Can i install bootloader/grub while dual booting on windows laptop on a separate hdd and install root and home on sdd?
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Before you post read how to get help. Topics in this forum are automatically closed 6 months after creation.
Can i install bootloader/grub while dual booting on windows laptop on a separate hdd and install root and home on sdd?
I am fed up of background windows processes draining my laptop battery and heard that linux is better. But I need windows for gaming and for other proprietary applications.
I am planning on upgrading to windows 11 when the upgrade is available. But i have heard that windows upgrades can cause issues with the bootloader and installing Mint on a separate drive is better than installing on the same drive as windows. why does bootloader not get affected when linux is installed on a separate drive?
My laptop has a 16 gb ram and 500gb ssd with 1tb hdd. how is the performance of using linux on a hdd? is it worth it? if i am installing mint on the hdd, i would create a partition and install mint on it and then create a new partition and use the new partition to store common files between the OS'. will this work
Also what i have mentioned in the title, will that work? as the bootloader is on a separate drive, it cant get affected right?
PS: i am a meganoob so im sorry if i made any mistake.
I am planning on upgrading to windows 11 when the upgrade is available. But i have heard that windows upgrades can cause issues with the bootloader and installing Mint on a separate drive is better than installing on the same drive as windows. why does bootloader not get affected when linux is installed on a separate drive?
My laptop has a 16 gb ram and 500gb ssd with 1tb hdd. how is the performance of using linux on a hdd? is it worth it? if i am installing mint on the hdd, i would create a partition and install mint on it and then create a new partition and use the new partition to store common files between the OS'. will this work
Also what i have mentioned in the title, will that work? as the bootloader is on a separate drive, it cant get affected right?
PS: i am a meganoob so im sorry if i made any mistake.
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
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Re: Can i install bootloader/grub while dual booting on windows laptop on a separate hdd and install root and home on sd
I suppose you want to install something like this:Can i install bootloader/grub while dual booting on windows laptop on a separate hdd and install root and home on sdd?
HDD : GRUB(bootloader) + Windows
SSD : Linux ( / and /home )
I think that would work if you choose to install GRUB on the HDD and / and /home on the SSD.
But, your layout has some disadvantages:
1) You should plug both the HDD and the SSD to boot Linux.
2) Windows throws away GRUB while installing / "updating" Windows. (GRUB bootloader is on the same disk as Windows)
3) Unless both the HDD and SSD are plugged in, Linux can't update its GRUB bootloader when you update Linux.
A better (and much more common) layout is :
HDD : Windows only
SSD : Linux only ( GRUB bootloader + Linux / and /home )
or
SSD : Windows only
HDD : Linux only ( GRUB bootloader + Linux / and /home )
Be sure to physically remove the Windows disk (or uncheck its ESP flag from the EFI system partition via GParted) while installing Linux.
Also, be sure to remove the Linux disk while updating / installing Windows (or else, Windows will throw away your GRUB)
Windows doesn't respect other OSes and just throws away any other bootloader (like GRUB) it finds , while installing / "updating" Windows.Zeus_1347 wrote: ⤴Tue Jul 27, 2021 2:39 pm I am planning on upgrading to windows 11 when the upgrade is available. But i have heard that windows upgrades can cause issues with the bootloader and installing Mint on a separate drive is better than installing on the same drive as windows. why does bootloader not get affected when linux is installed on a separate drive?
GRUB from linux has a great respect for the users' choice and other OSes. It shows a choice of which OS to boot each time it boots up.
Yes. Linux performs well on both HDDs and SSDs. But, SSDs always have superior performance.
Re: Can i install bootloader/grub while dual booting on windows laptop on a separate hdd and install root and home on sd
I'm not sure what win11's TPM requirements will do to your ability to install/boot mint.I am planning on upgrading to windows 11 when the upgrade is available.
Thinkcentre M720Q - LM21.3 cinnamon, 4 x T430 - LM21.3 cinnamon, Homebrew desktop i5-8400+GTX1080 Cinnamon 19.0
Re: Can i install bootloader/grub while dual booting on windows laptop on a separate hdd and install root and home on sd
I cant switch windows to the hdd because it comes preinstalled and also i will need the speed of ssd for gaming and other things.I suppose you want to install something like this:
HDD : GRUB(bootloader) + Windows
SSD : Linux ( / and /home )
I feel like you misunderstood what i wanted to ask. I meant a configuration like this:
SSD: Windows(preinstalled) + linux root and home directories(in a separate partition on the SSD)
HDD: Linux GRUB/Bootloader(on a partition)+ a storage partition to store files to be accessed by both Windows and Linux(using ntfs)
This way i get the benefit of Linux running on the ssd and Grub/bootloader is separate and cannot be affected by windows updates.
Can this work? i cant find anything about configurations like this.
I cant remove drives from my laptop while installing linux. but i will be careful and i watched a lot of tutorials on making partitions and installing.Also, be sure to remove the Linux disk while updating / installing Windows (or else, Windows will throw away your GRUB)
Re: Can i install bootloader/grub while dual booting on windows laptop on a separate hdd and install root and home on sd
Yes you can. Assuming you are booting UEFI you would need to create an EFI partition on your HDD and before installing mint disable the esp & boot flags on the EFI partition in your SSD. Re-enable them after installation. Create your partitions in advance with gparted (copy in the mint install iso), ext4 for your / partition (and /home if you want a separate /home partition). EFI partition needs to be fat32, size 100MB with the flags esp & boot set.SSD: Windows(preinstalled) + linux root and home directories(in a separate partition on the SSD)
HDD: Linux GRUB/Bootloader(on a partition)+ a storage partition to store files to be accessed by both Windows and Linux(using ntfs)
This way i get the benefit of Linux running on the ssd and Grub/bootloader is separate and cannot be affected by windows updates.
