Seeking opinions: SSD vs HDD using dual boot [SOLVED]

[kelltech]

Here's what I have: a 256GB SSD with Win10 on it and a secondary 1TB HDD. The more I use this Win10 daily, the more I miss Linux Mint badly. I need to keep some form of Windows, to be honest, because I really like my Need For Speed and a few other games that don't seem to run on Linux, even with Wine

Would it be best to clear the 1TB storage drive for Linux, or would it be recommended to try and move Win10 off of the SSD and put Mint there? And, how realistic is it to try and move Windows?

[richyrich]

Just a suggestion . . Why not shrink your SSD by about 30 or 40 Gigs and install Mint on the SSD. Save your big drive for your data.

[AZgl1800]

Just a suggestion . . Why not shrink your SSD by about 30 or 40 Gigs and install Mint on the SSD. Save your big drive for your data.

I totally agree.
Windows will not miss the smaller SSD space,
and Linux will benefit from being Blazingly Fast on the SSD.

and as suggested, use the 1TB HDD as a data storage medium.

[AndyMH]

As suggested shrink the SSD to make space for mint or SSDs are getting cheaper, buy a small one. My home brew desktop has a 240G SSD for win10 and a 120G SSD for mint (separate partitions for / and /home), there is a 1TB HDD as a data drive formatted as NTFS and shared with mint as /home/me/data.

[kelltech]

This is why I ask the silly questions...I just didn't think of this!!

I also didn't know that both win10 and Mint /root could share the SSD, and it sounds by the replies here that it is possible, and that it's possible for both Windows and Mint to share the 1TB HDD as NTFS data. Am I understanding that correctly?

If so, that's awesome

[AZgl1800]

This is why I ask the silly questions...I just didn't think of this!!

I also didn't know that both win10 and Mint /root could share the SSD, and it sounds by the replies here that it is possible, and that it's possible for both Windows and Mint to share the 1TB HDD as NTFS data. Am I understanding that correctly?

If so, that's awesome

yes on both counts.
just be sure, that all of the backups to the NTSF drive have completed before you unplug it, if it is a USB drive.
and if not, be sure to shut the PC down by menu, do NOT pull the power plug

the advantage to you, of the NTSF drive, is both Windows and Linux can read/write to it.

[kelltech]

yes on both counts.
just be sure, that all of the backups to the NTSF drive have completed before you unplug it, if it is a USB drive.
and if not, be sure to shut the PC down by menu, do NOT pull the power plug

the advantage to you, of the NTSF drive, is both Windows and Linux can read/write to it.

Very cool, thank you AZgl1500. Another question: the TB drive is an internal with some Win programs installed and some documents. Will I be formatting that drive?

Of course, I haven't yet searched for the process I'll follow to make all of this happen, but I will do that soon.

[catweazel]

Another question: the TB drive is an internal with some Win programs installed and some documents. Will I be formatting that drive?

Not if you have enough room on the SSD to install Mint alongside Windwoes, and not if you shrink that HDD's partition to make room for Mint, so no. The only partition to be formatted is the one holding Mint, but not the entire disk.

[kelltech]

Just making sure I'm not screwing this up.

When I make the partitions, /root is going on the SSD alongside Windows where I've shrunk 40GB and will format to EXT4. Can /home be placed on the second HDD?

I've been looking these over so I don't forget something: https://itsfoss.com/guide-install-linux ... t-windows/ and https://www.lifewire.com/dual-boot-wind ... nt-2202090

[Petermint]

I had Windows 8 and Linux on a dual book 128 GB SSD. Had to clean out some Windows video advertising bloatware. Now I have Windows working in 20 GB with a second 10 GB NTFS partition for sharing word processing across both operating systems.

When you work on the big drive, you might want to split it into NTFS and Ext4. Ext4 has a different way to store permissions. Most of the Linux examples show the Linux style permissions. You would use the Ext4 partition for storing things you want to protect when there are other people logging on to your computer or when Microsoft software automatically runs an infected file.

The Linux partitioning programs make it easy to adjust the start and end of partitions which means you can change the allocation when needed. The only real restriction is Windows requirement to be the first partition on the first bootable drive.

[catweazel]

This is why I ask the silly questions...

There are no silly questions, only silly answers

[catweazel]

Now I have Windows working in 20 GB

My pagefile is bigger than that.

[Petermint]

Bragging again....

[JOPETA]

Can /home be placed on the second HDD?

Yes, also SWAP,.. if you wish. You would consider not to that (place /home in a separated partition on HD) and link your home folders (Music, Video, Documents,..) to anothers (directories or partitions) present or created on HD.

[AndyMH]

Okay, dancing master, how did you get your sig upside down, neat?

[kelltech]

I have trouble

Please let me know if this should be a new post... I installed to the SSD according to the previous help in this post. At the end of the install, I got this error:
The 'grub-efi-amd64-signed' package failed to install into /target/. Without the GRUB boot loader, the installed system will not boot.

After that, I disabled UEFI and was going to attempt installing again. This time, the '+ / -' to make partitions is grayed out, and LM 19 is definitely installed where I initially installed it. I saw that in GParted using the live boot from USB.

I then mounted that partition and attempted to reinstall GRUB, but ran into more errors. I was previously running LM 19 on this laptop from a USB...not a live boot, I had it installed to a 128GB USB before deciding it's time to carve out it's own space.

But alas...I have a bit of a mess and I'm stuck!

[kelltech]

I have trouble

Please let me know if this should be a new post... I installed to the SSD according to the previous help in this post. At the end of the install, I got this error:
The 'grub-efi-amd64-signed' package failed to install into /target/. Without the GRUB boot loader, the installed system will not boot.

After that, I disabled UEFI and was going to attempt installing again. This time, the '+ / -' to make partitions is grayed out, and LM 19 is definitely installed where I initially installed it. I saw that in GParted using the live boot from USB.

I then mounted that partition and attempted to reinstall GRUB, but ran into more errors. I was previously running LM 19 on this laptop from a USB...not a live boot, I had it installed to a 128GB USB before deciding it's time to carve out it's own space.

But alas...I have a bit of a mess and I'm stuck!

Got it figured out, I wasn't using the ISO with "V2" in it.