Dual Boot Fedora & Windows 11 on One PC: Easy Guide

[@user-fr3hy9uh6y]

My recommendation is to make sure you disable Fast Startup in Windows before you start dual booting linux. This will force Windows to close all files before shutting down. This will help prevent corrupting the Windows partition when you are using Linux.

[@mikemainer3009]

Excellent suggestion. I am surprised this was not mentioned in this video.

[@g9super]

Absolutely

[@jasperdiscovers]

Fedora looks absolutely beautiful.

[@DarkwaterV2]

It does! Though what you're seeing is the GNOME desktop environment with minimal adjustments out of the box. So a Debian or openSUSE can look pretty much the same as what you're seeing here, because they use GNOME as well (or their spins do, I'm not 100% on that, but they *can* ship with GNOME). I actually use the KDE variant of Fedora so it looks very different.

[@gerardopastore4559]

Disable Fast StartUp on Windows before you move to Fedora Installation, is a key step. Otherwise you might run into issues.

[@farhadbatur5203]

This is a really high quality video with clear instructions. Thank you brotha!!!

[@maxlagerbee]

I use two SSD's. One for Windows and one for LInux. I use the Grub boot menu to pick which SSD (Windows 11 or Linux) to boot.

[@louisfifteen]

That is by far the best and safest solution. I do too.

[@davebilson]

I did the same, but I disconnected the power and SATA data cable from one of the drives in the PC whilst I installed Windows. Then I disconnect the SATA and Data cable from the Windows drive and reconnected the cables to the second drive in the PC and installed Linux. I then turned off my PC put the cables back into the Windows SATA drive. That way Windows will boot automatically and if I want Linux, then I just hit F12 whilst the computer is booting and use the boot menu to select the drive with Linux on it. If I want Linux to boot by default, I can just log into the BIOS on boot and change the boot priority, so my Linux drive boots first by default.

[@rdsii64]

I do the same thing with Debian 12 and windows 11

[@phk-r]

How do I get the grub boot menu working? I've got two disks, but always have to go into bios boot to get it to boot the Linux disk.

[@wangmat9219]

​@@davebilson you might have solved my issue with Linux-Windows dual boot. I hate the menu of choosing Windows/Linux as in the video. By doing your way, there will be no such menu right? The only menu that would appeared is the boot menu by the system BIOS (F8/F12/DEL)?

[@davebilson]

I dual booted Vanilla Linux and Windows 11, but I had two drives in my computer so I put Windows on one drive and Linux on the other. I disconnected the power lead and SATA data cable from one of the drives and installed Windows. I then removed the Windows drive and reconnected the cables to my second hard drive and then installed Vanilla OS on it. Once I was finished I turned off the computer and reinstalled the removed Windows drive. By default it will boot into Windows but I can change the boot order, so Linux is the Primary OS, in the BIOS. If I want to boot the Secondary OS then I just hit F12 whilst booting and select the other OS I want to boot. To be honest the look of Fedora looks very similar to Vanilla OS, which I am currently using.

[@zinedine911]

damn bro, your channel is the best way to learn linux

[@Gareyress0]

Awesome! Thanks for the video Jay.

[@Sumitso]

As much as I have wanted, I have yet to find a compelling reason to dual boot windows/linux. WSL2 seemed to be the right solution, and worked well, especially after the network driver issue was corrected which allowed nmap and tcpdump to function properly.

[@Sumitso]

@@mainStream-user Well, I should have explained better, that's on me. 99% of the places hand out windows laptops for their admins/engineers, dual boot in that regard, due to security policies, and especially in a gov capacity won't fly. WSL2(where allowed) fills in the gaps for the command line that windows doesn't have. As far as home use, I see no need to dual boot anything, let it be one or the other. I have win10 on an X1 extreme, and that is simply because I cannot run the CAM/CAD software on linux, and not for lack of trying, same goes for Fusion360, it simply won't run under emulation though I am sure there are a few outliers who "claim" to have made it work, but let's be honest here; we're at a point in time with tech that things should just work, and spending 90+ hrs to get something to run under emulation when I can just do what needs to be done on machine that can run it supersedes the amount of time never to be redeemed. That long sentence aside, everything I run personally is either linux, pi(linux), proxmox, and 1 macbook. Computers are cheap, even someone on a budget can have a separate windows machine, and a linux box, it's not like the early 90's today when partition magic was necessary for making things work.

