Linux – How to install Windows 8 after arch

arch linuxdual-bootsystem-installation

Okay so after a painful 3 days of fixing / changing / reformatting I have finally got Arch Linux install. Now comes the problem. I had to remove Windows when installing Arch but I still need Windows. How would one go about installing Windows after Arch? I am using refined and (what I think is) grub as my bootloaders. Grub coming in before refined. I understand this is backwards and you are supposed to install Windows then Arch because of windows bootloader and other annoying features that like to be annoying.

Important things to note –

  • UEFI
  • GPT
  • Windows 8
  • Refined
  • Arch Linux

Is it a different process than this one? I am only asking because I don't think I can handle going through the install again.

Why I'm concerned-

  • The wonderful recovery partition
  • Windows boot loader
  • I'm not familiar with how W8 installs and while I'm painfully familiar with Arch's install it's still new to me.
  • And most importantly I don't want to go through Arch install again
  • Very new to both OSs

EDIT: [
During my install I ran into a problem with Grub where it would not over-take the Windows Boot manager. I attempted the following things 

mkdir /foo && mount -t vfat /dev/sda2/foo 
cd /foo 
mount -t proc proc proc/ 
mount -t sysfs sys sys/ 
mount -o bind /dev dev/ 
mount -t devpts pts dev/pts/ 
chroot /foo /usr/bin/bash

grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot/efi --bootloader-id=grub --recheck --debug
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

And it did not work.
This furthers my worry that this will happen again.
]

Best Answer

This is actualy far easier than you'd think.

Start off by making space for Windows. I suggest getting a live CD and using Gparted to resize. (There is a Gparted live CD but this didn't work for me instead I used an Ubuntu one but any OS that boots and has GParted will work).

You then install Windows on this new space. After doing that follow the steps here for installing rEFInd inside Windows 8.

Lastly do a victory dance because this was farr easier than you thought it would be (I suggest this one). Remember, location and clothing is everything when it comes do victory dances.

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