Windows & Linux Mint Dual Boot, 2 Separate Drives, 2 Methods

[@kubix6592]

I like how you dont just show how to do this but you tell us what each thing does great tutorial thanks!

[@2troke]

I like your comment, thanks.

[@TitusAduxas100]

Bradley mate; a first class explanation of the dual boot dual disk senario. It is so handy to know that by putting the linux grub menu on the second drive it leaves windows untouched, brilliant !!

[@2troke]

Thank you. Its all about redundancy.

[@dalesmith8666]

Very well done. Clear, slow, precise, detailed! 100! The absolute best I've seen. I will recommend this tutorial to others. Cheers!

[@2troke]

Thanks mate

[@DavidSimmonds-h9h]

I've looked at many different write-ups, videos but they all missed that critical wee piece that no-one else dared touch on: the new hard drive! Well done Bradley, I'm on the way!!!

[@2troke]

I'm a little late here and your thoughtful comment is now 4 days old. Hopefully you've ‘arrived’ by now. Thanks.

[@wamphyr000]

Your advice with the bootloader was invaluable, thank you.

[@painfulbunny]

Three years later and still helps. Cheers mate.

[@2troke]

Nice to know, 3 years is forever in the tech space. Thanks mate.

[@---nw9qu]

Just found this video. I know it's a couple years old...but you do an excellent job of explaining the process and the various options.

[@2troke]

Hey thanks, appreciate your input.

[@Zetsubou-69420]

After hours of searching on how I can install linux on diff drive I finally found a good video. Very helpful and will defiantly use the second method . Thanks a lot :)

[@2troke]

Hopefully those hours spent searching are now worth the effort. Or as my wood work teacher would say, measure twice and cut once! Cheers and thanks.

[@RedGMD]

Thanks for creating a thoroughly paced tutorial, i now feel well informed

[@2troke]

Thanks for such a thoughtful comment, I now feel well rewarded.

[@joeburkeson8946]

Hi Bradley, your video helped me to get my dual boot-dual drive system sorted out. My ThinkPad has a 2.5 SSD Win 10 and a 260GB M.2 drive (once used as a cache for a conventional HD). The configuration I finally used was to first remove the SSD containing Windows then install Mint on the M.2 drive, then reinstall the SSD drive, that way there could not be any confusion in regards to booting as both drives are completely independent of each other. This worked perfectly, now when starting I simply use F12 to choose what system to boot... Thanks again for your work.

[@2troke]

Now that's a plan and a result, great to hear, thanks Joe.

[@RealChad111]

Lol, same for me. I have a ThinkPad, and I originally booted it from a USB drive because I had no space for dual boot on the ssd. I had bought an extra hard drive with the intention to boot Linux from it, but the whole process was so complicated. Now it works, and it's great!

[@UnhaltedGB]

This was actually such a great tutorial. Appreciate you taking the time to go through everything so thoroughly.

[@2troke]

Thanks mate, appreciate the feedback.

[@LostMyMeds]

Great video Bradley. The worst thing for a newbie is dual booting 'alongside' Windows and having Linux break with not knowing how to rectify the issue. Been there before.

[@2troke]

Thanks Stephen. "not knowing how to rectify the issue" same here!

[@3d-illusions]

i get error - no efi system partition was found. please go back and add an efi system partition.

[@2troke]

If you're installing PopOS it needs about 500MB efi partition from memory so add one, I'd do say 510MB just to be sure its at least 500MB, had this error myself. If its another distro looks like it wants 500MB efi so you'll need to do that I guess. Turning secure boot off might help, its been a while since I've done this.

[@3d-illusions]

@@2troke I found the solution in another video. When you click the plus icon, you set 512 mb and choose efi partition, then do another one for swap 32gb, and finally follow the instructions in this tutorial.

[@jamesnear3911]

Love this. Question Can this be used to add windows to a full installed Zorin ? I would like to have windows for some programs. And keep the zorin.

[@2troke]

When dual booting Windows with Linux, Windows is usually installed first however you could remove/unplug your Linux drive, then install Windows onto its own drive, reconnect the Linux drive and run ‘sudo update-grub’ from your Linux system so that it finds Windows and adds it to the GRUB boot menu to give choice of Windows or Linux at start up, or you could use the machine boot menu (BIOS) to choose which drive/operating system to boot up. You could also use a virtual machine from Zorin to run Windows from within Zorin. Either way you'll need to know what you're doing to avoid data lose.