[@Idontknowww97]

Thanks for the tutorial

[@juanantonio757]

Thank you it was very useful

[@RedSntDK]

Handy that Fedora comes with a proper partition tool that can shrink partitions. Alternatively booting into a live image environment and using gparted, that's what did the trick for me. Actually more than once, because I initially didn't reserve much space for linux as I wasn't sure I'd be daily driving it, but now the windows partition is just vestigial.

[@darkorb9910]

Can you please make a video tutorial about how to install Gentoo Linux via USB ? Thanks in advance. Really good video by the way )

[@Dave-McQueen]

Nice work

[@jonathonhyam4154]

Great video! Please would you consider covering different gui based boot loaders?

[@tubeDude48]

I stay away from dual-boot ... NOT a good idea. An as someone else mentioned, I'd go with Debian!

[@user-fr3hy9uh6y]

UEFI makes it a lot safer to dual boot than the old MBR. It helps to keep one OS from stepping on the others' boot sequence. If you still have an old desktop, then a hot swap tray is the safest. You can't hurt an os drive that is not installed. If you just want to try something out, I might suggest a USB C external SSD. Fairly fast, and you are not modifying anything on your existing laptop. I like trying out different operating systems. Have fun.😊

[@Russell.Jolly.2023]

Best practice is to create an image of your Windows hard drive(s) and make sure you have a recovery disk. Then install Linux. You can run into issues when setting up a dual boot system but once you have an image of the original system, it is relatively easy to reload it.

[@tubeDude48]

@@Russell.Jolly.2023 - Yes I know. I DON'T DO WINDOZ. Linux user since 2002. Windoz 7 was the ONLY reliable version microshaft ever made!

[@alternatuber6698]

Can you demonstrate Fedora with BTRFS + LUKS + Snapper install

[@guazamb]

Great video! I didn't know we could shrink the Windows partition directly from the Fedora installer.

[@mysterynad]

Heads up, as this has tripped me up many times, but do NOT test the media when you go to boot from the Fedora USB. If you create the drive in Windows it will fail the checksum test at the same point every time. This is because the checksum assumes that the disk is identical to the original ISO image. If you create it in Windows it will not be the same as Windows creates a hidden directory in every compatible volume that gets mounted. That directory is called 'System Volume Information' and it will alter the final checksum of the device.

[@petrosjyn]

This happened to me. I just wanted to load it up to take a look at what it would be like without installing it yet but did the test thing and it went all weird. Turned off the pc and loaded up windows again and then tried again without testing and it loaded fine. Are there any side effects/bugs that will be caused because of just testing it once and having that error??

[@ArkeyAB]

Thanks!

[@DugB0915]

A more interesting take would be dual booting if you have Linux installed FIRST instead of installing Linux on a system that has a windows installed.

[@matssvensson7480]

Agree

[@GillanMusicArt]

0:03 Would you explain how to remove a Windows broken link in Grub ( Dual Boot ) set up, without using, Grub Customizer? Best regards and thanks.

[@doveofdestiny]

Could you please make a video on methods of syncing one-drive on Linux both ways - similar to how windows does it. I don't just mean mounting a drive, as that requires constant internet connection. It's the main thing stopping me switching to Linux completely.

[@treyquattro]

been doing it for years - have to run Windows stuff from time to time (yes, I also have VMs)

[@LarryGaringfrog]

Dual booting should not be done with Windows. It is not a matter of If Microsoft will destroy your bootloader but a matter of when.

