Sometimes when Windows shuts down it never shuts down properly, leaving certain devices in a specific state that may not work properly under Linux. This is why on a dual-boot setup it is recommended to disable Fast Boot in Windows to properly close and reset everything.
An extremely good point (if you want to access the Windows drive from Linux). I always have Fast Boot disabled in Windows regardless, and forget that others may leave it on!
I was going to comment this exact thing. Disable the settings in Windows with msconfig and then go to the boot tab. I do tend to also run shutdown /s /f /t0 at the Windows command prompt before switching/installing.
Will it make the booting time slower? Also Is it also recommended if you aren't dual booting ? As I have heard that since the windows never properly shuts down your pc'c performance may degrade overtime but A simple restart once in a while will do equally good job.
I personally had a Windows Linux dual boot laptop crash when a Windows update could not complete due to the GRUB boot loader not being compatible with the Windows automatic upgrade to Windows 10. I have to recommend a virtuall machine. You can have a Windows VM inside Linux or a Linux VM inside Windows. Or just use separate hardware.
@@wcdeich4 if GRUB crashes, I could run Boot repair from the live USB and voila! I had a thing like that, I was stuck at GRUB with no options and just a command line, so I used boot repair.
@@wcdeich4The first method shown by Chris (remove the Windows drive while installing Linux) is extremely safe and can't be held responsible for any failed Windows updates because the only bootloader on the Windows drive is the Microsoft one. That said, I have more than enough accumulated computer hardware that I don't need to dual boot anymore.
@@wcdeich4the problem with a VM is that the virtual OS has to interface with a very limited set of virtual hardware - generic Intel chips. Does that ever limit the abilities of the virtual OS to do stuff it could easily manage if that OS was running on bare metal?
Out of all the dual boot tutorials for linux on separate drives, this is the only one that I could find that was straight, to the point, and explained all the options in detail. Thank You!
Your tutorials are AMAZING. I love the way you don't torture us with long waiting periods between steps and only point out the things we really tuned in to learn. Thank you
You read my mind. I was just about to wipe my windows 10 and do a fresh install and then I heard Debian is really good now. So now you have me sold on Dual Drive Dual Boot. Love your work.
With the current price of storage, I always just get another drive for systems I want to run. You can get an SSD to tinker with for like $20 now that's reasonable for a Linux test drive. Even M.2 prices are getting really good.
Yeah, if you've got the capacity, then dual boot dual drive is the superior option. Because, basically, both operating systems live on their own hard drives and "never the twain shall meet". They don't get in each other's way at all. And "the hardware method" - where you literally completely remove the Windows drive to install Linux - does make setting up dual boot so much safer. If Windows is not even connected to the system in any way, then it's just not physically possible to accidentally overwrite it or anything. I don't mind the GRUB menu myself. But it's better to use "the hardware method" and ensure it's only installed on the Linux drive, because then it's kept out of the way of Windows. Which does have a habit of overwriting GRUB and corrupting it. (This is Microsoft being anti-competitive arseholes. Because operating systems are totally labelled on the disk and Windows could simply read this, recognise that it's Linux - as Linux uses a standard well-known signature - and then leave it alone. We totally know that Microsoft could do this, because Windows does perform a scan of your hard drives when installing to recognise if you've got multiple Windows versions installed, and then leaves those other versions of Windows alone. It absolutely could 100% do this with Linux as well. But Microsoft don't want other operating systems being "room mates" with Windows, so it deliberately acts like an arsehole and corrupts GRUB. They're hoping that you'll blame GRUB for corrupt, not Windows for being the actual guilty party that broke it. Sneaky sods, eh? But this is demonstrably nonsense, as GRUB works just fine when Windows isn't there and doesn't corrupt. And if you use "the hardware method" so that GRUB is nowhere near Windows, it also operates just fine with zero corruption issues. To be clear, Windows is the cause - it literally just overwrites the boot sector with its own boot loader blindly, without checking if there's anything already there. But they're hoping - and from the way people talk about GRUB that I've seen, they very often get away with this shady behaviour - that you'll assume GRUB is the guilty party. But, for the record, it isn't. Which, as I say, is demonstrably proven by removing the Windows drive, so GRUB is 100% on the other non-Windows drive, and you'll find that neither interferes with the other and it's 100% fine and dandy, with no corruption issues at all.) So remove Windows. Install Linux (and GRUB) on a second hard drive. Re-connect Windows. Then you have the option to, as in this video, boot to Windows and use the boot menu to switch to Linux. But as I primarily use Linux and only rarely bother with Windows, I boot to the Linux drive and have the GRUB menu, where Linux is the default option and Windows is there as a secondary option. (Note that this is the one thing that needs to be sorted with "the hardware method". Because Linux and GRUB are installed without Windows being connected, GRUB won't have Windows in its menu. But you can, with both drives installed, have GRUB re-scan your computer, picking up both operating systems and updating the menu to include both. Indeed, though there's nothing wrong with the BIOS boot menu, I use GRUB because it's configurable. I've got a nice background image and have changed the font and font size, and so forth, with mine. There's a nice utility "GRUB Customizer" in the repositories that is a GUI app that lets you customise it all and you can re-scan the menu - or even manually edit it however you wish - there. Default GRUB is a bit bland, but you can make it all nice and fancy, if you want.)
@@cldream True, and that's why no one should use Windows. I would say lock the BIOS or boot loader or something, but Microsoft has the keys and can bypass it all anyway. In fact, it'd be better to not even use a modern computer and instead build your own from scratch components, but no one has the resources to actually do that. So your options are either install a lot of OSS and hope for the best or become a luddite. I'm sure most would call this paranoia, but is it really paranoid if they actually are out to get you?
@@anon_y_mousse Secure Boot is just that - They can use the UEFI, lock it down to JUST use Microsoft keys. So most of the Linux distros would be out (unless if you want to use a bootloader signed with Microsoft keys.)
Thank you so much for all of your great teaching, Chris! I have now successfully set up my laptop as a dual drive, dual boot, Linux and Windows system. I cloned my original Windows M.2 SSD to a 2.5 SATA SSD, installed a new blank M.2 SSD and installed Linux on same. I also went into BIOS and set Linux as default boot drive, and Windows works perfectly using F12 to access Windows Boot Manager. I really wish I'd had you for some of my classes in High School as I would have learned a lot more!
Years ago, I purchased a 4-bay hot-swappable SATA drive unit that fits in a 5-1/4 drive bay. I currently have 4 different operating systems I boot into.
Been looking for guidance on this subject. This is the best presentation I've seen. Answered every question I had. Clear and concise. Presented in a friendly, relaxed and encouraging manner. All the attributes of an excellent teacher. Thank you Chris. Keep up the good work. 👍
Not often I get ahead of you, but we've been doing this dual boot configuration for literally years. As usual, you explain things very well indeed - MS Windows installed first is crucial.
I really appreciate you giving multiple options! Method B is so much easier since my Windows SSD is buried underneath a GPU, but with most guides, I would have ended up doing a lot of extra work for nothing. Thanks!
I have used a dual drive - dual boot setup for years and never looked back. I primarily use Linux Mint and only have a Windows install for a few proprietary software pieces, that refuse to run under Linux. Perfect!
A year from it being posted and this video answered my questions as if they were heard directly. I am now running Linux Mint on my Dual Drive Dual Boot set up. I did Method A where you remove the Drives you dont want erased while installing to protect that info. Anyway, just wanted to say thanks for a concise and very helpful video!
Great to hear that this worked for you. :) You may have seen the reports earlier this month of a Windows update destroying single drive Linux dual boot systems . . .
@@ExplainingComputers I am fortunate to have started when I did so that I could make the decision to keep the OSs on separate drives. I might have done so anyway, but I was on the fence until I learned of that issue, and that helped me decide how I wanted to set it up. It would have been pretty discouraging to have my first foray into the world of Linux thwarted by a bug from a windows update. I got lucky, both in learning of that issue and for finding your helpful walkthrough. Thanks again, you are doing the community a service!
Always wondered what was the best option to dual boot into Windows and Linux, but now I know!!!! dual drives! and removing windows drive during installation!!!
Very helpful Chris! I've been dual booting Windows and Mint for probably 8 years, but from the same drive. Afraid it will be corrupted at some point but thankfully it's been okay. Originally I did try two different drives but I couldn't get it to work. No idea why. I think I will try again soon using this video as reference! You are always so clear... so much Linux documentation on the web is hopelessly confusing for so many of us!
Thank you, Chris! A few years ago, I had a dual boot single drive system which failed due to a boot corruption. The dual-drive/dual-boot method is my preferred method and it works well. Great video and content
I used to do this years ago, but I found myself using Windows less and less. The odd Windows program I needed worked mostly OK with wine, sometimes a VM. I imagine if you're using something like photoshop or you're an avid gamer it's a must, but for me there's no need.
I left windows about 15 years ago completely, but sometimes I need it because of some quirky applications I am forced to use such as programming an alarm system, e-signature app etc. This happens less but sometimes virtual machine do not cut it. Good tutorial.
