[Solved]A way to make a bootable linux mint partition within an internal HDD?

[Helen]

I wanted to make a bootable linux mint partition in my internal D drive so if i mess up bad i can just start from scratch.I don't store any important data in my laptop since everything is on my phone.In Windows this was really easy,all i had to do was format a fat 32 partition in my hard drive with the administrative tool and i could access the EFI in my D drive from the BIOS.Tried the same with GParted but Linux mint installer just returns an error and asks for net boot.

The EFI appears on my bootable devices list but cant go any further.Is there a way to fix it?Is it because the filesystem is ext4 rather than NTFS?Or do i need to resign myself into just getting a bootable usb?I'd like it conveniently placed in my HDD.Is it some setting i am missing on GParted?

[deepakdeshp]

First the naming convention is different.
https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-i ... -explained
Back up your data to an external drive before you try this.
Clean up d drive and remove big files or data.Shrink d drive using Windows disk utility.

https://easylinuxtipsproject.blogspot.c ... t.html?m=1

[AndyMH]

You are trying to do what I do with all my PCs (except I don't run win). The main system drive is an SSD, but they all have an internal HDD used for backup. This has a small partition on it with mint installed with all my backup/recovery tools so that if the main system drive dies or I bork the system I can boot from the HDD and fix it.

From what you have said, you are booting win in UEFI mode, can you confirm this and are you running mint dual boot with win?
https://www.easyuefi.com/resource/check ... OS%20mode.
The reason is that setting this up with legacy boot is straightforward. It's a little more complicated with UEFI boot because of a bug in the mint installer.

[deepakdeshp]

You are trying to do what I do with all my PCs (except I don't run win). The main system drive is an SSD, but they all have an internal HDD used for backup. This has a small partition on it with mint installed with all my backup/recovery tools so that if the main system drive dies or I bork the system I can boot from the HDD and fix it.

From what you have said, you are booting win in UEFI mode, can you confirm this and are you running mint dual boot with win?
https://www.easyuefi.com/resource/check ... OS%20mode.
The reason is that setting this up with legacy boot is straightforward. It's a little more complicated with UEFI boot because of a bug in the mint installer.

I have seen the bug reported many times. Was it reported?

https://linuxmint-troubleshooting-guide ... en/latest/

[Helen]

Ah forgive me for not looking at the forums. The problem seems to be common in ubuntu installs as well,it returns the exact same error.It probably isnt common to just the mint installer then, so it may be a problem with UEFI as stated.

I dont have dual boots set up though its pure linux. I want to avoid wrecking my system through some elaborate mistake.Do i need to go to legacy mode?Or is there a way to resolve this with UEFI?

[AndyMH]

UEFI is fine, and better to install on the second drive in the same mode as your main system drive. I find it more convenient to partition the second drive beforehand with gparted (from your install usb stick).

• On the second drive, create a 100MB partition, format fat32 with the flags esp & boot set. This is your EFI partition.

• On the second drive, create as many partitions as you want on the drive, simplest is just one ext4 partition for /.

• Before you install, either disconnect your main system drive, or, in gparted, disable the esp & boot flags on the EFI partition on your main system drive.

• Install with the 'something else' option and point the installer at the ext4 partition you created for / on the second drive and tell it to use it for /. At the bottom of the same screen make sure the bootloader is being installed to the correct drive, probably sdb (not your main system drive, probably sda). Note, you specify the drive not the partition.

• When the install is finished, if you disabled the boot & esp flags on your EFI partition on your main drive - re-enable them.

[Helen]

Found a way for this as well. I just download ventoy and use that for making a 30GB patition by choosing preserve space. Because of ventoy all you have to do is copy the iso into the ventoy partition. Wait about a minute or 2 and its ready.you can store hundreds of isos and boot into any of them at any time.