Linux Dev Space

Install Windows after Ubuntu/Linux

As you know, the most common, and probably the most recommended way of dual booting Ubuntu and Windows is to install Windows first and then Ubuntu. But what if you want to install Windows second on a computer with Ubuntu/Linux already installed?

This guide assumes that you have Ubuntu already installed on your system, and will guide you through installing Windows 7/8/8.1/10 when you have a working Ubuntu/Linux partition.

The problem here is that the Windows installer tends to overwrite Grub bootloader or whatever making only the Windows installation bootable. But the good news is that your Linux partition is untouched, including the original bootloader and the other Grub configurations. So restoring or recovering Grub is just a matter of running a few commands on the terminal.

Install Windows on a Separate Partition

If your Ubuntu installation occupies the entire hard drive, to be able to create free space for the Windows installation, you may have to shrink an existing partition using a disk utility like GParted. GParted comes preinstalled on Ubuntu LiveCD.

Boot into a Windows installation media and complete the installation

Once installed, because of Microsoft’s false assumption that there are no non-Microsoft operating systems you’ll be taken straight into Windows.

Restore / Reinstall Grub 2 with a Ubuntu Live Media

  1. Now boot into a Ubuntu Live/USB or CD.
  2. Open a terminal. (Ctrl + Alt + t)
  3. Use a command like lsblk, blkid or GParted to identify your Linux root, and boot partitions. You may or may not have a separate boot partition.
  4. Find Linux Partitions

     $ lsblk -f
     NAME                  FSTYPE     MOUNTPOINT
     sda                                                                            
     ├─sda1                ext4       /boot
     ├─sda2                ext4       /
     ├─sda3                ntfs       
    

    In my case,

    /dev/sda1 is the Linux boot partition

    /dev/sda2 is the Linux root partition

    /dev/sda3 is the Windows partition

  5. Setup a Chroot Environment

    Now we’ll be repairing our old grub bootloader in a chroot environment.

    Mount your root filesystem under /mnt

     sudo mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/
    

    If you’re using BTRFS (New Linux B-Tree File System) instead of EXT4, the above command should change to sudo mount -t btrfs -o subvol=@ /dev/sda2 /mnt/

    Run ls /mnt to verify that the correct partition is mounted. It should list the content of your root.

     $ ls /mnt
     bin   dev  home        lib64       media  opt   root  sbin  sys  usr  vmlinuz
     boot  etc  initrd.img  lost+found  mnt    proc  run   srv   tmp  var  vmlinuz.old
    

    Mount the boot partition. (SKIP if you don’t have a separate boot partition)

     sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot
    

    If you have an EFI partition you should mount that also. It is basically a small FAT32 partition around 100mb. Please refer to the section on how to reinstall Grub in an EFI system.

    Bind these directories, so grub can detect other operating systems, like so.

     sudo mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev
     sudo mount --bind /dev/pts /mnt/dev/pts
     sudo mount --bind /proc /mnt/proc
     sudo mount --bind /sys /mnt/sys
    

    Let’s chroot into our existing Ubuntu/Linux system on the hard disk.

     sudo chroot /mnt
    
  6. Reinstall Grub.

     grub-install /dev/sda (specify the disk `/dev/sdX`, not `/dev/sdaX`)
     grub-install --recheck /dev/sda
     exit
    

    Once you’ve successfully reinstalled Grub, restart the computer. On next reboot Grub will be the default bootloader and you’ll be presented with a list of operating systems to choose from (Ubuntu and Windows, of course).

Reinstalling Grub in an EFI Based System

Reinstalling Grub bootloader in a UEFI based computer is no different from installing Grub on a legacy BIOS system. Here we also mount the EFI partition before chrooting, as we’d do with the boot partition.

Case #2
$ lsblk -f
NAME                  FSTYPE     MOUNTPOINT
sda                                                                            
├─sda1                ext4       /boot/efi
├─sda2                ext4       /
├─sda3                ntfs       

Here /dev/sda1 is the EFI partition and /dev/sda2 is the root.

sudo mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/

Mount EFI partition under ‘/mnt/boot/efi’

sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot/efi

Forgetting to do so will result in errors being thrown while trying to execute grub-install: “/boot/efi does not appear to be the EFI partition”

As shown previously, bind the /dev, /dev/pts, /proc, and /sys directories.

Finally,

sudo chroot /mnt
grub-install
exit

In some rare occasions, Grub might not detect Windows. In that case just login to Ubuntu (installed one on the disk, not the bootable Live USB/CD) and execute,

sudo os-prober
sudo update-grub
sudo reboot

Happy Dual-Booting!

9 responses

  1. Gravatar for Kane

    Just wanted to give you a heads up. I recently followed your guide for repairing Grub after installing windows but wanted to let you know I had to deviate due to a typo I noticed. I worried someone else might make a catastrophic mistake if they didn’t notice so I’m letting you know.

    In the section about Reinstalling Grub in an EFI based system, the example under “Mount EFI partition under ‘/mnt/boot/efi’” says to mount /dev/sda2, when I believe it should actually be /dev/sda1, according to your system layout shown earlier.

    It’s possible I’m wrong, I’m not extremely well versed, but changing it worked for me and it looks like following the guide to the tee would result in installing Grub in the wrong partition.

    Kane – June 19th, 2019
  2. Gravatar for Gayan Weerakutti

    Hi Kane,

    Thanks for the heads up. I fixed the typo that you pointed out.

    Gayan Weerakutti – June 20th, 2019
  3. Gravatar for Bongi

    Hi Gayan,

    I need your help. I have both Linux mint and Ubuntu installed on my system. I had Windows 8.1 before and I tried dual booting with Linux mint, I failed so I ended up with just Linux mint because i really wanted it. I installed Ubuntu later on, but I don’t like it.

    The problem now is that there are applications I need to use which only support windows. I want to reinstall windows 8.1 on the Ubuntu partition but I keep getting error 0xc000000f. I do not mind doing a clean install of windows and dual boot later, but I’m stuck with that error. Please help.

    Bongi – December 15th, 2019
  4. Gravatar for Gayan Weerakutti

    Hi Bongi,

    It’s hard to tell without knowing the exact error, your partition scheme, when and how you got it. But what I’d do is to install GParted on Linux Mint. Then would create, and format partitions as necessary to install Windows. Find out if you’re currently using BIOS or UEFI. Boot into your Windows installation media in the same boot mood. Then would follow this article to recover Grub.

    Gayan Weerakutti – December 15th, 2019
  5. Gravatar for MJ Patterson

    Thanks for the how-to. Worked like a charm.

    MJ Patterson – February 12th, 2020
  6. Gravatar for Anonymous Coward

    This has been so helpful for me ! Thanks a lot

    Anonymous Coward – April 19th, 2020
  7. Gravatar for Nivs

    Hi, In the case of a separate /home partition, should we also mount it? Thanks, Nivs

    Nivs – May 2nd, 2020
  8. Gravatar for Gayan Weerakutti

    Not it’s not necessary to mount a /home partition or any other partition that is not mentioned in the post.

    Gayan Weerakutti – May 2nd, 2020
  9. Gravatar for Pete

    Hi, have very little knowledge but a new laptop came with ubuntu installed I would like windows 10 which I have just purchased but it does not install saying unable to use this file type? I cannot create a suitable partition for the install any ideas please?

    Pete – May 16th, 2020

Leave a comment