Dual booting

Got the urge to run a non VM install of Linux again, and have a spare SATA HDD.

Win 10 is already installed and don't want to bust it, it's been a while since I had both OS on one machine and can't remember whether it's install Windows first then Linux or the other way round.

Any pointers? Other than make the win10 USB before doing anything silly!

Windows first is best in my experience. When you install Linux, Grub should pick up the Windows installation and add it to the boot loader menu.

If you are really worried, you can disconnect the Windows drive before installing Linux and re-connect it afterwards. You can then choose which OS to boot using your BIOS boot order menu.

Do both installs with all other drives isolated. You can then use your BIOS F12 boot device selection to choose which install you want to use.

Much cleaner than relying on bootloaders seeing each other and not fudging each other over IMO.

Why are you wanting to dual boot (I'm curious)?

I used to run Ubuntu and Windows 7 years ago and just used GRUB to pick the OS (install Linux after Windows). I needed native graphics to support OpenGL under Ubuntu for some cross platform app I was working on (VMware at the time did not support pass through, not sure if that's still the case). Nowadays I just stick with Linux in a VM, which I haven't powered up since I can remember.

The devs at work all use Linux (a couple of different flavors) and I got fed up with my VM. Plus if I'm in Linux there should be less chance of slacking off studying to play fallout.

Arma3 is semi playable on Linux now so still not much chance of slacking. I even have Goat Simulator on mine :-/

defo windows then linux, I have both my installs on the same SSD win10 and Manjaro and both are in my grub

I thought ill install ubuntu in dual boot like I had before on my old system. However I cant seem to get the Grub loader to install correctly. I get quite a way through the Ubuntu insillation, it asks me then to restart, The loader comes up but only gives me the same options as I started, Try ubunu, and install it, then If i press install we go rouind in a loop to where i started again and again. Im on a 6700k Gigabyte ud7 gaming.

Steveocee said:

Do both installs with all other drives isolated. You can then use your BIOS F12 boot device selection to choose which install you want to use.

Much cleaner than relying on bootloaders seeing each other and not fudging each other over IMO.

Click to expand...

Do this. Dual booting is not worth the pain it might cause down the line when you can just press one button on startup to pick your boot disk.

I installed Mint recently which was fine, booted nicely alongside Windows 10 using the grub loader. But, it decided to put the boot loader on my 2nd drive (the one that I installed Mint on) and convert my main drive (with Windows) to MBR.

When I decided I didn't want Mint anymore, I soon found out my main disk was 1. now MBR, which is a pain to convert back to GPT without formatting and 2. my EFI and boot data doesn't exist anymore.

Took me a couple of hours to convert the disk back to GPT, reinstall EFI and boot stuff and then figure out that it was also no longer marked as active.

So yeah, a massive pain, unless you're actually going to keep Linux installed and both drives in your machine, or you don't mind reinstalling.

If you absolutely must dual boot, then Windows first and then linux.

Linux is happy to run alongside another OS and so working around that OS, is easy to do with Linux, but Windows is selfish and does not like it... Its happier these days than it has been in the past, but it still wants to be alone.

My own solution is simply to not both and use entirely different setups, and that way, there is no arguing between them.

a nice cheap KVM will help solve the go between of them too!

Although if you are anything like me, you will end up buying a junk load of extra bits just to keep everything happy ( My 4 way KVM onl;y does VGA and so I have DVI and HDMI to VGA and then VGA to HDMI and these extra cables cost me a small fortune, and I have my MFamily PC, my Linux PC, my Hackintosh and my Server all running through this cronk of KVM with more wires than is safely possible in such a small area, but hey ho.