Installing Windows from Debian
Posted: 2018-01-19 16:54
I figured that there might be some noobs who have tried Debian or any other Linux distro and decided it's not for them. Let's say that you made a mistake of wiping your entire drive or just thought about wiping Windows and going in cold turkey.
You've tried Linux and you don't like it:
It's ugly (except when it's not).
It has no windows with min/max buttons (vanilla GNOME) (except when it has).
It doesn't have that very special program that you've used all your life and you haven't bothered to check beforehand.
"Windows buttons are on the left side, who the f*ck made this? I want my buttons on the right, Linux sux!" *sigh* Thanks, Canonical!
"Where is my Wi-Fi, goddammit?! Huh, non-free firmware? What the hell is that supposed to mean???"
Since Linux and Windows file systems aren't compatible, booting Windows USB without wiping your drive in some way is not possible natively. But there is one way.
That is to install WoeUSB. WoeUSB can make bootable Windows install USB from within Linux. The only problem is that binaries exist only for Debian, Ubuntu and OpenSUSE distributions. I think there is one in Arch's AUR. Fedora has to compile it from source, and noobs can't do that.
Download WoeUSB (for Ubuntu/Debian) from here:
click
EDIT: Link above is for Ubuntu, and Zesty's .deb file should be usable on Stretch. But what about future versions? There is a slightly harder, but proper Debian way to install WoeUSB. Visit this page and follow instructions in the README.md file. /EDIT
Insert blank USB and select Windows .iso file. Start copying and boot your new Windows install image like you would normaly.
You've tried Linux and you don't like it:
It's ugly (except when it's not).
It has no windows with min/max buttons (vanilla GNOME) (except when it has).
It doesn't have that very special program that you've used all your life and you haven't bothered to check beforehand.
"Windows buttons are on the left side, who the f*ck made this? I want my buttons on the right, Linux sux!" *sigh* Thanks, Canonical!
"Where is my Wi-Fi, goddammit?! Huh, non-free firmware? What the hell is that supposed to mean???"
Since Linux and Windows file systems aren't compatible, booting Windows USB without wiping your drive in some way is not possible natively. But there is one way.
That is to install WoeUSB. WoeUSB can make bootable Windows install USB from within Linux. The only problem is that binaries exist only for Debian, Ubuntu and OpenSUSE distributions. I think there is one in Arch's AUR. Fedora has to compile it from source, and noobs can't do that.
Download WoeUSB (for Ubuntu/Debian) from here:
click
EDIT: Link above is for Ubuntu, and Zesty's .deb file should be usable on Stretch. But what about future versions? There is a slightly harder, but proper Debian way to install WoeUSB. Visit this page and follow instructions in the README.md file. /EDIT
Insert blank USB and select Windows .iso file. Start copying and boot your new Windows install image like you would normaly.