Excellent! I have always been suspicious of the long term integrity of the grub menu. I don't have any negative experience with it, but it just seems better to keep the OS's separated into their own HD's in these days of cheap SSD's. I hope your videos never disappear because they are always easy to follow with your step-by-step instructions. I really prefer your unboxing hardware videos, but these OS upgrade videos are very necessary in these days of forced upgrades. You do a nice job of mixing various types of videos together so that Sunday mornings are like Christmas morning...I just never know what type of wonderful computer video awaits me!
You can get around the GRUB going on the NVME drive with the connected installer by setting up a separate ESP partition on the SATA drive. Instead of assigning all the space on the SATA to the root partition, make another partition of type ESP (1 for GUID, though 11 for Basic Microsoft Data or c for MBR FAT32 normally work depending on your UEFI implementation), and set the mountpoint in the installer to /boot/efi. I also like to distro-hop, so, I'll typically do a 128MiB EFI partition, a 48GiB root, and the rest on /home, as I use podman and most other things I use will eat home space, and 48GiB tends to do nicely for a bunch of installable packages. That way I can just reinstall with another distro over the root partition if I decide to try another Linux distro. Glad you kept it simple and repeatable for everyone!
What you are suggesting doesn't work with Linux Mint. I have tried several times, it failed every single time. I selected the SATA drive as device for boot loader installation, I selected the Windows EFI partition and changed it from "use as EFI partition" to "do not use partition", created a new EFI partition on the SATA drive and selected that, set its mount point to /boot/efi, and the LM installer ignored all of that.
Unfortunately, most people don't have the desire to trade with the intricacies involved in dual booting, and neither have that know-how or the desire to understand the know-how, hence, they usually avoid setting up a dual boot environment. You've put a lot of effort and time into making this video, and that shouldn't go unappreciated. Accurate and informative. Greetings!
I dual boot Windows and NixOs currently. NixOs is probably the most remarkable distro I've ever used, and really deserves a video on here. Not only does it use a single config file to build the whole OS so it can be reproduced anywhere and rebuilt at runtime, it uses a clever library versioning system to solve any dependancy issues with packages you install, virtually eliminating the need for self contained apps like flatpak and snap. I think it's probably the future of Linux and if someone builds a slick GUI for modifying that config file it would make for a very smart desktop distro indeed.
Another consideration is the use of a hard drive switch so that one can select multiple operating systems without having to go into bias settings when switching over. I use one with four selectors to switch to my desired operating system prior to booting up.
Thank you for showing this dual boot method. I never new this even existed. I use both Linux and windows on a regular basis and this method will make things so much simpler. Your tutorials are always so informative and very easy to understand. Thank you.
Seriously i've never heard of people having trouble with single drive dual boots. Installing Linux on another drive entirely is an immense waste of a drive and electricity.
Very impressive. This gives more bang for the buck in increasing the productivity of the computer. We found an old desktop at home that was sitting idle and are thinking of refurbishing it ourselves and may just configure it with both Linux and Windows.
Actually, you can set up more boot drives by installing the OS of you choice with the other drives disconnected and then reattaching the original drives as Chris demonstrated. I have done this with four SATA drives on one system with WIN7, WIN10, Ubuntu and Zorin all installed on separate SATA SSDs.
I use the dual drive with the windows drive removed and then returning the windows drive method. I did the dual drive with grub and I managed to lose Linux mint from the grub menu when I upgraded the version from 20 to 21. It took me a while to find out how to update grub, which you avoid if you remove the windows drive. Thanks for an excellent video.
Thanks for this - I have borked several windows pc's installing linux OS on the same drive - didn't realize dual drive-dual boot was even an option! Your videos are absolutely top drawer! Please carry on - best regards from Canada!
Excellent and very pedagogic video. On a laptop, I usually use Gparted before installing ubuntu based distros. I ensure that the Windows EFI partition (the one used to boot windows) has flags ESP and Boot unchecked to avoid Ubuntu insisting on putting Grub on the first drive. Also do not forget to disable fast boot in Windows to ensure a real restart and not a hybrid sleep/boot
Can you please elaborate, whenever I'm trying method B... That is, installing Ubuntu on an external SSD (without removing internal SSD of laptop having Win10), the GRUB gets installed on windows partition and when I remove the external SSD, windows cannot boot displaying a grub bootloader with minimal bash screen
Thank you for explaining the various options. I like your suggestion of disconnecting windows and avoid installing Grub. I especially appreciate your time editing to only show us the important points.
Thank you so much for this in-depth video. I've been meaning to switch to Linux because my current PC does not support Windows 11 and Windows 10 will see its end of life next year. Before that time I want to have Linux installed as a failsafe
Thank you for that video! I became interested in Linux, but as a graphic major I have to keep complete compatibility with Adobe. This is perfect for me as I can simply buy another SSD, install it and be able to mess around as much as I want without loosing any functionality or risk of messing up my Windows install.
Seeing as you've delved into the "something else" installation option, Chris, it'd be good to have a video delving into its more interesting possibilities. My favourite one being that you can install "/" on one hard drive, then install "/home" on another hard drive. So that your data and settings are on a different physical drive to your OS. This makes reinstalling the OS so much simpler. You can, indeed, do similarly to the "hardware method" here and remove your "/home" drive from the machine completely, reinstall the OS and then remount your "/home" drive with a one-liner in the "fstab" config file. Indeed, you can reinstall the OS should it get corrupt, or upgrade to the latest version of the OS, or even switch distros entirely. And all you have to do is remove your "data drive", do whatever you need to do, re-connect the "data drive" and add one line in "fstab" to re-moun it back to "/home". Then all your data and settings are already right there. Typically, when you install apps, like Chrome or Thunderbird or whatever, because your data's already there in your "/home" drive, they'll just immediately spring back to life as they previously were. No need to copy things or mess with config files. The app sees your settings in your "/home" folder and just uses them. It's quite magical. To be able to reinstall an OS, and then just "sudo apt install chromium" and your immediately back where you were, as if nothing happened. You just reinstall the apps with your package manager and they're immediately back to how it was. No copying and, removing your "data drive" while you mess with the OS, a vastly safer way to do things, as your data can't be wiped if the drive is not even physically connected. It's also a good way to move your data to a new machine. Pull out the "data drive", connect to the new machine and you've got all your data and settings. I mean, it's also possible - thanks to the VFS - to stick any directory on any drive you like. So, you know, you could pop "/etc" or "/usr" or whatever onto its own drive too, if you wanted to. When I was messing with a cluster of Linux servers at work, I actually mounted "/home" over NFS, so that it was the same home directory for every node in the cluster. This was beautiful for moving data between nodes - copy it to my home directory and then login on another node in the cluster, and it's the same home directory with the files there. Just copy the file from that home directory to wherever it needs to go. It was the choice way to ensure all the nodes in the cluster had the same identical setup, as I made it work on one node then copied the config files to "/home" which is accessible to them all. The power of the VFS is immense, yet it's so little mentioned. Hence, you know, a video on the subject and all the mad things you can do with it would be great. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. p.s. the lack of anything comparable in Windows is a large part of why, sorry, I can never go back to Windows again now. It's just so "crippled" in comparison, where these things either aren't possible or you have to pay hundreds for some often-flaky third-party app to do it. But, on Linux, it's in the kernel itself, so it's free and is guaranteed to be there, regardless of distro.
I did not know that you could install the home and setting directories in separate locations from the OS. That is incredibly useful. Thank you for the information! I'll need to take some time to learn about messing around with my fstab.
Yes, I was thinking of doing the same myself, except just with separate partitions. I think this is more the key point here than necessarily having to be separate drives?
I'm just a dabbler who, 6 months ago decided a dual boot, single drive on my old laptop would be a great idea. Well, everything that you say could go wrong, in fact, did. Took me a couple of weeks to learn how to fix it, and do a clean install of LM. As for Windows, I simply purchased another old laptop with it installed, with the intention of attempting your tips on upgrading to Windows 11 verrry soon.
Perfect timing on this video, Christopher. I am currently using a Windows 10 laptop with SSD system drive and HDD storage drive. Seeing the disadvantages of single drive dual boot, I may clone the Windows SSD onto a larger drive and replace the HDD with a SSD for Linux. I would then repurpose the HDD as an external backup drive for the second SSD to go along with my current external HDD backup. I love your videos, as before I found your channel I would not have had any idea how to do any of the above. Due to your excellent explanations, I now feel confident I could make the required system changes quite easily if I choose to go that route.
I just wanted to say thank you, for speaking very clearly and at a reasonable pace. Often instructional videos are spoken too quickly, and I have to adjust the speed (Or the presenter has too much inflection) I do believe I will subscribe to you. Thanks.
