How to install Linux without touching the Windows 10 boot drive

[Tuvoc]

HI, I've experimented with Linux over the last decade or more. Always went back to Windows but had great difficulty getting rid of it again completely. Main issue is of course the bootloader that is installed on the primary drive. I want to try Garuda Linux now, but do it in a way that does not touch the Windows boot SDD in any way.

I have a boot SSD
plus a second HDD

I want the SSD completely untouched, so the Linux bootloader to go on the second HDD and Garuda itself on a partition on that drive.

How do I make that happen ? Of course I know I would have to access the motherboard boot menu F11 whenever I would boot Linux, that is fine. But if I simply let the machine start up uninterrupted, it would boot directly into Windows. If I can achieve this, I would quite happily keep both and spend several months getting up to speed on Linux. Never tried an Arch based distro before.

Any help appreciated. Maybe when installing Linux, disconnect the SSD so it simply isn't visible ? Or a more elegant solution. Thanks.

 

[Earth[Tera].bin]

As you've mentioned the simplest solution would be to remove the sata/power cable from the SSD and then install Linux on remaining drive.

Reconnect the SSD and Switch between the OS' via the Bios boot menu.

Maybe consider having an NTFS partition on your Linux drive so you can access it from the Windows OS.

 

[Daaaavvveee]

Can you use a virtual machine instead?

 

[Tuvoc]

Thank you for your advice. Yes I thought that was the most bulletproof way of doing it so I'll use that method. It is theoretically possible by doing manual partitioning during install, but I'm not sure I'd do that correctly.

 

[jokerguv]

Check if you could disable the SATA port for the Windows HDD in the bios. This saves the hassle of opening the case and physically plugging/unplugging the HDD each time.

Go into Bios, disable SATA port for Windows HDD and restart.

Boot from CD/USB, install Linux on the only available drive.

Once done and want to switch back, go back in bios, disable the SATA port for Linux HDD and re-enable the Windows HDD.

Can also keep the SATA port for the Linux HDD enabled if you want it to appear in Windows but then be sure to set the correct boot drive.

 

[Earth[Tera].bin]

Thank you for your advice. Yes I thought that was the most bulletproof way of doing it so I'll use that method. It is theoretically possible by doing manual partitioning during install, but I'm not sure I'd do that correctly.

Yeah, I think Arch uses UEFI/GPT and creating/understanding how to setup your own EFI boot partitions can be confusing, Grub and BIOS/MBR was a lot simpler. Luckily a guided install will do this for you.

(Although you can set the guided install to only use so much of a drive, say 30G to cover the boot , swap ,root and home partitions and then uses ntfs utils to format and mount the remainder of the drive after a successful)

 

[KompuKare]

@jokerguv I think that wouldn't necessarily prevent Windows or Linux from seeing the drive once have they loaded their own drivers.
Linux more so than Windows due the monolithic way Linux handles drivers, but I've mostly seen that with Windows.
What seems to happen is that Windows eventually loads up the full driver for the SATA controller, and at that point it doesn't respect what was set in the BIOS.
To the OP, physically disconnecting the drive is the easier option. Once installed, just use the BIOS's boot menu (usually F12).
Back before Windows Vista and the changes to Windows boot up, it used to be relatively easy to later grab the Linux bootsector (with Linux's built-in dd command, is only 512 bytes) and add a new entry to NT loader. Nowadays you'd really want to use a third party tool to add entries rather than using bcdedit.
Edit: added the missing "once".

 

[jokerguv]

@jokerguv I think that wouldn't necessarily prevent Windows or Linux from seeing the drive have they loaded their own drivers.
Linux more so than Windows due the monolithic way Linux handles drivers, but I've mostly seen that with Windows.
What seems to happen is that Windows eventually loads up the full driver for the SATA controller, and at that point it doesn't respect what was set in the BIOS.
To the OP, physically disconnecting the drive is the easier option. Once installed, just use the BIOS's boot menu (usually F12).
Back before Windows Vista and the changes to Windows boot up, it used to be relatively easy to later grab the Linux bootsector (with Linux's built-in dd command, is only 512 bytes) and add a new entry to NT loader. Nowadays you'd really want to use a third party tool to add entries rather than using bcdedit.

I have mine setup in exactly this way. 500GB 860 Evo for Windows 10 and 180GB Intel SSD for Kubuntu 20.04.

I only enable one of these in the bios (depending on which OS I want to use) and neither OS sees the other drive that is disabled.

Nonetheless I agree that physically disconnecting the drive is definitely the safest option.

 

[Lmg80]

Can you use a virtual machine instead?

This

 

[Tuvoc]

Thanks for all the help guys. I'm going to use a virtual machine initially to spend some time with Garuda and a couple of other distros. I'll then choose one and install it properly on the second HDD by temporarily disconnecting the Windows SSD.

What are the chances of these smaller less common distros like Garuda falling by the wayside and being abandoned ? Of course the underlying Arch, Debian etc will still be around. OK it won't be a disaster if that were to happen, but I'm wondering if sticking to some of the bigger names is better.

Saw Gnome 40 desktop just now, that is impressive and that is your primary interaction with the OS. Widely supported as well by many distos.

 

[Cithan]

Something that has worked for me in the past when I needed to build a Windows install for a family member or even a clean build of Windows for myself is to create a Oracle VirtualBox virtual machine pointing to a single real SSD, then install Windows that way - the virtual machine only sees the one drive you have given it so there is zero risk it will affect other drives in your system. You can spend the necessary time installing OS Updates, programs and so on while still be up and running on your current system, so you just set up everything at your leisure.

Finally all you have to do this then boot from the same drive from BIOS when you are ready and Windows will install and configure any extra drivers it needs.

It wouldn't surprise me at all if this approach worked with something like Ubuntu 20.04 (enabling propriety drivers) which seems to come bundled with a ton of drivers.

Something else worth doing is creating a bootable USB drive (made using a real SATA M.2 SSD and an external case) - then you just plug it into any hardware you want and you can start using it as a linux box - for me it has been 100% stable.

https://askubuntu.com/questions/121...ll-of-ubuntu-20-04-to-usb-device-step-by-step