Photo by Avel Chuklanov on Unsplash

Below are just things to remember and do when installing two OS'es. Because I'm always forgetting something and then thinking "I should've written this down as a step-by-step guide" 😌.

Order matters

Always install Windows first, and then Arch. That way Win will create a boot partition and other stuff it needs. So when installing Arch you just need to create partitions for / and /home.

Windows stuff

Separate drives

Yes, drives C: and D: is a salvation. That way you can keep games, downloads, documents, etc. when reinstalling Win. So just do that and install Windows on drive C:. And D: will be the "storage".

UTC time

Just do this to spare yourself from thinking "Why the Windows time is X hours behind/ahead?".

• run regedit
• navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation
• create new DWORD (32-bit) value named RealTimeIsUniversal
• set this value to 1

Disable fastboot

It just messes with linux for some reason. So Settings > Power > Advanced (or w/e) params > Power button actions > Click on Change params > Uncheck Enable fast boot (recommended).

The case for reinstalling Windows

Before installing do all of the above, obviously. But when you reformat drive C: and try to install in that partition it will say something like "Not enough space on main partition". So you need to reformat boot partition too. Yes, it will wipe Arch bootloader but that is easy to restore.

Restoring Arch bootloader [rEFInd]

Boot with a live cd/usb and mount / to /mnt and /boot to /mnt/boot. Then arch-chroot in /mnt and install linux package. Then just refind-install, and edit /boot/EFI/refind.conf. Delete unnecessary lines and change ro to rw.

Maybe, after booting change refind theme.

Arch stuff

Partitioning

Set EFI partition created by Win as /boot when creating new table. And create separate partition for /home, just like drives C: and D: for Win. That's pretty much it.

D: aka Storage

When generating fstab don't forget to add Windows' drive D:, for example as a /storage.

Installation

Just follow the official wiki and you're good 😉