When I first tried Linux, I tried dual-booting with Windows. I messed up pretty bad, and decided to commit to just using Linux. I don't use Windows anymore, but if I was going to again, I would install it on an entirely separate drive like you demonstrated. My new motherboard allows for 3 M.2 SSDs, 1 for the CPU and 2 for the chipset. I would put Windows on one of the drives connected to the chipset.
I wasted hours trying to do just this and wished i had found it before i started. Absolute doddle once you know how, so thank you for sharing your knowledge so freely. Ted.
Having to admit that I have messed up several times trying to set up a Grub dual boot system on several computers in the past, I can say that this is definitely safer and a better option for me. The hardware one seems to be the most fool-proof.
For future reference, if at some point you have issues with grub again, a tool called boot repair can be used on a live usb to quickly and easily fix a corrupt grub bootloader. Grub customizer can be used to change boot order etc. Both have a gui and are very easy to use. Got me out of a jam several times where I otherwise would have had to reformat or learn how to fix grub the hard way via the command line.
Bravo! I've been doing dual booting for the last 8yrs. I use a single drive (1TB-M.2-NVMe) and split the drive in half. I use the something else option to install Linux on the unused portion of the HD as a root install. I also install Grub-Customizer to tweak the boot screen and have a nice cat photo when booting up. I also change the OS order to boot Linux first because it is my everyday OS of choice. I have windows 11pro only for Adobe products. You can also change the time for default startup. I go for 5 mins (300 seconds). I also go into windows on a daily basis to check for updates. This way Grub does not get corrupted by a gigantic update in windows! Works for me! 😃
Very helpful thanks! If you are happy with Linux and use it 99% of the time but still want Windows available, just use one SATA cable & connect the SSD you want. All it takes is removing the side cover of the PC & moving the SATA cable from one SSD to the other SSD. It takes maybe 1 minute.
Great video. Another disadvantage of single drive dual boots is that when leaving Windows and booting into Linux, you often lose network connectivity. I now have a dual drive dual boot and have no issues. I wish I had seen this before as I'm never very confident in the longevity of the GRUB menu.
I think dual boot method B would work for me. Having Linux Mint on a separate SSD would make sense to me. I think I remember you mentioning that dual boot LM into Windows is problematic so the install above would work better keeping both OS's separate and still usable. Thanks, Chris, take care, and look forward to the next video.
Thanks for the excellent guide. Clear, gave warnings without spending decades over explaining, and even provided multiple options and their pros/cons. Love it!
I continue to learn much from your videos. Your build series of a couple years ago inspired my first build attempt (2 more since) and today's provided the confidence to convert one of them to a dual boot configuration. Thanks for all your efforts.
The snappy editing is great, with gaps to hear the keyboard, beeps, and peripherals being inserted/removed, with the shot changing in synchrony to either the narration or sounds. It's very enjoyable, addictive even.
Greetings Dear Chris, Have been doing dual booting since winXp but still learning something new from you😊! Really glad I didn't pass this by. Yes, my distro of choice is normally leaning towards Linux Mint even to this day. When I finally swapped from WinXp to Linux Mint, windows became 2nd class citizen on my Virtualbox VM. Bought a Dell Precision 17" Laptop about 2yrs back tt came with Ubuntu. Sadly never get used to ubuntu; to presever ubuntu in its original form in the nvme that was pre-installed, I installed Mint on an external HP 1tb SSD. Now I am opened to another whole new world of Dual Booting + VMs on Mint. How about that😊! Really enjoyed all your vids though pretty bz and hv to miss some. Cheers! 🍷🍾
Thanks! It's been a while since I've had a dual boot machine and if I remember correctly, I did eventually have problems with the bootloader that caused a great deal of headaches. This sounds much better.
Best method for me was installing each OS separately and choosing boot up drive from bios (depending on your choice at the moment) Edit windows registry to use UTC time. Then optionally make VirtualBox be able to boot up your physical Linux drive as bonus. That is my current setup.
can virtualbox use an existing windows install as a VM? I'd love to access it from Linux and vice versa, so I could also boot into Windows and VM into Linux...
@@leevfx I highly doubt it which is why I haven't tried it. Windows has a history of being very pick about its storage controllers. I have heard that Windows 10 has improved on that so something like moving your NVME to a new motherboard may work but not always and still has issues. I wouldn't recommend it. I know it works with Arch Linux for a fact without on issues. I have even installed the "guest utilities" and have not had a problem with doing this on Linux.
@@leevfx The latter does work. I boot up into Windows, start up virtual box and boot into my Linux setup from within windows without a problem to be more clear.
VirtualBox can boot a physical drive as if it was a virtual disk ISO? Aren't there differences in the hardware reported to the OS? Every time I used to use VirtualBox or other VM solutions, the VM OS would only see a limited set of basic generic Intel chips, even if the bare metal hardware was something else. So Linux would think it was connected to a system with one set of hardware one minute and then another system the next minute. This would minimally make Linux go through some otherwise-unnecessary Discover New Hardware checks after every such cross-system reboot.
@@chrisschembari2486 Yes it can. You have run a few commands from the command prompt in windows to crate the file but can easily be found online. When you boot up from within virtual box it reports a different GPU and different hardware than from when you boot up directly from bios of course. Mine detects the GPU as VMware display driver instead of my Radeon RX 6600. When I boot up into Linux from the bios menu Neofetch reports the RX 6600 and the rest of the hardware properly. It all works just fine within Virtual box and booting regularly though no issues at all.
Thanks Chris for a very interesting & thorough explanation! One thing I would add is not only a good backup up but a 'Rescue disk' for Windows!! I've dual booted Windows & Linux on two separate drives for several years & not had too many issues! To help with the boot menu I installed a free program on Windows called 'Easy BCD' where you can set which OS starts first & adjust the time to boot. :)
Tx for the tip. BTW, on dual (or even more) boot, on the Linux I can set the sequence of OS initialization and other parameters using a program/app called GRUB CUSTOMIZER which is easy-to-use and also has a graphical interface. No Terminal commands NECESSARY if you want.
I followed your instructions for dual drive, dual boot, and it works like a charm. I have a Dell machine, so, I just hit F12, to get to the boot choice screen, and choose which one U want, Windows 10 will boot by default. I'm dual booting MX Linux, and Windows 10. Thank you.
I just watched this video last night. I wanted to thank you for the information and to let you know that this also works perfectly with an external USB drive and my laptop. I will admit I was a little bit nervous opening up my laptop for the first time (really not the same as a desktop) but it really wasn’t too difficult. I now have Windows 11 and Linux Mint running just fine without grub making a mess of things. Thank you very much!😊
This is a great video and a great idea for a dual boot system, and it is a lot simpler to implement, however, anytime you have a dual boot of any type one has to always be careful not to inadvertently mess up partitions or files for the non-booted O/S while working from the booted one.
LOL, I could have used this video earlier this year. With a PC that already had Win-10, I installed Linux on a seperate drive and set up Dual Boot. I did use other Explaining Computer videos for help. But, I just fumbled and bumbled my way through it and ended up with the Grub boot prompt. I actually like that prompt, but was disturbed when I learned that it could be corrupted by a Windows update. That shouldn't be a problem, since I am using Win-10 and refuse to update to Win-11, so I won't be getting many more updates. In fact, it is for that reason that I finally jumped into the Linux world which is something I've wanted to do for many years. Christopher, thank you for your wonderful videos. You are an excelent teacher, and I appreciate your humor, too.
I did the same thing of switching via the bios (F8 in my case). One thing to bear in mind is that you should hold down the shift key when exiting Windows to avoid files being locked for access from the Linux end. At least with Windows 10 which caches things for faster reboot.
Thanks for the informative video! Putting Linux on its own drive with the others disconnected during installation definitely seems like the safest option without really sacrificing convenience.
I am using dual drive dual boot for a while now and imagine I was always changing boot order in BIOS instead of entering the boot menu... One can always learn something on any known topic really
For dual drive, method B, a better option is to disable the efi flag on the Windows disk during the installation of Linux. It can be done through gparted, then install Linux as normal and create an efi partition on that drive too. Finally re-enable the efi flag back on the Windows disk and you're all done.
I'd like to have seen the topic of dual booting with Secure Boot brought up but that's totally understandable because it's such a pain fiddling with keys and what not! Thank you for this guide!
I'd always wondered what your hesitancy was with dual boot single drive; now I know! I've made enough PCs unbootable in my time (the dreaded "missing NTLDR") to try and avoid it, so dual drive definitely looks a cleaner and safer option.
Missing NTLDR was luckily easy to fix, just boot the Windows CD and either jump into cmd either with the Recovery Console and do "fixboot" or since Vista even a GUI helps with that. If it was the only thing missing and not because you formatted the wrong partition and installed something on that, that is.