[@jamesnear3911]

Thank you. So if one has a Linux installed computer. It sounds like one cannot add windows to it. Bottom line, I can living without windows.

[@joachimd9586]

Hey Bradley, greetings from Denmark. Thanks a lot for your brilliant and detailed walkthrough. It was really helpful.

[@2troke]

Thanks Joachim, its comments like yours that make it all worth while, cheers from Australia.

[@boomer4373]

Thank You for very good video 👍

[@jivor50]

Fantastic video that explains exactly how to do this. I searched high and low for doing this but nothing addressed it as simply as you did. TY!!! Everything was about mutli OS on one drive.

[@2troke]

Thanks for the kind comment. It’s rewarding knowing I've helped someone out.

[@johnwebster5983]

Thanks Bradley. I am going to do your option 1. You have answered my questions. I have a desktop computer with Windows on the new drives and I had 2 older drives installed into the box. I will install Linux on to the older SSD. I will use F12 to access the boot menu and select Linux from there, as this computer will continue to be mainly Windows.

[@2troke]

Hi John, sounds like you've got your head around the job at hand, cheers.

[@timfd.w.4163]

Very very nice. Slow pace and detailed.

[@2troke]

Thanks mate, its not something that you want to get wrong as destroying your system can result. My woodwork teacher always told us to measure twice and cut once. Slow and steady gets the job done.

[@ianwoollard9008]

So glad i found this whilst i was installing Zorin. I got an error which read as follows: “The partition table format in use on your disks normally requires you to create a separate partition for boot loader code” ^The trick is to IGNORE that error^ Well Done Mate.

[@TobeyNord]

I had to go into the bios and shut off raid to get everything to read all the drives separate then went into windows cmd to clean the drives manually diskpart in cmd is the best! great video!

[@2troke]

I haven’t used RAID. It seems like you know what you're doing regarding your own set up which is good to know. Glad you still enjoyed the video.

[@TobeyNord]

It basically combines all the drives to one location. It's ideal for one OS .

[@smirnizky]

Hello Bradley! Thank you for your manual. I have one question for you about the 1st method (with disconnecting the 1st hard drive where Windows is before Linux installation), would you be so kind to help me. Tell me please can I make specific "EFI syste partition" on the second hard drive? Or this will cause issues if I'll try to do "sudo update-grub" after installation? Should it be only one EFI partition in my system or I can make one EFI partition in every hard drive?

[@2troke]

What you said is how I do it. Disconnect the Windows drive and install Linux as if its the only drive on the system. In my case I set my motherboard to boot off the Linux drive FIRST from the BIOS / UEFI , then reconnect the Windows drive, run sudo update-grub from Linux which should find the Windows drive/system and add it to the Linux drive/system, All without touching the Windows drive. My Windows system/drive is completely untouched but grub can ‘see’ it so if I want to boot into Windows I just select Windows from grub menu on the Linux drive. Or I could select the Windows drive from the BIOS / UEFI of the motherboard and just boot into Windows that way, say if the Linux drive failed for example. In fact I added/installed PopOS to my Windows drive after doing the above and it requires a 500MB partition for EFI to install it, so my Windows drive has 2 EFI partitions, one for Windows and one for PopOS and I then ran sudo update-grub from my main Linux system after pop was installed so I have a triple boot system all controlled from my main Linux install. If my main Linux drive failed I could likely only boot into Windows on that drive however I think I could boot up a ‘live session USB’ and install grub onto that drive to boot PopOS however that would over write the Windows boot loader. Better to install grub to a USB drive or some other old drive so as not to touch the Windows boot loader if I had to do this. So I have 2 drives with 3 operating systems, 3 EFI partitions all controlled from my main Linux system. I'm sure I could add another drive, install an operating system on it and run update-grub again. I don’t think there's a limit of how many drives/EFI partitions or operating systems per se other than hardware limitations. And remember if you disconnect your Windows / other drive while installing Linux to another (second) drive your Windows drive is UNTOUCHED so you should be able to return the machine to the original ‘state’ and it will be as it was, that’s the real beauty of doing it this way. I hope I've explained that well enough without over complicating it.

[@smirnizky]

Thank you very much for so detailed answer!

[@CannonFodda]

This is exactly what I needed. Very informative and easy to understand. Thanks heaps :D

[@2troke]

Thanks mate, nice to know it's helpful.

