install win 7 after mint

[ogborne]

I know it is recommended to install mint after you have installed windows. I have mint 21 installed with all my data files and updates. I would like to install windows 7 and quicken on a 2nd hard drive with a grub menu to select either system. Is it possible? should I disconnect the mint HD before I start? How do I get the grub menu? thanks for any advice

[MiZoG]

Yes, you can disconnect your Linux disk and install win7 in another unit. Then reconnect your Linux disk, set your boot priority to that, boot into and run sudo update-grub.

[kc1di]

Windows will wipe the grub boot sector so you would have to install it again. In order to do that you will need the live boot disc /usb.
boot to the live session open a terminal and use this command

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sudo grub-install /dev/sdX

X is the drive you want to install grub to. Example if it is the boot sector of the first partition is would normally be sda. after install is complete it's a good Idea to issue this command also

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sudo update-grub

That should find the windows install for you.
P.S. backup any important stuff off computer, things can go wrong.

[ogborne]

thanks, I'll work on it

[ThaCrip]

"install win 7 after mint"

I did similar not long ago on my backup desktop...

-Mint 21.1-Xfce = 120GB SSD (Kingston UV400) (primary boot drive and I use this for general usage as Win7 is only for a very limited amount of tasks)
-Win7 (using ISO updated to Jan 2023 using 'Integrate7' script which makes ISO about 2.1GB larger than official stock Win7 SP1 ISO from the year 2011) = 80GB HDD (IDE).

so my entire Win7 related files are on the 80GB HDD and all of the Mint stuff is on the 120GB SSD which is what it boots to by default and you can optionally select Win7 if you want when you reboot/power it on from the Mint gurb menu as if you d

but basically once you get Win7 setup, just boot into Mint, run 'sudo update-grub' at which point it finds the Win7 setup and adds a Win7 entry in the grub boot menu. then when booting PC normally it shows the grub menu and by default will load Mint after some odd seconds (or you can press enter to make it boot quicker) but one can optionally select Win7 here if you want to.

because I had to reinstall Win7 on that HDD after Mint (so I would be similar situation as the OP) when I noticed the Win7 boot loader stuff was put on another hard drive instead (as at the time the 250GB HDD was blank and so was 80GB and Win7 automatically put the Win7 boot loader stuff (100MB partition) on the 250GB which I did not want) of everything being on the 80GB like I wanted. so then I wiped it and make sure the Win7 installation setup everything properly on the 80GB this time as it seems boot order in the BIOS (at least on my old ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe board) had a effect on how Win7 installs etc. I don't know the details here but I eventually sorted it out and now things are as I expected/wanted them to be.

but I think one key area you can tell if the Win7 setup will work as intended is when your are installing it AFTER Mint (to a separate HDD of course) is during the hard drive selection/setup process on Win7, you can mess around with the particular HDD you are going to install Win7 to and see if it auto-creates the 100MB boot partition on the Win7 HDD as this is what you want so it stays away from the Mint data completely. because if it does not, then I would back out of it and correct things first. my 'guess' if if you only have two HDD's (Mint and Win7) it will probably do things right the first time.

so I would suggest setting things up like I got them (so ALL Mint related stuff is on one HDD and ALL Win7 related stuff is on another HDD) and then disable any updates in Win7 (especially if you use that 'Integrate7' script as besides making it up to date as of Jan 2023 it gets rid of junk to) and I also suggest using a registry tweak on Win7 so the time matches Mint's (otherwise the Win7 time is several hours ahead of the real time)... https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/System ... ft_Windows ; use 'QWORD' not 'DWORD' on Win7. side note: if you are on Mint Xfce version I suggest installing 'sudo apt systemd-timesyncd' to keep time perfectly accurate (on Cinnamon I don't think you need to take additional steps to keep time sync setup well).

p.s. after all of that was done (and I setup a limited amount of stuff I use on Win7) I used Clonezilla and made a image of both the SSD(120GB SSD with Mint) and HDD(80GB with Win7), which I stored (the image of each) on my primary PC's hard drive through Samba share.

[wingarmac]

When I do so with Windows and Linux (the order doesn't matter):

1. I go to the system setup with DEL or F10
2. I put the target drive for the new operating system as primary boot device
3. I insert my USB installation media
4. I push F8 to select my USB boot device
5. I follow the installation steps
6. After the installation is finished, I can select the boot drive with F8 and select the UEFI boot from the disered disk.

You can always change the default boot afterwards (Windows or Linux) in your system setup.
I do not update Linux Grub so it remains independend from my Windows installation:

• Add the line:

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  GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false

  in

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  /etc/default/grub

  save and do :

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  sudo update-grub

This way it doesn't add the Windows in the grub menu and the bootrecord for each operating system remains on its installed drive.

[ThaCrip]

I do not update Linux Grub so it remains independend from my Windows installation

I think I get what you mean.

but it seems the only difference with your method vs the one I used is... mine can use grub OR F8(bios boot menu) (although probably no real reason to use the F8 option if using grub) where as yours requires using F8(bios boot menu) to load Windows. because the rest is basically the same with ALL Linux stuff on it's own drive and ALL Windows stuff on it's own drive. but as a small bonus with your method is when loading up Linux like usual, it will immediately boot into Mint without the 10 second delay that the grub boot menu causes when you have the option to select Mint or Windows. but it's easy enough to get by that as you can just press enter instead of waiting the 10 seconds at which point it will automatically load Mint.

personally I think it's more convenient to use grub to select Linux or Windows from grub menu because besides that little thing, Mint and Windows are still completely separated from each other as all of the Linux stuff is on one hard drive and all of the windows stuff is on the other.

but at the end of the day... it's a personal preference sort of thing as while I would prefer the grub option, I could easily understand how someone would prefer your method with the F8(bios boot menu) in order to boot Windows as not using this it would boot Mint like Windows did not even exist to the Linux system and boot up immediately with no 10 second delay.

[wingarmac]

In the past, I've got trouble with the Windows boot record after I've booted from grub instead of UEFI drive select at boot.
(I do not know the accuracy of this, but got the issue on several installs this way, it could be because the Linux installs where not UEFI at that time, but Windows was.)

Since I prefer to do it this way and the reasons you mentioned were true only for Windows.

For the Linux drive, as a beginner, I did install it in many different ways before I did find my flavor.
Sometimes, I had 3 different distros on this drive, sometimes it was one base with 3 environments. I tried so many I do not remember.
Now Ubuntu server and the Cinnamon environment are my source of inspiration since.

Cheers !

[Cannondale]

ogborne, I am a long time Quicken user and was successfully able to get running with LM using wine.
If you're interested in give it a try, I'll provide the steps.