Hey, guys it me again!

So, I have Linux Ubuntu 18.04 installed on my PC. I bought a Windows 7 disc on Amazon. I wanna dual boot Win 7 along side my Ubuntu, but I am having a very hard time getting started. (Windows 10 is the latest. I know. I wanna use Win 7.)

First I think I need to open BIOS and re partition the drive using GParted??? I downloaded GParted, and it was all... 'you can't use me to re partition while you are on the OS, dum dum. Open BIOS.'

But I can't open BIOS, so I can't re partition the drives to get started.

Second, the Win 7 thing I bought is a disc, and I don't have a disc drive. I bought the wrong thing, but I thought I could maybe pop it into another PC's disc drive and put it on USB. Maybe make a bootable USB out of it? Not sure how to do this. Used Unetbootin once before. Maybe an option? Any other suggestions besides returning the item would be cool.

Third, after I successfully install Win 7... assuming I make it through this. lol. Will my GRUB be ok? I read that it screws up GRUB to install Linux BEFORE Windows. How would I fix?

Sincerely, your friendly neighborhood person who shouldn't own a computer.

So, first question would have to be...why do you want to use an OS that in 7 months will be a security issue because it won't be getting security patches?

Also, no, your grub would be overwritten. If you're currently booting UEFI, you'd need to go to compatibility mode to boot MBR, Windows 7 doesn't strictly support UEFI booting (yes, it can be MADE to do it, but it doesn't just WORK). If you are currently booting MBR, Windows 7 will overwrite the MBR and thus grub.

Beyond that, I don't see what BIOS and repartitioning have to do with each other. They're completely different and I have no idea what you're saying you want to do.

You can't resize the partition that a running system is on. You will have to boot from a live dvd/usb to resize your partition. The Usb/dvd you used to install ubuntu should work. If your booting in legacy mode will have to use the live usb/dvd to reinstall grub again as has already been mentioned. If booting in uefi be able to go in bios and change boot order after installing windows.

If you don't want to fool with or hassle then consider running virtualbox on Linux.

Some of those disks are well.....


If you have a modern motherboard be prepared for a hassle trying to get past the new usb driver issue. You have to rebuild Windows or get a program to patch it or other ways. Also some computers may have a uefi issue.

Yes, windows will take over loader so you will have to correct it later. Many web pages on that.

Plenty of ways to run windows. From usb or even networked in your home. Usually folks use a usb creator of some kind.

Ok, fair enough. I probably asked my question in the most convoluted way. This is my first time dual booting anything and I only recently installed my first OS.

In short, I have a Linux Ubuntu 18.04 PC and I need to run Win so that I can use a remote device that works via bluetooth on my PC. It will not work with Linux AT ALL, and is a really small potatoes company so there isn't any support for it on WINE. Couldn't get Virtual Box to work with it either.

I don't need to use this OS for anything other than this device, so I don't know that I care about the security too much. I might be foolish. But I don't have the funds to use anything other than what I have, so Win 7 it has to be.

***heavily edited bc i realize i spammed you with way too much info and muddled my question.

To the pojnt: BIOS and repartitioning drives. It's my understanding that I canNOT repartition the drive while I am using Linux. If I can't do it while on Linux, the only OS I currently have on the PC... I have to assume that I do it at start up in BIOS. I also read that Gparted is a handy tool for easy repartitioning without deleting any data, and someone mentioned accessing it in BIOS instead of in Linux bc... you can't repartition a drive while using it aka running Linux.

So, I need to get into BIOS and I need to understand how to use Gparted. At this stage I have yet to get into BIOS bc I can't figure out which key to hold at start up and open it.

I have an MSI motherboard (I read dif motherboards use different keys to open BIOS). I thought the del key was the right one for this motherboard, but it isn't working.

Can't use Gparted to repartition anything while I'm on Linux. So, BIOS.

"If so, how the hell do you get it to work with some random unsupported bluetooth based hardware?"

We'd need to know a bit more to decide. Virtual machines tend to allow access to physical devices on host but not always directly unless you have a very modern hardware.

Gparted as well as a few other partition managers are available in live media and if they don't come in live you can generally install to a live running just for this task.

Yes, you will have to free up space. That may mean you have to move your partition back and may have to rename depending on the hardware. The normal way that most folks go is install windows then install linux. I'd be sure to make some backup of linux if you have special data on it. Not too hard to just reload linux too later.

What this windows program is we'd like to know also.

There are web sites that tell how to make a usb based windows. One might be able to install to an iscsi too and boot to it.

If you just installed Ubuntu, GParted is on the installation medium (DVD/USB) you used to install Ubuntu so boot that up and run it from the menu or open a terminal and type in the command: sudo gparted . Not knowing what your partition setup is makes it difficult to do more than guess. Post an image of the drive from GParted or even post the output of the command: sudo fdisk -l That is a lower case letter L in the command which will output a list of drives/partitions.

No need to go to any web site for instructions as the developers off GParted have a web site with incredibly detailed instructions on using it.

https://gparted.org/display-doc.php%...%3Dhelp-manual

My PC has no CD drive. All I have is a bootable Linux USB that I used to install Linux months ago. I can't remember how to boot from USB. I tried holding down the following keys right after power up: del, shift, f1, f12, f2, f6. Separately, of course. Not all at once. I can't seem to do anything but start Ubuntu. No BIOS, no Gparted option. Just loads up Ubuntu and brings up my desktop. I opened Gparted while in Ubuntu, but that didn't let me partition my drives for obvious reasons.

Ok, how do I get it to boot from my live usb? If I could do this I might figure out the rest on my own. I can't seem to get it to do anything but power on and load my already installed Ubuntu.

P.s Yes, I did do the original install using my live USB, but I have totally forgotten everything I learned to do that.

Since you can boot into Ubuntu, edit your /boot/grub.cfg and make it so it gives you time to choose a boot option.

There is a line in your grub.cfg like this

where it says set timeout=10, change that if yours says "0" to however long you want it to go before booting

Oh wow, cool. You can do that? Will try it and let you know how it goes. Thanks.

You should see a message on screen when you first boot telling you which key to use to access BIOS setup. If you don't see that it would be unusual. Since you haven't indicated what hardware manufacturer product you are using there isn't much any one here can do to help. You might do an online search for the manual of the specific machine you are using.

I don't get a message when I power up. I get a blank black screen and then the screen turns pink and Ubuntu's logo/name and loading dots come up, then I'm on the desktop. This is my PC:

CYBERPOWERPC Gamer Xtreme GXIVR8020A5 Desktop Gaming PC
(Intel i5-8400 6 Core Processor,
AMD RX 580 4GB, 8GB DDR4 RAM,
1TB 7200RPM HDD, VR Ready

I did an online search on how to access an MSI motherboards BIOS, and it seems like I need to hit the delete key. I asked for help here after I discovered hitting del did nothing.

try esc, f10 f12 f8