Installing Windows 7 on an empty partition, while maintaining an existing linux install

Question

I'm surprised this hasn't been asked, so here goes.

I'm got an empty partition on my main boot disk, and I'd like to install Win7 onto it. The drive is currently set up with an 8 GB swap, 70 GB for Ubuntu, and 70 GB unallocated.

Am I going to have any problems getting Win7 installed onto the unallocated space? Should I create the partition with gparted, or let the Win7 installer do it?

Next, I assume that Win7 will set itself as the bootable partition - can I change that from Windows, or do I need a bootable CD to reset the bootable partition?

Answer 1

So two things.

1) I'd suggest leaving the unallocated space blank, as when you install 7, the installer will detect any empty space and create the partition on its own.

2) Windows 7 will indeed write over the MBR. You will need to reload GRUB/LILO/[whatever you use] using a live disk. Also, at least from within GRUB, you can set up the menu such that you can choose to boot from either Linux or Windows