I've done something similar for years, but using a switch module that I installed in an empty 5.25" drive bay, alongside my DVD drive. (I know. I'm a fossil). It has 6 push button switches that control 6 molex 4-pin drive power plugs. By splitting these power leads yet further with 2 to 1 Y cables and molex to SATA cables, I can select a multitude of drives to be active. This is in an old large tower case with a motley assortment of SSD and spinning drives. There are 3 500GB SSD drives containing Win-10, Linux Mint 22, and currently, Parrot Linux. By using the split power, one switch can enable an OS SSD and one or more Data drives for additional storage. Additional switches can bring on even more Data drives, plus one 2TB spinning drive I use only to keep current, 0:10 full disk backups of everything else. When this big drive is powered down, it is impervious to ransomware and virus issues. One problem I have encountered is finding a disk format style that will let me copy both Win and Linux documents to a common drive so they can be shared. Photos, letters, etc. Any idea what drive format would share things politely? FAT, FAT32, ext4, etc?? Thanks. Interesting video. I'm building up an old notebook to dualboot, but it lacks the 8+ drive bays I use on my monster box. Will try some of this there.
I like your switched drive solution. :) For sharing, the problem can be that Windows locks the drive (Linux should be able to access an NFTS drive). If not using NTFS, I'd do for exFAT or FAT32.
I actually had the same idea but I never heard of anyone actually doing it! I'll definitely Google it because now I'm extremely interested. My current case is a dual chamber design and has lots of space for extra drives (I have 4 installed with plenty room to spare) with easy access and two empty front optical drive bays. It's pretty much perfect for that type of setup.
@@Wooskii1 There are several other similar devices on Amazon, but the one I bought several years ago is a Kingwin Hard Drive Power Switch module. Currently shown at $24.95.
I remember days gone by when had an old system you needed to but not use daily for security of the data that I did this. Except I did this by leaving the HDD unplugged on the secure system until I needed to access the data on that OS. That's been a long time (Hard drive days). Enjoying watching.
Very good explanation, and I especially liked how you emphasized that it's best to only have one drive at a time connected when installing OS's. I don't understand why Windows doesn't give you the option to ignore the other drive during installation -- it always insists on messing with the other drive's boot sector, and you will almost always regret that later.
It's always better to keep Windows and Linux completely separated because Windows really likes to remove foreign boot loaders. If the Windows drive isn't easily accesible to be disconencted, it's possible to install Linux in a different computer and move the Linux drive.
So many of your videos are a treasure of concise, no-nonsense information! I just got another little HP ProDesk Mini PC and was setting it up with Windows (M.2) and Kubuntu Linux (SSD). My thought was I could just boot from a live USB and install Linux without removing the Windows drive, (I haven't done a full linux install in a while) but in the back of my mind I'm thinking "I don't want it to mess with my Windows drive at all." A quick look on YT and yours is the first video on the subject to come up! From a source I certainly trust- and sure enough, your advice couldn't be better! Definitely glad I removed the M.2 first then installed Linux- now a perfect dual boot. A little information goes a LONG way toward not messing up a dual boot system!
The problem I have with dual boot is invariably one of the OS is used less frequently, so when you finally boot it, it's potentially months behind on updates. That can be a security risk. Probably not a huge deal for a home user hobbyist granted.
This isn't just a problem for dual-booting, but virtual machines as well. However, in this case, we're not just talking about two operating systems but sometimes dozens. Ultimately, for most people, housekeeping one OS is bad enough and will just deal with any shortcomings their chosen single OS may have.
I did a dual boot system like this for many years. However, in my experience if you are in Linux and tempted to move files between Windows folders and Linux folders, ie you allow Linux to read and write to Windows folders (as it can see that drive) eventually Linux may corrupt the Windows NTFS partition. NTFS can be quite fragile under Linux quite possibly because the reverse engineered ntfs-3g Linux driver isn't 100% perfect. Best to stay out of Windows folders while in Linux, imo.
@@Robbie-mw5uu GPT is the partition table to address modern larger disk sizes and is not unique to Windows. NTFS is the 'file system' as in 'NT file system' or "New Technology File System" the partition is formatted in under Windows. It's MS proprietary and is still used. A drive is not formatted with 'GPT'. Linux can and does eventually screw up partitions formatted with NTFS.
I don't think pressing keyboard keys as the computer starts is very appealing. OK for emergencies but not the way you would want to proceed on a daily basis. Have you done an 'interesting' video on how to remove the grub boot manager and restoring the the windows boot code? EasyBCD?
@@ExplainingComputers 'after the computer starts' is not quite the same as 'as the computer starts' :) How about using your expertise to give us a video on how to get rid of a linux installation from a dual boot situation and reverting to original windows only position for those who might want to tread that path?
Thank you for confirming that I went in the right direction in my latest build. The motherboard had only one M2 slot, so I got a PCIe m2 adapter card. I installed Windows on the onboard SSD and Mint on the PCIe card SSD. Having two m2 skots is great for backing up as well. I clone my SSDs every few moths so I have a rollback in case of hardware, software or user failure. That came in handy when a WD Black SSD failed.
Hi, I was trying to do the same thing. The problem is that when I have two SSDs installed. The system won't boot. I cannot even get into BIOS setting. I am using Dell XPS 8940. I am wondering if you have ever faced the same issue?
I notice no mention of secure boot option in the bios. I know that we geeks probably already know, but in the future the less geeky may find this video and come across boot failures due to secure boot being a require for Windows 11….or have the Linux guys fixed this issue now?
Good point -- I forgot to mention this. But here secure boot is turned on. Linux Mint works with secure boot, but this may not be the case for all distros.
This is the way I always use. No more Windows Update breaking Linux, nor Linux breaking Windows. It's very important to completely disconnect other drive when installing OSes: many OS are very keen on single-drive dual-boot and will do so silently, even if you choose other drive.
I've been dual booting since 1998 - but only recently have realised, since Win 10 that this is now the preferred method. The traditional method takes forever with WIN 10 or 11 installed.
Another great video, thank you. I use dual drive dual boot for an older version of MacOS on my Mac, using an external SSD connected by USB, on which I installed the older MacOS. I just choose to select the external drive as the boot drive during startup and I'm back in time using programmes that no longer run on later MacOS. Just thought people might like to know that Mac's can do this too!
This is great, I've had a couple of occasions where I've had problems with the dual boot single drive, but your method with two drives and removing the Windows one sounds easiest to do for me.
Were I to do such an exercise, I would write out a checklist of steps, and tick off each stage as it was completed. Such a complicated (and anxious) process just screams for confusion if interrupted or on temporary loss of focus. This presentation would be a great source for the list.
Thank you - this will help people who don't know how to do this sort of stuff. The easy disconnect of 2.5" SSDs really does simplify things compared to Nvme.
Sometimes when Windows shuts down it never shuts down properly, leaving certain devices in a specific state that may not work properly under Linux. This is why on a dual-boot setup it is recommended to disable Fast Boot in Windows to properly close and reset everything.
An extremely good point (if you want to access the Windows drive from Linux). I always have Fast Boot disabled in Windows regardless, and forget that others may leave it on!
I recently disabled the fast boot thing as windows itself was having problems recognizing the dock. Have been trouble free since.
I was going to comment this exact thing. Disable the settings in Windows with msconfig and then go to the boot tab. I do tend to also run shutdown /s /f /t0 at the Windows command prompt before switching/installing.
I disable fast boot and give about 5 seconds to choose where to boot from. I like that installing Arco/Mint last usually gives me GRUB.
Will it make the booting time slower? Also Is it also recommended if you aren't dual booting ? As I have heard that since the windows never properly shuts down your pc'c performance may degrade overtime but A simple restart once in a while will do equally good job.
Being able to use both Linux and Windows and not giving up one another is really nice. Both have their perks so dual booting is the way to go for me.
I personally had a Windows Linux dual boot laptop crash when a Windows update could not complete due to the GRUB boot loader not being compatible with the Windows automatic upgrade to Windows 10. I have to recommend a virtuall machine. You can have a Windows VM inside Linux or a Linux VM inside Windows. Or just use separate hardware.
@@wcdeich4 if GRUB crashes, I could run Boot repair from the live USB and voila! I had a thing like that, I was stuck at GRUB with no options and just a command line, so I used boot repair.
@@wcdeich4The first method shown by Chris (remove the Windows drive while installing Linux) is extremely safe and can't be held responsible for any failed Windows updates because the only bootloader on the Windows drive is the Microsoft one. That said, I have more than enough accumulated computer hardware that I don't need to dual boot anymore.
@@wcdeich4the problem with a VM is that the virtual OS has to interface with a very limited set of virtual hardware - generic Intel chips. Does that ever limit the abilities of the virtual OS to do stuff it could easily manage if that OS was running on bare metal?
Run Windows inside Linux with a virtual machine. Much safer, no MS spyware in your kernel.
Out of all the dual boot tutorials for linux on separate drives, this is the only one that I could find that was straight, to the point, and explained all the options in detail. Thank You!
The subtle art of making complex things easy! Thank you for this essential introduction...
Your tutorials are AMAZING. I love the way you don't torture us with long waiting periods between steps and only point out the things we really tuned in to learn. Thank you
You read my mind. I was just about to wipe my windows 10 and do a fresh install and then I heard Debian is really good now. So now you have me sold on Dual Drive Dual Boot. Love your work.
