this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2025
61 points (93.0% liked)
Linux
51909 readers
1100 users here now
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
Rules
- Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
- No misinformation
- No NSFW content
- No hate speech, bigotry, etc
Related Communities
Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
If you mean different physical drives, I would suggest detatching the drive with the already installed system when installing the second one.
Also, Linux installers may behave differently from one another, so I would suggest testing on another machine if possible, or at least backing up what you cannot afford to lose in the current machine, shrinking the Windows partition with its native partition manager instead, and picking a system whose installer can spot the correct partitions, maybe e.g. Mint with its option to be installed alongside an already installed system, or Endeavour which, from what I remember, can detect empty partitions.
Also if during install, grub is not set up to have both Linux and Windows as start options, there is a grub manager on Linux too, so that can be salvaged.
And lastly, a word of warning, and reiterating a past point, testing something as big as a dual boot in a computer with sensitive and already existing data is playing with fire.
but if I can remove my windows drive then it would be 100% safe right? Its an NVME drive and I think I can disable it in my BIOS, removing it would be a massive pain
Dunno what sort of setup you have, but what I would do, considering my setup and by being a tad on the neurotic side, is to unscrew and detatch any drives but the one to be flashed. This, I think, is the only way to be absolutely sure nothing goes in the wrong place.
I would need to dismantle almost everything and would lose the heatsink past on my nvme too, I will just try disabling it since I dont really see how that would be different from removing, not like the fedora installer can mess with my bios settings no?
Been some years since I last used Fedora, so not able to confirm nor deny anything. Sorry for not being able to help further. =/
Turns out my boot partition was on my other drive somehow (the drive I installed Linux) , am I completely fucked now?
Do you mean your Windows boot partition?
Windows does not support installing the boot partition on a different drive out of the box. Unless you modified your Windows installation, the drive where Windows is installed is also where the Windows boot manager lives.
The biggest risk with installing with the drive connected is accidentally installing the Linux boot partition over the Windows boot partition, hence the usual recommendation to disconnect the drive just to be safe.
You're gonna have to provide some more details on your setup and what is working/not working though.
Seems my motherboard cannot disable nvme, I might try disconnecting it
This should be sufficient. Go for it.