On Fri, 2013-10-18 at 17:09 -0700, Rick Stevens wrote: > On 10/18/2013 09:50 AM, Oliver Ruebenacker issued this missive: > > I have a Lenovo T430 that had Windows 7 Pro pre-installed, but I > > wiped out Windows and installed Fedora 19 instead (actually, I first > > installed Ubuntu and then Fedora). > > > > Now I want to turn it into a dual-boot machine with Fedora and > > Windows > <soap> > I _detest_ Microsoft's business practices, but that's a topic that is > not apropos to this list or thread. > </soap> Not totally irrelevant actually, because due to the licensing software, Windows 7 has to be "activated", and that can be a tricky business if you want to do something like using a license that was for an original installation on a VM. The hardware seen by Windows is all different. I just went through this a couple of days ago when I moved a VM from my old laptop to my new one. My (legitimate) product key failed to work to activate. In that case, I had to go through the Windows activation center (on the phone) and give them a code that Windows gave me, then type in a 30-digit activation code they gave me. It was a hassle, but it eventually worked. I am not sure what would happen if you tried this with a copy of Windows that was for an original install; it may well be locked in to some of the hardware. For that reason, you might be better off installing Windows natively. I just did that yesterday on a brand new system. First, I used a Gparted Live CD (gparted.org) to partition the disk. I created some Linux partitions, and an NTFS partition for Windows. When I installed Windows 7, it was quite happy to install itself into the NTFS partition and leave everything else alone. So you may well be able to use a partition editor (perhaps fdisk) to create an NTFS partition, then install Windows 7. Obviously you want to make sure your existing Linux system is backed up first. The only drawback to this approach is that Windows will, in all likelihood, overwrite your master boot sector so that only Windows will boot. That will require booting from a Linux rescue disc (the Fedora install DVD works just fine) and reinstalling grub2 into the master boot sector. I personally think this is easier than having to re-install Linux again after installing Windows and then restoring your stuff, but you may see it differently. > > That being said, in the past Windows assumed it owned the whole machine > and would take over the entire hard disk. I think it is much better now, at least it is in Windows 7. --Greg -- users mailing list users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe or change subscription options: https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/users Fedora Code of Conduct: http://fedoraproject.org/code-of-conduct Guidelines: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines Have a question? Ask away: http://ask.fedoraproject.org