[@davebilson]

See my solution above that uses the BIOS boot option.

[@LarryGaringfrog]

@@davebilson I don't have a need. I havent used Windows in about 18 years.

[@MakzPlayground]

Anyone know if this same tutorial applies if I want to put fedora on a different ssd? 465gb free on it and i'd like the whole thing to have fedora.

[@PortlandMan]

Yeah just create a partition on the SSD and then put Fedora on it

[@MakzPlayground]

@@PortlandMan It would be the whole ssd that I'd be using, not just part of it or anything. I was just a little worried if I'd have to do anything different. Thank you for responding!

[@phildegruy9295]

Out of curiosity, which System 76 laptop and laptop specs (if not base config) are you using for the demo? I have been looking at their laptops and generally like the specs and look.

[@Aelliun]

Did anyone notice that the mint website, to access the checksum and gpg... the browsers launch it with Warning? Expired certificate and more? I noticed it on September 21, 2024.

[@mikemainer3009]

Certainly easy enough to setup, but too risky and too easy to screw up grub and corrupt your bootloader. Better to have separate disks, each with its own OS.

[@Joe_KS1I]

Will this method work for Linux Mint?

[@pestpatroller]

Yes, and it's easier. Plus no restart to run updates.

[@cgjoh]

Required kernel anti cheat and Lian li are my current windows requirements...

[@sheldonkupa9120]

rEFInd! Mentioned that often earlier. Use it since years on all my machines. Boot to firmware, from usb, kernels directly from root. All i wished.

[@akmartinez1]

I have my pc set up to be able to boot into 4 OS’s with 4 separate SSD’s. One with Ubuntu for my daily driver, one with Kali to study and practice penetration testing, one for my Windows gaming and legacy software, and one for my son’s gaming and school work. This way, if something gets messed up or corrupt on one SSD it doesn’t disrupt the others, especially anything my son does… GRUB gives me a menu…

[@techvevo814]

It's give me tocbloc error and continue to booting?

[@rayarasevakaru]

Disk is not detecting in my dell..pls help

[@Muhammadiqbal-hk6pb]

nice one

[@eliasthienpont6330]

🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁LION takes LIKE Number 6600+ -----> LION has a dual boot with Linux-Mint but made a third partition which I called "BRIDGE" and set it up so that both Windows and Linux can access it and share the files therein..

[@cugansteamid6252]

Could you do one for Debian and WIndows11 please? I dont like Fedora, I like the grand daddy Debian.

[@paddymurphy-oconnor8255]

If you know how to install and use Debian, you don't need a video guide. ;-)

[@Tomas_F.]

Rather Debian, thx :P Oh and don't forget to give it it's own EFI partition so Win can't mess up your boot ✊

[@SirChristoferus]

That’s what I do when setting up a dual boot. First I do the Windows installation, then I give the Linux drive a dedicated /boot/efi partition, a swap partition, a / partition, and a /home partition. And finally, I install a simple and aesthetic GRUB theme with an OS menu to choose from.

[@Krushx0]

sidenote: I hate the "dual boot" wording. Its just not what its means. You are not booting 2 OS at the same time... God I wish it was really in development, a shell, a hypervisor that is sole purpose to run desktop environments share ram, cpu, gpu, storage and instantly "alt tab" between them without any overhead that would be amazing.

[@basselmtaweh3103]

I downloaded the wsl2 on Windows, and now it does the double boot, i.e., the boot takes a lot of time, and there's a black screen for a while before it started the booting process...

[@basselmtaweh3103]

I don't recommend having both ...choose either.

[@Aelliun]

Did anyone notice that the mint website, to access the checksum and gpg... the browsers launch it with Warning? Expired certificate and more? I noticed it on September 21, 2024.

[@ammi9660]

Yep, try wsl

[@GamingVersebywm]

then use VM

[@eddieoconnor4466]

Been with Fedora since 2003 / '04....its the Beez Kneez!....LOL!