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I am currently having my Dell XPS13 with Ubuntu 18.04.2LTS installed, and I am very happy with it (mostly doing dev stuff). Right now I am using a Windows VM whenever I need to use Windows application.

However the amount of applications without Linux support I have to use is growing so I decided to set up a dual boot system.
I installed a dual boot setup based on a Windows machine before and I read that this is the recommended way is to:

  1. Install Windows
  2. Add Ubuntu

So I was wondering what the best way is to realize this setup while keeping everything from my Ubuntu system (files, applications, ...).

My thought is that I'd have to completely clone the system and create an .iso and use this one to install Ubuntu instead of the default one.

I just wanna know if any of you have done this before and what your process looked like (before I completely mess up my system).


Or at least I will create a backup so I can restore my Linux enviroment at any time.

  • When installing it is always better to have a backup/clone and hope you don't need it, because stuff happens. Main thing is to make sure you know which partition to use when installing. – crip659 Jul 20 '19 at 11:44

2 Answers2

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Thank you for ask @ironlors. Make a backup for securely. Now, you can install windows after ubuntu too. The inconvenient is execute grub recover after windows instalation while the other hand you doesn't need. Steps: 1 - use your preferred partition manager like gparted or ubuntu-disks to create a place for Windows 2 - install windows in this partition using a CD, pen-drive, etc.. 3 - when it finish you will see there are no way to boot at Ubuntu. Then it's time to grub recovery. I suggest two ways: 3.1 using windows https://itsfoss.com/no-grub-windows-linux/ 3.2 using a live Ubuntu https://www.howtogeek.com/114884/how-to-repair-grub2-when-ubuntu-wont-boot/amp/

I'm using my laptop like this . But, after ubuntu I rarely up windows. I hope you have success. If you need something just ask and up vote if have helped :D

Diego
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Needed: 4 small USB sticks (2GB will do) or 4 DVDs.

  1. perform a sudo blkid and keep the UUIDs
  2. Boot a CloneZilla Live USB Stick to make a full system backup.
  3. Boot a gparted live USB stick to shrink the Ubuntu partitions to their minimum size + 1 GB
  4. If Ubuntu still boots: go to step 5, otherwise restore the System Backup you made in #1 and correct any errors you made in step 3
  5. Make another CloneZilla Full System backup (now with smaller partitions)
  6. Install Windows normally: no issue if it wipes everything: you've got 2 System Backups!
  7. Boot the gparted live USB stick again and:
    • shrink Windows partitions if necessary
  8. Restore your system Backup to its new partition(s).
  9. Boot an Ubuntu Live USB stick and:
    • Choose Try Ubuntu
    • Execute sudo tune2fs /dev/XdY -U OLD-UUID (from blkid)
  10. Boot a boot repair live USB:
    • It will find:
      • your Windows
      • your Ubuntu
    • will install grub for you again
  11. Done!

As you now have a CloneZilla Live USB: make a full system backup once/month from this point forward (yup: Both Windows and Ubuntu will be fully backed up!!!)

Fabby
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