[@jeffeproductions]

EXACTLY MY PROBLEM! EXACTLY MY NEEDED SOLUTION AND PERFECTLY EXPLAINED. THANK YOU!!!!!!

[@2troke]

Well in that case, I've been waiting for you to arrive needing this info and made it with you in mind. Cheers mate.

[@godisgreat4539]

Is there any way for us to install Linux Mint on a single HDD such that it is installed on C drive, and it doesn't erase the data of the other drives?

[@2troke]

Yes. Once you boot from the Linux Mint ‘live’ USB and run the installer, if you choose “install Linux Mint ALONGSIDE Windows” it will create a LINUX partition on the ‘C’ drive if sufficient space is available to do such, and install itself into that partition. This will also overwrite the Windows boot loader, meaning if Linux Mint fails or gets deleted you won't be able to boot into Windows any more until you repair it. The Linux Mint drive/partition won't be part of your ‘C’ drive, it will be something like sda3 or sda4 maybe sdb4 etc, depending on your set up. Also Windows cannot ‘read’ a Linux file system so it will appear as a ‘healthy partition - unknown’ if you look at it from within Windows, Linux can ‘see’ and ‘read’ the Windows file system. From your question it would appear you have other HDD's in the computer. Linux normally installs onto the drive that has Windows on it, not your ‘D’ or ‘E’ drives. You can also, from the live USB manually make a partition on any drive and install Linux there but need to know what you're doing. Best to disconnect your other ‘data’ drives to avoid data loss during an install and the fact you ask might suggest this is all a bit new, and enticing, to you but I'm making assumptions and only to help you avoid loosing data or breaking your system. If you just want to ‘play and test’ Linux you can do so using the ‘live session USB’ and you can also install Linux onto a USB drive and leave your system unchanged, again you need to know what your doing. I've got some other videos on my KZbin channel showing some different ways to install Linux or search on KZbin for more. Hope this helps you.

[@seufortes5484]

Thank you Bradley. You've answered pretty much all of my questions. Can I use the same boot method with GRUB on another Linux distro?

[@2troke]

I just installed Solus Linux onto my old laptop that had Windows 10 and Linux Mint on it. I deleted Windows and installed Solus into its partition but without installing a ‘boot loader’ then after the install was done I booted into Linux Mint and ran in the terminal sudo update-grub and it found Solus and boots it up just fine. It might not work with every distro. I've had trouble with Arch based distros and Ubuntu based grub boot loaders in the past so I pretty much stay away from Arch (dual booting with Ubuntu) for that reason but most distros I play with seem to work OK. Alternatively I guess I could have used the boot loader from the Solus install, let it find Linux Mint during its install but I didn’t because I wanted Mint to remain the ‘main’ system for now. There are ways to recover a ‘broken’ grub should the need arise by using the live USB stick! Guess you'll have to try it and see so use caution and back up your system. Virtual Machines are a good way to experiment if you know how to do it. For the most part I don’t mess with my ‘production’ or daily driver systems. I have guinea pig systems for that as my work around should it all go south I don’t lose anything important.

[@2troke]

I forgot to mention, my Solus/Mint laptop is on the same drive just different partitions, but don't think it will make any difference as far as GRUB goes.

[@xqqqme]

Good stuff! The entire topic of grub, the boot menu, etc (starting at about 08:08) is something that really tripped me up once or twice when I started installing distros on /dev/sdb. So, I'll mention this for the benefit of anyone who is as green as I was (actually, I'm still green...just maybe a lighter shade by this point!): it seemed rather intuitive to me that a distro on /dev/sdb would want the boot loader on that same drive....but, no, no, no! That led to failure. So I'm interested in your tactic of doing just that. Because on the one or two occasions that I zoned and put the boot loader on /dev/sdb, the device wouldn't even boot. But every time I've put a distro on dev/sdb *and* specifically accept the default choice of /dev/sda, all has been good.