With the current price of storage, I always just get another drive for systems I want to run. You can get an SSD to tinker with for like $20 now that's reasonable for a Linux test drive. Even M.2 prices are getting really good.
Yeah, if you've got the capacity, then dual boot dual drive is the superior option.
Because, basically, both operating systems live on their own hard drives and "never the twain shall meet". They don't get in each other's way at all.
And "the hardware method" - where you literally completely remove the Windows drive to install Linux - does make setting up dual boot so much safer. If Windows is not even connected to the system in any way, then it's just not physically possible to accidentally overwrite it or anything.
I don't mind the GRUB menu myself. But it's better to use "the hardware method" and ensure it's only installed on the Linux drive, because then it's kept out of the way of Windows. Which does have a habit of overwriting GRUB and corrupting it.
(This is Microsoft being anti-competitive arseholes. Because operating systems are totally labelled on the disk and Windows could simply read this, recognise that it's Linux - as Linux uses a standard well-known signature - and then leave it alone.
We totally know that Microsoft could do this, because Windows does perform a scan of your hard drives when installing to recognise if you've got multiple Windows versions installed, and then leaves those other versions of Windows alone. It absolutely could 100% do this with Linux as well. But Microsoft don't want other operating systems being "room mates" with Windows, so it deliberately acts like an arsehole and corrupts GRUB. They're hoping that you'll blame GRUB for corrupt, not Windows for being the actual guilty party that broke it. Sneaky sods, eh?
But this is demonstrably nonsense, as GRUB works just fine when Windows isn't there and doesn't corrupt. And if you use "the hardware method" so that GRUB is nowhere near Windows, it also operates just fine with zero corruption issues. To be clear, Windows is the cause - it literally just overwrites the boot sector with its own boot loader blindly, without checking if there's anything already there.
But they're hoping - and from the way people talk about GRUB that I've seen, they very often get away with this shady behaviour - that you'll assume GRUB is the guilty party. But, for the record, it isn't. Which, as I say, is demonstrably proven by removing the Windows drive, so GRUB is 100% on the other non-Windows drive, and you'll find that neither interferes with the other and it's 100% fine and dandy, with no corruption issues at all.)
So remove Windows. Install Linux (and GRUB) on a second hard drive. Re-connect Windows.
Then you have the option to, as in this video, boot to Windows and use the boot menu to switch to Linux. But as I primarily use Linux and only rarely bother with Windows, I boot to the Linux drive and have the GRUB menu, where Linux is the default option and Windows is there as a secondary option.
(Note that this is the one thing that needs to be sorted with "the hardware method". Because Linux and GRUB are installed without Windows being connected, GRUB won't have Windows in its menu. But you can, with both drives installed, have GRUB re-scan your computer, picking up both operating systems and updating the menu to include both.
Indeed, though there's nothing wrong with the BIOS boot menu, I use GRUB because it's configurable. I've got a nice background image and have changed the font and font size, and so forth, with mine. There's a nice utility "GRUB Customizer" in the repositories that is a GUI app that lets you customise it all and you can re-scan the menu - or even manually edit it however you wish - there. Default GRUB is a bit bland, but you can make it all nice and fancy, if you want.)
Used Debian earlier this year, it's super stable, what I love about it. Plenty of DEs to choose from.
If you're going to dual boot, the dual drive method is the smart choice. Great tutorial!
why
I would say it would have been true before UEFI and Secure Boot showed up. Now Microsoft could easily block it by enforcing the latter.
@@cldream True, and that's why no one should use Windows. I would say lock the BIOS or boot loader or something, but Microsoft has the keys and can bypass it all anyway. In fact, it'd be better to not even use a modern computer and instead build your own from scratch components, but no one has the resources to actually do that. So your options are either install a lot of OSS and hope for the best or become a luddite. I'm sure most would call this paranoia, but is it really paranoid if they actually are out to get you?
@@anon_y_mousse Secure Boot is just that - They can use the UEFI, lock it down to JUST use Microsoft keys. So most of the Linux distros would be out (unless if you want to use a bootloader signed with Microsoft keys.)
@@cldream That's what I'm saying. Even if you lock it yourself to prevent tampering, Microsoft can still modify settings and do whatever they want.
Your tutorials are always very easy to follow and detailed
Thank you so much for all of your great teaching, Chris!
I have now successfully set up my laptop as a dual drive, dual boot, Linux and Windows system.
I cloned my original Windows M.2 SSD to a 2.5 SATA SSD, installed a new blank M.2 SSD and installed Linux on same. I also went into BIOS and set Linux as default boot drive, and Windows works perfectly using F12 to access Windows Boot Manager.
I really wish I'd had you for some of my classes in High School as I would have learned a lot more!
Years ago, I purchased a 4-bay hot-swappable SATA drive unit that fits in a 5-1/4 drive bay. I currently have 4 different operating systems I boot into.
Been looking for guidance on this subject. This is the best presentation I've seen. Answered every question I had. Clear and concise. Presented in a friendly, relaxed and encouraging manner. All the attributes of an excellent teacher. Thank you Chris. Keep up the good work. 👍
Not often I get ahead of you, but we've been doing this dual boot configuration for literally years. As usual, you explain things very well indeed - MS Windows installed first is crucial.
I really appreciate you giving multiple options! Method B is so much easier since my Windows SSD is buried underneath a GPU, but with most guides, I would have ended up doing a lot of extra work for nothing. Thanks!
I have used a dual drive - dual boot setup for years and never looked back. I primarily use Linux Mint and only have a Windows install for a few proprietary software pieces, that refuse to run under Linux. Perfect!
A year from it being posted and this video answered my questions as if they were heard directly. I am now running Linux Mint on my Dual Drive Dual Boot set up. I did Method A where you remove the Drives you dont want erased while installing to protect that info.
Anyway, just wanted to say thanks for a concise and very helpful video!
Great to hear that this worked for you. :) You may have seen the reports earlier this month of a Windows update destroying single drive Linux dual boot systems . . .
@@ExplainingComputers I am fortunate to have started when I did so that I could make the decision to keep the OSs on separate drives. I might have done so anyway, but I was on the fence until I learned of that issue, and that helped me decide how I wanted to set it up. It would have been pretty discouraging to have my first foray into the world of Linux thwarted by a bug from a windows update. I got lucky, both in learning of that issue and for finding your helpful walkthrough. Thanks again, you are doing the community a service!
Always wondered what was the best option to dual boot into Windows and Linux, but now I know!!!! dual drives! and removing windows drive during installation!!!
Very helpful Chris! I've been dual booting Windows and Mint for probably 8 years, but from the same drive. Afraid it will be corrupted at some point but thankfully it's been okay.
Originally I did try two different drives but I couldn't get it to work. No idea why. I think I will try again soon using this video as reference!
You are always so clear... so much Linux documentation on the web is hopelessly confusing for so many of us!
Thank you, Chris! A few years ago, I had a dual boot single drive system which failed due to a boot corruption. The dual-drive/dual-boot method is my preferred method and it works well. Great video and content
I used to do this years ago, but I found myself using Windows less and less. The odd Windows program I needed worked mostly OK with wine, sometimes a VM. I imagine if you're using something like photoshop or you're an avid gamer it's a must, but for me there's no need.
I left windows about 15 years ago completely, but sometimes I need it because of some quirky applications I am forced to use such as programming an alarm system, e-signature app etc. This happens less but sometimes virtual machine do not cut it. Good tutorial.
Excellent! I have always been suspicious of the long term integrity of the grub menu. I don't have any negative experience with it, but it just seems better to keep the OS's separated into their own HD's in these days of cheap SSD's. I hope your videos never disappear because they are always easy to follow with your step-by-step instructions. I really prefer your unboxing hardware videos, but these OS upgrade videos are very necessary in these days of forced upgrades. You do a nice job of mixing various types of videos together so that Sunday mornings are like Christmas morning...I just never know what type of wonderful computer video awaits me!
You can get around the GRUB going on the NVME drive with the connected installer by setting up a separate ESP partition on the SATA drive. Instead of assigning all the space on the SATA to the root partition, make another partition of type ESP (1 for GUID, though 11 for Basic Microsoft Data or c for MBR FAT32 normally work depending on your UEFI implementation), and set the mountpoint in the installer to /boot/efi.
I also like to distro-hop, so, I'll typically do a 128MiB EFI partition, a 48GiB root, and the rest on /home, as I use podman and most other things I use will eat home space, and 48GiB tends to do nicely for a bunch of installable packages. That way I can just reinstall with another distro over the root partition if I decide to try another Linux distro.
Glad you kept it simple and repeatable for everyone!
What you are suggesting doesn't work with Linux Mint. I have tried several times, it failed every single time. I selected the SATA drive as device for boot loader installation, I selected the Windows EFI partition and changed it from "use as EFI partition" to "do not use partition", created a new EFI partition on the SATA drive and selected that, set its mount point to /boot/efi, and the LM installer ignored all of that.
