook with arch, mint, and windows, and then from there delete the mint partition and allocate the free space accordingly using easeus partition master (another reason I still have windows) ?
Please help . D:
PS. I HATE Windows but only kept it because apparently not everyone shares the Linux view of technology . >.>
Last edited by AstarothMastemaRavenclaw (2011-02-06 16:42:35)

if youre happy with your partition layout u can just install arch ofc.
while installing you will be prompted to select mount points and create filesystems ( you can skip the partition step )
select your current / partition for, well, /
and /home for.. /home.
the installer will then create new filesystems there (formatting those partitions) and set mountpoints

Inquiry about dual booting Arch, without messing around in cfdisk

A little background:
I was given a computer that I could install arch on, but I needed to dual boot it. After not daring to mess around in cfdisk, I was pondering other distros that would take the hassle of dual booting out of the equation. Then I was told I could install Arch over windows, which I did.
My question:
How feasible would it be for me to install ubuntu alongside my arch installation then install Windows over the ubuntu install, so that I could run steam? Will it ruin any of my Arch data? Hope that makes sense.
Would that be an easier way of dual booting than deleting/making new partitions in cfdisk?
I didn't see any other questions like this when I tried searching.
Thanks
Last edited by SaladHunter (2012-04-11 17:32:03)

I think installing Linux on same partition as Windows or on a FAT32/NTFS partition (Windows-accessible) is a bad idea. If you get a virus then the Linux files also get infected. I recommend you install it on a separate EXT4 partition. Don't worry, you can still access it from Windows using something like Ext2fsd but at least you can mount them as Read-Only.
Awebb wrote:I'd say get a second hard disk for Windows. I know, this type of recommendation isn't very welcome in most situations, as we always try to do what we want with what whe have, but I kept running into trouble with dual boots on one disk, so if...
Um, I have Windows XP installed on the second partition of the second disk. And Windows *XP*, mind you, which needed map (hd0) (hd1), map (hd1) (hd0) in GRUB Legacy to make it think it was on the first drive.
# fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
224 heads, 19 sectors/track, 459004 cylinders, total 1953525168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x337b9070
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 2048 104869887 52433920 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT --> 50 GB Games
/dev/sda2 104869888 1953523711 924326912 83 Linux --> 880 GB Backup
Disk /dev/sdb: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xabf50919
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 63 20964824 10482381 83 Linux --> 10 GB Arch
/dev/sdb2 20965376 62910463 20972544 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT --> 20 GB Windows XP with enough room for Windows 7 (if I ever need to)
/dev/sdb3 62910540 976751999 456920730 83 Linux --> 435 GB Storage
Because I can, and because someone once told me that it can't be done.
This is the relevant bit from my /boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg, installed on the second drive (meaning /dev/sdb1, see the fdisk boot flag):
LABEL xp
MENU LABEL Windows XP
KERNEL chain.c32
APPEND hd0 2
ZekeSulastin wrote:The big problem you're going to have is that Windows doesn't easily play nice with a prepartitioned drive - the installer will usually want to make its own partitions, including its own "boot" partition in Win 7.
Nah. If you choose an already created partition during the initial setup it won't create the so called "System Reserved" 100 MB partition. You'll see some extra hidden folders on drive C:\ though.
Last edited by DSpider (2012-04-12 11:41:10)

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

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.

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

Partioning question for dual booting arch+ another distro

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