[@2troke]

It doesn’t matter where grub is as long as its present on one drive and that drive is in the ‘list’ of drives the BIOS looks for boot devices. If you had pressed your boot menu key or changed your machine (BIOS) to boot from sdb on those occasions it would have booted. Most machines boot from the ‘first’ drive HDD (sda) and these days maybe any bootable disk in the DVD bay and or any bootable USB. After placing grub on sdb, if you had another Linux on sda and ran ‘sudo update-grub’ from that other (sda) installation it would have found your install on sdb and added it to its grub list and allowed you boot it that way! My reasoning for putting grub on sdb (2nd HDD ) is to avoid overwriting the Windows MBR (type of grub). If you want to boot Windows by default all is good, as the system is basically unchanged. If you want Linux to boot first you can change the ‘first boot device/disk’ in the BIOS to that drive/disk (sdb). The machines (hardware/BIOS/motherboard) BOOT menu looks for a drive or device, HDD SSD USB DVD etc to boot, if a boot loader like grub is on it you can choose from the GRUB menu a bootable system on one of the drives. You can either SET the boot order of the machine in the BIOS or use the boot menu key at machine start up, usually by pressing F2 F8 F12 or some other key depending on the manufacture for a ‘this time’ boot drive sdb sdc etc. This is the order that the BIOS / hardware looks for a bootable disk/device not to be confused with the order within the GRUB menu, but the machine looking for GRUB or MBR on a disk / USB. Most machines (desktop/laptop) have something like this as the factory setting for boot. 1. DVD drive 2. first HDD/SSD (sda) this explains why you may hear/see your CD/DVD grinding/light flashing a little at start up as it might get looked at before the first HDD. If no 3rd option exists IE second HDD (sdb) it will fail to boot from that drive. If Linux Mint set the installer to put grub on the same drive as the system by default, most would ‘fail to boot’ because most machines are only set up to boot from HDD 1 (sda). Some machines (BIOS) will allow a long list such as 1st DVD, 2nd USB, 3rd HDD 1, 4th HDD 2, 5th HDD 3 etc, it keeps looking through the list until it finds a bootable drive.

[@manjunathanj9316]

@@2troke after deleting linux partitions from my secondary HDD. When I reboot grup shows up.. I don't know what to do. I could manage to boot into my windows from boot menu.

[@Malik-dec87]

@@manjunathanj9316 kzbin.info/www/bejne/farGf6ODj7SEbpo min 6'22 on, he explains how to remove grub

[@samdeur]

Nice explanation. Really useful thanks even for a former Unix sysadmin haven’t done this before need to save this vid for reference thanks again mate greetings from the Netherlands

[@zhukie]

But what if you have the newer UEFI system and not the legacy MBR? Apparently Linux will automatically install its GRUB bootloader onto your current Windows disc and not the empty/unallocated one :/

[@2troke]

At 6:25 in the video is shown how to put the boot loader on the Linux drive and NOT on the Windows drive. I recommend you unplug/remove the Windows drive during the installation of Linux for added safety if you're unsure then run sudo update-grub as shown at 30:20 in the video after Linux is installed and you've reconnected your Windows drive assuming you want to use the Linux system to boot into Windows. Alternatively you can choose what drive/system (Win/Linux) to boot from via the BIOS / UEFI each time you start the machine. My system is UEFI and this is how i do it.

[@JR-rd8zi]

Great guide. I'm doing option 1. New HP laptop with Windows 11 on the stock 1TB SATA drive that I want to leave alone. Installed new 500MB NVMe SSD which is getting Linux Mint 20.3. Had to boot Edge to get all the fancy stuff to load for the installer (mouse is fancy?). I was a little nervous as I didn't want to touch Windows 11, but this guide made me fearless. Just created a partition on /dev/nvme0n1 and pointed Grub at it. During boot I have the BIOS set to point to the NVMe and can select Windows 11 if I want. I'll only use Windows 11 for the HP BIOS upgrade utility and Steam games that require Windows. Next, I plan to shrink the 1TB drive to use as a Timeshift (OS) and Back In Time (User Data) local backup destination.

[@2troke]

Hi J R, and thank you, I'm glad it made you fearless. Sounds like you've got a solid plan there. Two separate drives is the way to go for dual booting IMO. You said 500MB NVMe but I'm guessing that’s a typo and its 500GB? BTW if you're going to use the other drive for timeshift it will need to be ‘mounted’ when timeshift runs in Linux Mint 20.3 so you'll need to manually mount it to run timeshift! Or you can use the ‘Disks’ utility in Linux Mint to auto mount at login, other drives / partitions if you want it (timeshift) to run in the background on a schedule as it does by default. My LM system drive is only 128GB so I've done the same as you plan, so that timeshift saves on a schedule to a folder on my 2TB drive! I found the same thing for Steam games on my 2TB drive, I had to mount the drive before starting Steam, so the auto mount makes it one less thing to think about. Won't matter for you if your games are on that nice fast NVMe, my 2TB HDD is showing its age compared to my SSD's and games take a while to load from it. Cheers

[@michaelhart1738]

Now I understand how to do this, many many thanks.

