Adding Windows 8 to a dual-booting computer

Question

I currently have a laptop which has been set up to dual-boot Windows 7 and Ubuntu. I want to add Windows 8 on top of this (I do not want to upgrade my copy of Windows 7).

I know that installing Windows 7/Vista on a dual booted computer destroys grub, which is why one installs Windows first and Ubuntu later while setting up a dual boot.

How should I install Windows 8 on my laptop? I'm open to reinstalling grub, though I'd prefer to use a method in which I don't have to do that.

Answer 1

In searching, it appears there's a better method than my old one.

You can use Boot-Repair. It's an official Ubuntu way of doing this and much safer than my convoluted method from years ago.

Answer 2

I have a computer which grub broke on many times and setup a system for repairing grub anytime that died thanks to the wonderful folks over at #grub on irc.freenode.net.

To do this, you'll need to boot to a live Ubuntu environment for your respective version.

Since my commands are aging, and I haven't done them in quite some time, please do not do the "OPTIONAL" marked ones unless you know of some good reason to do them.

Here are the commands I run:

1. mount /dev/sda1 /mnt (for your partition)
2. mount -B /dev /mnt/dev
3. mount -B /proc /mnt/proc

4. mount -B /sys /mnt/sys

   /--------------- OPTIONAL ---------------\
   grub-install /dev/sda --root-directory=/mnt
   \--------------- -------- ---------------/
   

5. chroot /mnt
6. update-grub

7. update-initramfs -ck all

   /--------------- OPTIONAL ---------------\
   - apt-get install grub-pc
   - grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
   - grub-install /dev/sda
   - grub-install --recheck /dev/sda
   \--------------- -------- ---------------/
   

8. umount /mnt/sys
9. umount /mnt/proc
10. umount /mnt/dev
11. umount /mnt
12. reboot

Use sudo where necessary.

Sources:

• This article is a re-write of the one I was originally referenced years ago: http://blog.mcuol.com/User/langke279/Article/53011_1.htm
• An old Ubuntu Community article I had saved as a reference for if this happened again: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RecoveringUbuntuAfterInstallingWindows