Dual-Boot Windows 7 and Arch Linux

habibjp

Hi everyone
My laptop is currently as such:

4GB RAM
2.2GHz AMD Turion DC CPU
500GB 7200RPM HDD
Win 7 Ultimate

I have shrunk C:\ and created a 20GB partition on my HDD to install Arch on. I went through the installation procedure but couldn't figure out how to get it to install on just the 20GB partition and not on the entire drive, so cancelled it without having changed anything.

Can anyone advise me on how to install Arch next to W7 without destroying the MBR etc?

Thanks
Habib

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echo off

I remember when i messed around with Linux there was an option to install on a new partition, But you need to make the partition with the linux installation, Not windows. If you can't get it sorted, Just back up your windows on a hard drive, then install linux, reinstall windows, and reinstall the backup.

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habibjp

Yes if you install Ubuntu, Fedora, Mint, OpenSUSE, or any of the more "user-friendly" versions its incredibly easy to shrink Win and install alongside. Unfortunately the installation GUI for Arch looks like the last version of MS-DOS and i cannae make head nor tail of it! I suppose i could install Arch first, then reinstall Win alongside, but usually its much more difficult that way round! Also i don't think Win can shrink partitions from the install GUI.

Of course, the easiest option would be to install Arch on a flash drive most probably, but i shall save that as a last resort because its not so convenient!

Wolfie276

Actually, you have to replace the Windows bootloader on the MBR, otherwise GRUB won't load.

As long as you have unallocated space on your drive you can use cfdisk to create a Linux partition (this isn't the formatting part). You set your partition to the desired filesystem later in the installation. Should be pretty straight-forward from there.

Don't forget to shrink 200MB from your Windows partition for /boot. Arch likes to have a separate boot partition (this should be ext2).

Seeing as cfdisk can be somewhat confusing at first glance, you could make the whole thing easier and create these two partitions from a gparted livecd. The only thing left to do in the Arch installer then is setting / and /boot, and after that selecting packages for installation. After you've booted to Arch, edit /boot/grub/menu.lst and uncomment the Windows dual-boot lines.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners%27_Guide

You should read the ArchWiki, it's well documented there.

EDIT: Congrats on your 1337 post count.

Anyway, you can reinstall NTLDR by running Windows Repair from the disk anyway.

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Arch Linux

echo off

Good info mate, Very handy.

habibjp

Thanks!

I shall give it a try later today.

I have looked at the wiki, but i hadn't found the beginner's guide, was trying with official installation guide lol.

habibjp

Arch is installed, GRUB has taken care of the boot and i even managed to set it to boot Win by default no need to reinstall NTLDR

Wolfie276

Good to hear. Have fun with Arch Linux.

I rarely boot to Windows these days.