Installing Windows 10 from Ubuntu

I have been using Ubuntu for over 1 year but now I want to change it with Windows 10. I created a bootable USB but when I went into the boot menu my USB didn't show even though legacy boot is enabled and safe boot is turned off.

1 Answer

Reinstalling Windows 10 from Ubuntu

Windows can be installed to boot in BIOS, (Legacy), mode or in UEFI mode. I will describe each method.

BIOS, (Legacy), mode, MSDOS Partition Table

• Boot Ubuntu in Legacy mode.

• Using GParted, create a 8GB NTFS partition for the installer and a 50GB or larger partition for Windows.

• Mount the Windows ISO using sudo mount -t udf /{Path to ISO}/Win.iso /media/iso, Copy the contents of /media/iso/ to the 8GB partition.

• In Terminal run sudo update-grub to add the Windows installer to Ubuntu's GRUB menu.

• Edit the grub.cfg Windows menuentry, to add ntldr /bootmgr on the line after chainloader +1

• Reboot and select Windows Recovery Environment from the Boot menu.

• Proceed with Windows 10 installation as normal.

UEFI mode, GPT Partition Table

• Boot Ubuntu in UEFI mode.

• Using GParted, create a 8GB NTFS partition for the installer and a 50GB or larger NTFS partition for Windows.

• Mount the Windows ISO using sudo mount -t udf /{Path to ISO}/Win.iso /media/iso, Copy the contents of /media/iso/ to the 8GB partition.

• It should not be necessary to Update GRUB to boot in UEFI mode. (Please let me know if you find otherwise).

• Reboot, The Windows installer should start. At this point you can close the installer to open the GRUB menu.

UEFI Notes:

UEFI properties may vary among vendors.

It may be necessary to add Windows Recovery Environment menuentry by hand.

Some instructions for installing Windows recommend the ISO be extracted to a FAT32 partition. If there are problems using the ISO extracted to NTFS see: , (thanks to oldfred).

I was not able to install as UEFI mode from Legacy Ubuntu on GPT disk.