My Vaio already has Windows 7 and I want to dual boot it with Linux. I was advised to use GRUB (non-legacy). I already created an extended partition aimed at Arch Linux. I am going to install Arch there.
I had this idea to avoid breaking my system.
- I install Arch on the extended partition from an external USB Hard Drive. Windows partitions and hard disk MBR should not be touched.
- I install GRUB onto the MBR of a USB flash drive stick, so I can start my notebook from the USB device and run GRUB menu from there (with the possibility of choosing between Windows or Arch).
- I make a backup of HDD MBR using
dd
. - I copy GRUB onto the hard disk MBR. If I break something I will still boot with method sub 2 and I could restore the MBR backup.
For point 2 I need to store all GRUB config files on the USB stick. Possible?
For point 3, I could to start a live Arch from an external USB Hard Drive and the command should be (including partition table):
# dd if=/dev/sdb of=/tmp/mbr.bak bs=512 count=1
Before studying GRUB manual I'd like to know if my strategy is correct or if there are better alternatives.
partclone
. See unix.stackexchange.com/questions/87900/…