How to install Windows 7 on a pc already running Ubuntu for dual boot purposes
 

Hello Everyone!!!I am really not so familiar with Linux and have a pc running on Ubuntu. I want to install Windows 7 but maintain dual booting as I would want to continue exploring on Ubuntu as well as keep some valuable documents.I would appreciate any help on how I could go about this


Kind regards

In general the recommendations are to install Windows first then add Linux as the Windows boot loader overwrites things when installed second.

An alternative I just heard the other night is to setup virtualization on the Linux and install a Windows guest virtual as that would not override the boot loader as it would only know about the virtual disk you allocated to it. I haven't tried that myself but the person that said he was doing it said he'd been doing it for some time with no issues.

^ like above i think if you install windows 2nd then you will need a live-usb to fix the windows boot loader (grub-install ?)

You can chroot into your Ubuntu system from the live environment afterwards and re-install & reconfigure GRUB.

This applies to non-EFI systems:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...9/#post5374769

This guide is for UEFI systems:
https://wiki.debian.org/GrubEFIReinstall

If your Ubuntu system has a folder at /sys/firmware/efi then it is a UEFI system.

EDIT: Make sure you have os-prober installed so that Ubuntu can detect Windows and provide a GRUB menu entry for it.

As above, you have two options:

1) Install Windows as a VM inside Ubuntu, provided your system has enough resources. This is advantageous because it allows you to run both OSs at the same time and access all software on both systems without having to reboot. The downside is the computer needs to have enough resources to run both OSs at once, and Windows may have issues with direct hardware access if you need that (rare).

2) Repartition your hard drive to open up some space, install Windows in that empty space, then boot a live Linux system and reinstall GRUB to repair the boot sector.