HP Z800 Dual booting

[beshad]

hi all, 

i need some advice, more of a general Linux question than Z800 though. i havedual booting on two of my laptops (Fedora/Win and Debian/Win) so i am fairly familiar with the set up process, i.e. Windows goes first, Linux comes after etc etc.

on my Z800, i am running Red Hat on a 40GB Intel SSD but i like to also install Windows 10 oPro on one of the other internal spinning hard drives. i know as soon as i installed the Windows it will mess up the Grub and i can't boot into linux etc. i have had this problem before and spent days fixing what i broke, almost always ended up reinstalling the Linux. is there a correct and clean way to install Windows on a second HDD after Linux is installed. ideally without loosing the Grub. or how do i recreate the Grub in a tidy manner afterwards?

i collect vintage IBM (and Apple) laptops and computers as hobby, and occupationally need to burn retro bootable OS CD or clone old IDE hard dives to put into another system hence i like to have a Windows on my desktop, using the built in CD burner to do retro stuffs.

cheers 

[Lil_Boy_Blue]

Hi

Since you mention a second HDD, then I would fit it and dis-connect the Linux one.

Install Windows, re-connect the Linux HDD as primary and re-run grub.

There is a possibility that, like mine there are more than a single OS Boot Manager options, and they can be sequenced........

OR you try F9 and select the Boot device and re-run grub.

[DGroves]

Grub and windows boot manager are both complex pieces of software with many many options however in this case your question is best served on a linux forum of the distro you are using and not here on this forum as it's a mostly windows forum

keep in mind that how you do what you ask will also depend on if using a legacy (mbr) boot or a UEFI based boot