Remove Manjaro, Install windows 7, Add Manjaro as dual Boot

Newbie Corner
#1

Hello,

So here's the mission i am on: i have laptop with a clean install of Manjaro. I have a new Job where i need to be able to use the adobe suite. I would like to install windows as a dual boot soley to run the adobe suite. Windows 7 is the only version i own and i dont want to purchase another. My laptop does not have a CD drive. I have downloaded the windows 7 ISO and burned it to the USB. I cannot access the USB from the BIOS menu as it does not get listed. I have used efibootmgr to re-order but it wont appear. tried to Install GRUB onto the USB but it can't find efi directory. apparently if i can do that(install grub on USB) then i can load from grub using a command.

I'm a newbie so knowledge is limited. I can follow instructions well but cant seem to find anyone with the same dilema. so have been trying to use answers from slightly different problems and not really getting anywhere.

I understand i can't access the USB from manjaro bios menu, is there a way to do it from GRUB. I did read that it's not possible to add windows to machine with manjaro, so i must wipe manjaro and install windows first then re-install manjaro.

How do i wipe manjaro from my system and then install from USB?

Thank you in advance

#2

What did you use to put it on the USB?

Windows expects you to do some extra work to make it bootable.

If you used a Linux machine to make the USB drive, try using woeusb to make the USB drive from the ISO.

#3

Hi,
I used a command in the terminal: sudo dd bs=4M if=/home/estaban/Dwnloads/win(rest of url).iso of=/de/sdb status=progress oflag=sync

#4

whats the plan once i do that?
......sorry........what i meant was will it then be listed on the BIOS or will i still need to use GRUB?

#5

In my experience, the dd command does not produce a workable Windows USB stick. I have successfully used Rufus, but you need to access to a Windows computer to do that ...

#6

Yes, that isn't sufficient to make Windows ISO bootable. Try woeusb

Yes. Once it is properly made it will be listed in the bios.

For more information, see here:

#7

Magic! thanks guys......i'll try that! need to nip out,but i'll do it when im back and let you know. Thanks again!

1 Like
#8

But you know, win7 support has ended? You are going a risk. Maybe a VM will do?
Regards

1 Like
#9

Depends on the laptop concerned, given enough RAM and processor cores it is possible. I can run such a VM happily on my i3-3110m using one of the two hyper-threaded cores but that's with 16GB of RAM.

Technically he can isolate W7 from the internet if need be or in-place upgrade it free to W10 to carry on getting security mitigations (has to be done that way but gets a proper W10 activation for your machine that can be used for clean installs at a later date) still using the known workaround published all over the internet and alluded to by Microsoft's own Employee. It's not illegal to do or going to be blocked any time soon either by the looks of it.

#10

So.........i tried to install woeusb using
pamac build usb

it asked me to install, i clicked Y.

i now have something loaded in the terminal = /var/tmp/pamac-build-estaban/woeusb/PKGBUILD

i don't know what to do?

the instructions i followed doesn't tell you what to do when you arrive at where i am at, it simply says to install enter this command = pamac build woeusb.

i assumed it would install the app and then i could use it, is that the ap loaded into the terminal?

#11

I am not in front of my manjaro machine right now but did it ask you if you wanted to edit the pkgbuild? Try running it again.

#12

it has now, i tried to exit the package or whatever you call it so i could run it again, then it did a load of stuff and is now asking if i want to edit?

#13

Total download size: 847.0 MB
Total installed size: 74.9 MB
Total removed size: 5.2 MB
Edit build files ? [y/N]

so.....i did this, pressed Y.....it started to install then my computer froze (i was doing other stuff as well, so not sure what made it freeze).......i had to restart my computer...............i will try again.

sorry i selected N not Y

#14

Can you still upgrade to win 10 using the 'media creation tool' for free? I did this over the holidays for an older win7 laptop. Your laptop would then have a win 10 license.

#15

is this legit? does it work?

#16

Select N and hope that it will work without intervention. However, it is prudent to do a full system update first sudo pacman -Syu

#17

ok, and apply transaction?

#18

You can download a Win 7 ISO or a Win 10 ISO. You can also upgrade to Win 10 from within Win 7, whatever you feel more comfortable with.

#19

its asking to apply transaction?

#20

Yes, so cancel woeusb for now and do sudo pacman -Syu first.

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