Unfortunately, most people don't have the desire to trade with the intricacies involved in dual booting, and neither have that know-how or the desire to understand the know-how, hence, they usually avoid setting up a dual boot environment. You've put a lot of effort and time into making this video, and that shouldn't go unappreciated. Accurate and informative. Greetings!
See my comment! 🙂
Thank you
I dual boot Windows and NixOs currently. NixOs is probably the most remarkable distro I've ever used, and really deserves a video on here. Not only does it use a single config file to build the whole OS so it can be reproduced anywhere and rebuilt at runtime, it uses a clever library versioning system to solve any dependancy issues with packages you install, virtually eliminating the need for self contained apps like flatpak and snap. I think it's probably the future of Linux and if someone builds a slick GUI for modifying that config file it would make for a very smart desktop distro indeed.
An excellent video, covering all the bases, well narrated, with screen captures of exactly what we needed to see.
Well done!
Another consideration is the use of a hard drive switch so that one can select multiple operating systems without having to go into bias settings when switching over. I use one with four selectors to switch to my desired operating system prior to booting up.
Thank you for showing this dual boot method. I never new this even existed. I use both Linux and windows on a regular basis and this method will make things so much simpler. Your tutorials are always so informative and very easy to understand. Thank you.
I've been using single drive dual boot setups for decades and have never had a problem.
Great to hear. Many others here report problems.
Seriously i've never heard of people having trouble with single drive dual boots. Installing Linux on another drive entirely is an immense waste of a drive and electricity.
Very impressive. This gives more bang for the buck in increasing the productivity of the computer. We found an old desktop at home that was sitting idle and are thinking of refurbishing it ourselves and may just configure it with both Linux and Windows.
This is really the cleanest and most stress-free method of a dual OS setup. It greatly reduces the likelihood of things going sideways.
Actually, you can set up more boot drives by installing the OS of you choice with the other drives disconnected and then reattaching the original drives as Chris demonstrated. I have done this with four SATA drives on one system with WIN7, WIN10, Ubuntu and Zorin all installed on separate SATA SSDs.
I use the dual drive with the windows drive removed and then returning the windows drive method. I did the dual drive with grub and I managed to lose Linux mint from the grub menu when I upgraded the version from 20 to 21. It took me a while to find out how to update grub, which you avoid if you remove the windows drive. Thanks for an excellent video.
Fantastic video! Dual-drive is the way to go. Thank you Chris for covering this topic and extremely well-thought-out process.👍
Thanks for this -
I have borked several windows pc's installing linux OS on the same drive - didn't realize dual drive-dual boot was even an option! Your videos are absolutely top drawer! Please carry on - best regards from Canada!
Excellent and very pedagogic video. On a laptop, I usually use Gparted before installing ubuntu based distros. I ensure that the Windows EFI partition (the one used to boot windows) has flags ESP and Boot unchecked to avoid Ubuntu insisting on putting Grub on the first drive. Also do not forget to disable fast boot in Windows to ensure a real restart and not a hybrid sleep/boot
Can you please elaborate, whenever I'm trying method B... That is, installing Ubuntu on an external SSD (without removing internal SSD of laptop having Win10), the GRUB gets installed on windows partition and when I remove the external SSD, windows cannot boot displaying a grub bootloader with minimal bash screen
Thank you for explaining the various options. I like your suggestion of disconnecting windows and avoid installing Grub. I especially appreciate your time editing to only show us the important points.
I've got to commend you for the sheer amount of work you've done here Prof, thank you. I use a multidrive dualboot myself.
Thank you so much for this in-depth video.
I've been meaning to switch to Linux because my current PC does not support Windows 11 and Windows 10 will see its end of life next year.
Before that time I want to have Linux installed as a failsafe
A good one, as I'd never thought of doing a dual boot with 2 drives before!
Thank you for that video! I became interested in Linux, but as a graphic major I have to keep complete compatibility with Adobe. This is perfect for me as I can simply buy another SSD, install it and be able to mess around as much as I want without loosing any functionality or risk of messing up my Windows install.
Seeing as you've delved into the "something else" installation option, Chris, it'd be good to have a video delving into its more interesting possibilities.
My favourite one being that you can install "/" on one hard drive, then install "/home" on another hard drive. So that your data and settings are on a different physical drive to your OS.
This makes reinstalling the OS so much simpler. You can, indeed, do similarly to the "hardware method" here and remove your "/home" drive from the machine completely, reinstall the OS and then remount your "/home" drive with a one-liner in the "fstab" config file.
Indeed, you can reinstall the OS should it get corrupt, or upgrade to the latest version of the OS, or even switch distros entirely. And all you have to do is remove your "data drive", do whatever you need to do, re-connect the "data drive" and add one line in "fstab" to re-moun it back to "/home". Then all your data and settings are already right there.
Typically, when you install apps, like Chrome or Thunderbird or whatever, because your data's already there in your "/home" drive, they'll just immediately spring back to life as they previously were. No need to copy things or mess with config files. The app sees your settings in your "/home" folder and just uses them.
It's quite magical. To be able to reinstall an OS, and then just "sudo apt install chromium" and your immediately back where you were, as if nothing happened. You just reinstall the apps with your package manager and they're immediately back to how it was. No copying and, removing your "data drive" while you mess with the OS, a vastly safer way to do things, as your data can't be wiped if the drive is not even physically connected.
It's also a good way to move your data to a new machine. Pull out the "data drive", connect to the new machine and you've got all your data and settings.
I mean, it's also possible - thanks to the VFS - to stick any directory on any drive you like. So, you know, you could pop "/etc" or "/usr" or whatever onto its own drive too, if you wanted to.
When I was messing with a cluster of Linux servers at work, I actually mounted "/home" over NFS, so that it was the same home directory for every node in the cluster. This was beautiful for moving data between nodes - copy it to my home directory and then login on another node in the cluster, and it's the same home directory with the files there. Just copy the file from that home directory to wherever it needs to go. It was the choice way to ensure all the nodes in the cluster had the same identical setup, as I made it work on one node then copied the config files to "/home" which is accessible to them all.
The power of the VFS is immense, yet it's so little mentioned.
Hence, you know, a video on the subject and all the mad things you can do with it would be great. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.
p.s. the lack of anything comparable in Windows is a large part of why, sorry, I can never go back to Windows again now. It's just so "crippled" in comparison, where these things either aren't possible or you have to pay hundreds for some often-flaky third-party app to do it. But, on Linux, it's in the kernel itself, so it's free and is guaranteed to be there, regardless of distro.
I did not know that you could install the home and setting directories in separate locations from the OS. That is incredibly useful. Thank you for the information! I'll need to take some time to learn about messing around with my fstab.
Thanks for the detailed explanation. Is it possible to install /home directory on a removable USB stick?
@@lewisse_8966 Linux had this kind of flexibility since 30years.
@@ricsip That's fantastic! Still learning what Linux has to offer coming from Windows and I'm sure there's more it has to offer.
Yes, I was thinking of doing the same myself, except just with separate partitions. I think this is more the key point here than necessarily having to be separate drives?
I'm just a dabbler who, 6 months ago decided a dual boot, single drive on my old laptop would be a great idea. Well, everything that you say could go wrong, in fact, did. Took me a couple of weeks to learn how to fix it, and do a clean install of LM. As for Windows, I simply purchased another old laptop with it installed, with the intention of attempting your tips on upgrading to Windows 11 verrry soon.
Perfect timing on this video, Christopher.
I am currently using a Windows 10 laptop with SSD system drive and HDD storage drive. Seeing the disadvantages of single drive dual boot, I may clone the Windows SSD onto a larger drive and replace the HDD with a SSD for Linux. I would then repurpose the HDD as an external backup drive for the second SSD to go along with my current external HDD backup.
I love your videos, as before I found your channel I would not have had any idea how to do any of the above. Due to your excellent explanations, I now feel confident I could make the required system changes quite easily if I choose to go that route.
That's a good plan!
@@kg4wrqWorked perfectly, but then, I had a great teacher!
I just wanted to say thank you, for speaking very clearly and at a reasonable pace. Often instructional videos are spoken too quickly, and I have to adjust the speed (Or the presenter has too much inflection) I do believe I will subscribe to you. Thanks.
Thanks for this kind feedback.
When I first tried Linux, I tried dual-booting with Windows. I messed up pretty bad, and decided to commit to just using Linux. I don't use Windows anymore, but if I was going to again, I would install it on an entirely separate drive like you demonstrated. My new motherboard allows for 3 M.2 SSDs, 1 for the CPU and 2 for the chipset. I would put Windows on one of the drives connected to the chipset.
what are the difference in the SSD for the CPU, and SSD for the chipset.
is there a performance change ?
Really appreciate showing other options as well. This is so far the best tutorial I’ve found on this topic. Saved me a ton of time. Thank you.
Very timely! This is exactly what I need to do ... And I wanted to avoid GRUB and sharing a drive. Thank you!!