Can this work? i cant find anything about configurations like this.
Personally I wouldn't bother, not saying it won't happen, but win updates wiping grub has not happened to me. Win and mint installed on a single drive. Your 'shared' data partition needs to be formatted ntfs. If you want mint to be able to write to that partition you need to turn off fast boot in win.
Thinkcentre M720Q - LM21.3 cinnamon, 4 x T430 - LM21.3 cinnamon, Homebrew desktop i5-8400+GTX1080 Cinnamon 19.0
Re: Can i install bootloader/grub while dual booting on windows laptop on a separate hdd and install root and home on sd
windows normally wipes grub when windows upgrades to a new version like windows 8->10 or 10->11. so it could happen in the future right?Personally I wouldn't bother, not saying it won't happen, but win updates wiping grub has not happened to me. Win and mint installed on a single drive.
So using this method, grub cannot be affected by windows? Also how do i disable esp and boot flags? \Yes you can. Assuming you are booting UEFI you would need to create an EFI partition on your HDD and before installing mint disable the esp & boot flags on the EFI partition in your SSD. Re-enable them after installation. Create your partitions in advance with gparted (copy in the mint install iso), ext4 for your / partition (and /home if you want a separate /home partition). EFI partition needs to be fat32, size 100MB with the flags esp & boot set.
Also i can make the shared data partition after successfully installing linux right?
Re: Can i install bootloader/grub while dual booting on windows laptop on a separate hdd and install root and home on sd
In gparted, right click on the EFI partition and 'manage flags' I can't guarantee that windows won't screw it up, but very very unlikely.
Yes, you can create your shared data partition on the HDD after you have installed mint. gparted is the standard linux partition editor, straightforward to use. While it is on the mint iso, when you install mint, it does not install gparted by default. You can find it in software manager. Also note that you cannot change a mounted partition (see the key symbol against some of the partitions in the screenshot). You have to unmount it first (right click - it's another option on the right click menu).Also i can make the shared data partition after successfully installing linux right?
Thinkcentre M720Q - LM21.3 cinnamon, 4 x T430 - LM21.3 cinnamon, Homebrew desktop i5-8400+GTX1080 Cinnamon 19.0
Re: Can i install bootloader/grub while dual booting on windows laptop on a separate hdd and install root and home on sd
Thanks a lot .
What does boot and esp flags do?
Also i just checked, gparted is a Linux only program. Is changing flags necessary? i havent seen any guide where they do that.
I tried finding options to change flags on Windows Drive Manager but i couldnt find any.
What does boot and esp flags do?
Also i just checked, gparted is a Linux only program. Is changing flags necessary? i havent seen any guide where they do that.
I tried finding options to change flags on Windows Drive Manager but i couldnt find any.
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Re: Can i install bootloader/grub while dual booting on windows laptop on a separate hdd and install root and home on sd
It means we're marking that that partition is the EFI System Partition (ESP).
The EFI firmware looks for that flag and loads the EFI files from the ESP.
The ESP is a small FAT32 partition with EFI boot files in its "EFI/" folder.
You can read more at https://www.rodsbooks.com/linux-uefi/ and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EFI_system_partition
Flags are some sort of attributes given to the partition. It gives some information about what that partition is for.
Almost all modern OSes can understand partition flags, but GParted allows you to edit them easily.
eg: the boot and esp flags show that it is an ESP. (windows is also aware of this -- it won't mount the ESP like other FAT32 partitions, because it sees those flags)
Basically, the boot and esp flags tell the EFI firmware to look for EFI boot files in that partition (the ESP)
Re: Can i install bootloader/grub while dual booting on windows laptop on a separate hdd and install root and home on sd
Tells the system that this is the partition that contains the bootloader(s).
Yes, you were the one that wanted to put grub on your HDD. There is a bug in the installer - it will put grub on the first EFI partition it finds irrespective of what you tell it. Hence disabling the flags on the EFI partition on your SSD. I can't comment on what you have seen elsewhere but what you asked to do is not 'normal' - / on the SSD and grub on the HDD.Also i just checked, gparted is a Linux only program. Is changing flags necessary? i havent seen any guide where they do that.
I tried finding options to change flags on Windows Drive Manager but i couldnt find any.
Why would you want to use 'Windows Drive Manager' when I suggested gparted?
Thinkcentre M720Q - LM21.3 cinnamon, 4 x T430 - LM21.3 cinnamon, Homebrew desktop i5-8400+GTX1080 Cinnamon 19.0
Re: Can i install bootloader/grub while dual booting on windows laptop on a separate hdd and install root and home on sd
No you don't, download the mint iso, burn it to a stick, boot from it and gparted is on it. I only ever use win's disk management tools to shrink the win C: partition to create space before installing mint.
Thinkcentre M720Q - LM21.3 cinnamon, 4 x T430 - LM21.3 cinnamon, Homebrew desktop i5-8400+GTX1080 Cinnamon 19.0
Re: Can i install bootloader/grub while dual booting on windows laptop on a separate hdd and install root and home on sd
I thought any changes made while live booting Linux is not saved. Thanks i will try this.
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