I wasted hours trying to do just this and wished i had found it before i started.
Absolute doddle once you know how, so thank you for sharing your knowledge so freely.
Ted.
Having to admit that I have messed up several times trying to set up a Grub dual boot system on several computers in the past, I can say that this is definitely safer and a better option for me. The hardware one seems to be the most fool-proof.
Greetings James. :)
For future reference, if at some point you have issues with grub again, a tool called boot repair can be used on a live usb to quickly and easily fix a corrupt grub bootloader. Grub customizer can be used to change boot order etc. Both have a gui and are very easy to use. Got me out of a jam several times where I otherwise would have had to reformat or learn how to fix grub the hard way via the command line.
@@ExplainingComputersplease admin. I’ve issue with my browser on Kali Linux. Kindly help me out by instruct me on how to fix it.
Bravo! I've been doing dual booting for the last 8yrs. I use a single drive (1TB-M.2-NVMe) and split the drive in half. I use the something else option to install Linux on the unused portion of the HD as a root install. I also install Grub-Customizer to tweak the boot screen and have a nice cat photo when booting up. I also change the OS order to boot Linux first because it is my everyday OS of choice. I have windows 11pro only for Adobe products. You can also change the time for default startup. I go for 5 mins (300 seconds). I also go into windows on a daily basis to check for updates. This way Grub does not get corrupted by a gigantic update in windows! Works for me! 😃
I'm bookmarking this video! I needed it 2yrs ago already. Great show, Professor...🇺🇸 😎👍☕
Very helpful thanks! If you are happy with Linux and use it 99% of the time but still want Windows available, just use one SATA cable & connect the SSD you want. All it takes is removing the side cover of the PC & moving the SATA cable from one SSD to the other SSD. It takes maybe 1 minute.
Another great tutorial that doesn't screw around. Love you, Chris! Sorry that I don't have a whole lot to say this week.
Great video. Another disadvantage of single drive dual boots is that when leaving Windows and booting into Linux, you often lose network connectivity. I now have a dual drive dual boot and have no issues. I wish I had seen this before as I'm never very confident in the longevity of the GRUB menu.
that just sounds like a problem with your network adapter
I think dual boot method B would work for me. Having Linux Mint on a separate SSD would make sense to me. I think I remember you mentioning that dual boot LM into Windows is problematic so the install above would work better keeping both OS's separate and still usable. Thanks, Chris, take care, and look forward to the next video.
Thanks for the excellent guide. Clear, gave warnings without spending decades over explaining, and even provided multiple options and their pros/cons. Love it!
I continue to learn much from your videos. Your build series of a couple years ago inspired my first build attempt (2 more since) and today's provided the confidence to convert one of them to a dual boot configuration. Thanks for all your efforts.
The snappy editing is great, with gaps to hear the keyboard, beeps, and peripherals being inserted/removed, with the shot changing in synchrony to either the narration or sounds. It's very enjoyable, addictive even.
Greetings Dear Chris,
Have been doing dual booting since winXp but still learning something new from you😊! Really glad I didn't pass this by. Yes, my distro of choice is normally leaning towards Linux Mint even to this day.
When I finally swapped from WinXp to Linux Mint, windows became 2nd class citizen on my Virtualbox VM.
Bought a Dell Precision 17" Laptop about 2yrs back tt came with Ubuntu. Sadly never get used to ubuntu; to presever ubuntu in its original form in the nvme that was pre-installed, I installed Mint on an external HP 1tb SSD.
Now I am opened to another whole new world of Dual Booting + VMs on Mint.
How about that😊!
Really enjoyed all your vids though pretty bz and hv to miss some.
Cheers!
🍷🍾
Thanks! It's been a while since I've had a dual boot machine and if I remember correctly, I did eventually have problems with the bootloader that caused a great deal of headaches. This sounds much better.
Best method for me was installing each OS separately and choosing boot up drive from bios (depending on your choice at the moment)
Edit windows registry to use UTC time. Then optionally make VirtualBox be able to boot up your physical Linux drive as bonus.
That is my current setup.
can virtualbox use an existing windows install as a VM? I'd love to access it from Linux and vice versa, so I could also boot into Windows and VM into Linux...
@@leevfx I highly doubt it which is why I haven't tried it. Windows has a history of being very pick about its storage controllers. I have heard that Windows 10 has improved on that so something like moving your NVME to a new motherboard may work but not always and still has issues. I wouldn't recommend it. I know it works with Arch Linux for a fact without on issues. I have even installed the "guest utilities" and have not had a problem with doing this on Linux.
@@leevfx The latter does work. I boot up into Windows, start up virtual box and boot into my Linux setup from within windows without a problem to be more clear.
VirtualBox can boot a physical drive as if it was a virtual disk ISO? Aren't there differences in the hardware reported to the OS? Every time I used to use VirtualBox or other VM solutions, the VM OS would only see a limited set of basic generic Intel chips, even if the bare metal hardware was something else. So Linux would think it was connected to a system with one set of hardware one minute and then another system the next minute. This would minimally make Linux go through some otherwise-unnecessary Discover New Hardware checks after every such cross-system reboot.
@@chrisschembari2486 Yes it can. You have run a few commands from the command prompt in windows to crate the file but can easily be found online. When you boot up from within virtual box it reports a different GPU and different hardware than from when you boot up directly from bios of course. Mine detects the GPU as VMware display driver instead of my Radeon RX 6600. When I boot up into Linux from the bios menu Neofetch reports the RX 6600 and the rest of the hardware properly. It all works just fine within Virtual box and booting regularly though no issues at all.
Thanks for the advice, everything u said I pretty much agree, its just alot safer having an extra drive
Thanks Chris for a very interesting & thorough explanation! One thing I would add is not only a good backup up but a 'Rescue disk' for Windows!! I've dual booted Windows & Linux on two separate drives for several years & not had too many issues! To help with the boot menu I installed a free program on Windows called 'Easy BCD' where you can set which OS starts first & adjust the time to boot. :)
Tom's Root'n'Boot. And others.
@@loginregional I've just checked out the alternatives, some I'd never heard of but thanks for this :)
Tx for the tip. BTW, on dual (or even more) boot, on the Linux I can set the sequence of OS initialization and other parameters using a program/app called GRUB CUSTOMIZER which is easy-to-use and also has a graphical interface. No Terminal commands NECESSARY if you want.
@@alanthornton3530 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomsrtbt
I followed your instructions for dual drive, dual boot, and it works like a charm. I have a Dell machine, so, I just hit F12, to get to the boot choice screen, and choose which one U want, Windows 10 will boot by default. I'm dual booting MX Linux, and Windows 10. Thank you.
As usual, a great tutorial. Thanks!
I just watched this video last night. I wanted to thank you for the information and to let you know that this also works perfectly with an external USB drive and my laptop. I will admit I was a little bit nervous opening up my laptop for the first time (really not the same as a desktop) but it really wasn’t too difficult. I now have Windows 11 and Linux Mint running just fine without grub making a mess of things. Thank you very much!😊
This is a great video and a great idea for a dual boot system, and it is a lot simpler to implement, however, anytime you have a dual boot of any type one has to always be careful not to inadvertently mess up partitions or files for the non-booted O/S while working from the booted one.
Very true.
why?
LOL, I could have used this video earlier this year. With a PC that already had Win-10, I installed Linux on a seperate drive and set up Dual Boot. I did use other Explaining
Computer videos for help. But, I just fumbled and bumbled my way through it and ended up with the Grub boot prompt. I actually like that prompt, but was disturbed when I learned that it could be corrupted by a Windows update. That shouldn't be a problem, since I am using Win-10 and refuse to update to Win-11, so I won't be getting many more updates. In fact, it is for that reason that I finally jumped into the Linux world which is something I've wanted to do for many years. Christopher, thank you for your wonderful videos. You are an excelent teacher, and I appreciate your humor, too.
I did the same thing of switching via the bios (F8 in my case). One thing to bear in mind is that you should hold down the shift key when exiting Windows to avoid files being locked for access from the Linux end. At least with Windows 10 which caches things for faster reboot.
Or turn off fast startup
Thanks for the informative video!
Putting Linux on its own drive with the others disconnected during installation definitely seems like the safest option without really sacrificing convenience.
I am using dual drive dual boot for a while now and imagine I was always changing boot order in BIOS instead of entering the boot menu... One can always learn something on any known topic really
Personally , I use the dual drive method B , so I don't have to remove the disk . Thansk for another high quality tutorial!👍
For dual drive, method B, a better option is to disable the efi flag on the Windows disk during the installation of Linux. It can be done through gparted, then install Linux as normal and create an efi partition on that drive too. Finally re-enable the efi flag back on the Windows disk and you're all done.
or simply always use legacy bios mode disabling all the UEFI crap
I feel like this style of videos belong in the early 90’ but they’re very informative. Keep up to good work
I have a feeling this video is going to get a lot more views with Microsoft's Recall announcement.
You got me🤣
True
I'd like to have seen the topic of dual booting with Secure Boot brought up but that's totally understandable because it's such a pain fiddling with keys and what not! Thank you for this guide!
I'd always wondered what your hesitancy was with dual boot single drive; now I know! I've made enough PCs unbootable in my time (the dreaded "missing NTLDR") to try and avoid it, so dual drive definitely looks a cleaner and safer option.
Missing NTLDR was luckily easy to fix, just boot the Windows CD and either jump into cmd either with the Recovery Console and do "fixboot" or since Vista even a GUI helps with that. If it was the only thing missing and not because you formatted the wrong partition and installed something on that, that is.
@@gentuxable easy to fix but always gives a bit of a flutter!
In January of 2020 I made a full time commitment with the End Of Life Windows Seven at hand. I moved to Linux Mint and haven't looked back.
Thanks, excellent teaching, GOD bless you, this has been very helpful.
Straightforward, Covering everything necessary and straight to the point.
I've done something similar for years, but using a switch module that I installed in an empty 5.25" drive bay, alongside my DVD drive. (I know. I'm a fossil). It has 6 push button switches that control 6 molex 4-pin drive power plugs. By splitting these power leads yet further with 2 to 1 Y cables and molex to SATA cables, I can select a multitude of drives to be active. This is in an old large tower case with a motley assortment of SSD and spinning drives. There are 3 500GB SSD drives containing Win-10, Linux Mint 22, and currently, Parrot Linux. By using the split power, one switch can enable an OS SSD and one or more Data drives for additional storage. Additional switches can bring on even more Data drives, plus one 2TB spinning drive I use only to keep current, 0:10 full disk backups of everything else. When this big drive is powered down, it is impervious to ransomware and virus issues. One problem I have encountered is finding a disk format style that will let me copy both Win and Linux documents to a common drive so they can be shared. Photos, letters, etc. Any idea what drive format would share things politely? FAT, FAT32, ext4, etc?? Thanks. Interesting video. I'm building up an old notebook to dualboot, but it lacks the 8+ drive bays I use on my monster box. Will try some of this there.
I like your switched drive solution. :) For sharing, the problem can be that Windows locks the drive (Linux should be able to access an NFTS drive). If not using NTFS, I'd do for exFAT or FAT32.
I actually had the same idea but I never heard of anyone actually doing it!
I'll definitely Google it because now I'm extremely interested. My current case is a dual chamber design and has lots of space for extra drives (I have 4 installed with plenty room to spare) with easy access and two empty front optical drive bays. It's pretty much perfect for that type of setup.
@@Wooskii1 There are several other similar devices on Amazon, but the one I bought several years ago is a Kingwin Hard Drive Power Switch module. Currently shown at $24.95.
I remember days gone by when had an old system you needed to but not use daily for security of the data that I did this. Except I did this by leaving the HDD unplugged on the secure system until I needed to access the data on that OS.
That's been a long time (Hard drive days).
Enjoying watching.
Very good explanation, and I especially liked how you emphasized that it's best to only have one drive at a time connected when installing OS's. I don't understand why Windows doesn't give you the option to ignore the other drive during installation -- it always insists on messing with the other drive's boot sector, and you will almost always regret that later.
It's always better to keep Windows and Linux completely separated because Windows really likes to remove foreign boot loaders. If the Windows drive isn't easily accesible to be disconencted, it's possible to install Linux in a different computer and move the Linux drive.
So many of your videos are a treasure of concise, no-nonsense information! I just got another little HP ProDesk Mini PC and was setting it up with Windows (M.2) and Kubuntu Linux (SSD). My thought was I could just boot from a live USB and install Linux without removing the Windows drive, (I haven't done a full linux install in a while) but in the back of my mind I'm thinking "I don't want it to mess with my Windows drive at all." A quick look on YT and yours is the first video on the subject to come up! From a source I certainly trust- and sure enough, your advice couldn't be better! Definitely glad I removed the M.2 first then installed Linux- now a perfect dual boot. A little information goes a LONG way toward not messing up a dual boot system!
The problem I have with dual boot is invariably one of the OS is used less frequently, so when you finally boot it, it's potentially months behind on updates. That can be a security risk. Probably not a huge deal for a home user hobbyist granted.
Especially for windows. Not as great a risk for Linux. But between a good VPN and a decent anti virus, my fears are allayed .
This isn't just a problem for dual-booting, but virtual machines as well. However, in this case, we're not just talking about two operating systems but sometimes dozens. Ultimately, for most people, housekeeping one OS is bad enough and will just deal with any shortcomings their chosen single OS may have.
@Win32Application I've been running Windows 7 since 2009 with no problems in recent years, except for companies dropping support for it.
@@lesliedeana5142 Linux can be exploited just as Windows can. Please do not believe the old wive's tale that one OS is any more secure than any other.
@@FlyboyHelosim The good thing about a VM being shut down for months is, at least in general a VM is not going to have bare metal etc.
This is how every tutorial should be!! Clear and concise!!
I did a dual boot system like this for many years. However, in my experience if you are in Linux and tempted to move files between Windows folders and Linux folders, ie you allow Linux to read and write to Windows folders (as it can see that drive) eventually Linux may corrupt the Windows NTFS partition. NTFS can be quite fragile under Linux quite possibly because the reverse engineered ntfs-3g Linux driver isn't 100% perfect. Best to stay out of Windows folders while in Linux, imo.
Windows has not used NTFS since Windows XP
It's all GPT now
@@Robbie-mw5uu GPT is the partition table to address modern larger disk sizes and is not unique to Windows. NTFS is the 'file system' as in 'NT file system' or "New Technology File System" the partition is formatted in under Windows. It's MS proprietary and is still used. A drive is not formatted with 'GPT'. Linux can and does eventually screw up partitions formatted with NTFS.
Magnificent!!! Been looking for this for a long time! I hate that windows up date breaks everything.
I don't think pressing keyboard keys as the computer starts is very appealing. OK for emergencies but not the way you would want to proceed on a daily basis. Have you done an 'interesting' video on how to remove the grub boot manager and restoring the the windows boot code? EasyBCD?
One way or another, all desktop computer use involves pressing keys after the computer starts. :)
@@ExplainingComputers 'after the computer starts' is not quite the same as 'as the computer starts' :)
How about using your expertise to give us a video on how to get rid of a linux installation from a dual boot situation and reverting to original windows only position for those who might want to tread that path?
Thank you for confirming that I went in the right direction in my latest build. The motherboard had only one M2 slot, so I got a PCIe m2 adapter card. I installed Windows on the onboard SSD and Mint on the PCIe card SSD. Having two m2 skots is great for backing up as well. I clone my SSDs every few moths so I have a rollback in case of hardware, software or user failure. That came in handy when a WD Black SSD failed.
Hi, I was trying to do the same thing. The problem is that when I have two SSDs installed. The system won't boot. I cannot even get into BIOS setting. I am using Dell XPS 8940. I am wondering if you have ever faced the same issue?
I notice no mention of secure boot option in the bios. I know that we geeks probably already know, but in the future the less geeky may find this video and come across boot failures due to secure boot being a require for Windows 11….or have the Linux guys fixed this issue now?
Good point -- I forgot to mention this. But here secure boot is turned on. Linux Mint works with secure boot, but this may not be the case for all distros.
@@ExplainingComputers Ubuntu works with secure boot as well! I'm doing this now
Usb ventoy🤓 Ich habe ubuntu ssd1 ❤ und ssd2 windows installieren 🫡🫡🫡
This is the way I always use. No more Windows Update breaking Linux, nor Linux breaking Windows.
It's very important to completely disconnect other drive when installing OSes: many OS are very keen on single-drive dual-boot and will do so silently, even if you choose other drive.
Why insult Linux with dual booting Windows? 🤔
The interesting thing is, nobody will post here "why insult Windows . . . "
bcoz Linus don't deserve respect 😅
I've been dual booting since 1998 - but only recently have realised, since Win 10 that this is now the preferred method. The traditional method takes forever with WIN 10 or 11 installed.
Another great video, thank you. I use dual drive dual boot for an older version of MacOS on my Mac, using an external SSD connected by USB, on which I installed the older MacOS. I just choose to select the external drive as the boot drive during startup and I'm back in time using programmes that no longer run on later MacOS. Just thought people might like to know that Mac's can do this too!
This is great, I've had a couple of occasions where I've had problems with the dual boot single drive, but your method with two drives and removing the Windows one sounds easiest to do for me.
Outstanding video. Found this on my third time installing both OSs and was finally able to make them play nice together. Thanks!
Glad to hear that things worked. :)
Were I to do such an exercise, I would write out a checklist of steps, and tick off each stage as it was completed. Such a complicated (and anxious) process just screams for confusion if interrupted or on temporary loss of focus. This presentation would be a great source for the list.
Thank you - this will help people who don't know how to do this sort of stuff.
The easy disconnect of 2.5" SSDs really does simplify things compared to Nvme.