[@2troke]

Glad that it helped you.

[@jamesnear3911]

Just to let you know that I did get the dual boot hard drive to work. I installed windows 10 to its own separate Partition as dev/sda3 & dev/sda4 with ntsf files. Where I put the windows and it work. Then all I could boot to was windows. I found that windows does not read the Zorin side. I tried to update the grub. But that did not work. I tried win2grib that only put a menu for windows. Then I found a "Custom grub" in the software store. Installed it. Open it up followed instructions, and now I have Zoirn as 1st boot with Windows also listed. The best part IT ALL WORKED LIKE it should. Now I have to resize the window to be larger now so I can put programs on it, That I will have to figure out yet. Thank you for your very good work. It is the only one that worked.

[@2troke]

Good job, you got there.

[@mryup6100]

Helpful video man!

[@giugot87]

Hello, excellent video. I have an issue. In my laptop I installed a new ssd and installed linux. The old ssd still have windows on it. If I connect the old ssd through the usb port, I can't choose to boot windows or linux. Linux see the usb drive with windows. How can I boot windows from my old ssd connected through usb? Thanks

[@2troke]

I don’t think Windows will run from a USB drive! Other than when you're installing Windows from a USB drive, but the installed system won't run from USB to the best of my knowledge as Windows is ‘hardware dependant’ meaning it only runs on the hardware it was installed on. So your SSD would have been connected via SATA or an m.2 slot inside the machine when Windows was installed. Either way it won't run outside the machine unless there's some ‘hack’ to trick it. Linux will run from a USB drive though. I think you could even install it onto a USB drive then connect that drive to another type of computer and it will still boot/run although I haven’t tried this myself. I have installed Linux onto a USB drive though, just never tried to plug that drive into another machine. The best way I can think of is put Windows back in the machine and use the Linux SSD via USB.

[@daft990]

Dumb question, but if the disk you want to install Linux on is disk 0 (ie the first disk of the system). Can you still do it this way and change disk order in BIOS?

[@2troke]

“change disk order in BIOS?" If you mean disk BOOT order, yes that should work. Depending on your system, how many drives you have and so forth you may need to run ‘update GRUB’ so it can find each operating system. Not sure if some UEFI systems might have problem with that but I recently cloned my Linux Mint system from a SATA SSD to an NVMe drive, change boot order first boot device = NVMe, run sudo update-grub as the order of the other drives had changed. See here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pHyyaoCkiKyZfLs

[@daft990]

@2troke stellar, thank you! Yes, boot order was what I meant.

[@dob23]

Well done Mate Worked Perfectly and I am off of Windblows with the exception of work crap . Thanks again Mate

[@trp225]

However, it shows the Linux system only being setup to use / (root). What about the other partitions - Like swap and /home ? Please and thank you

[@2troke]

Swap is, on many Linux systems now, a ‘File’ on the main partition rather than a separate partition unless you create an actual Swap Partition. If you have a preference for having your ‘home’ somewhere else you can still do that, however this is beyond the scope of the video and frankly more advanced. The idea I was presenting here is of having a separate drive for each Operating System, independent of each other should either drive fail and without overwriting the Windows Boot loader on the Windows drive. Redundancy. My first experiences with Linux was dual booting ‘alongside’ Windows and then discovering that Windows wouldn’t boot after I erased Linux and learning all the hard lessons from hands on experience and heartache some years ago. Sharing /home with other systems has issues at times and Swap File versus a Swap Partition each have there own merits and users can make their own decisions for themselves should they choose. There's no right way or wrong way of doing things, rather whatever it is that works for you and your situation or set up. This was and is intended too show that it’s actually rather easy for almost anyone, who has some understanding of drives and partitions too reach for something a little more, and reap the reward, if that makes sense. I make no claim of being some Linux guru or computer expert rather just sharing what I do and why I do it. Moreover, Linux is all about choice, and you are in control of those choices. I hope this answers your question.

[@Magwaer]

I got a question. If somehow one of my OS gets virused/compromised, will my second OS get compromised as well?

[@2troke]

That’s above my pay grade and would depend on how the infection was obtained, what type it was, what operating systems you had, etc, but for the most part, generally speaking, each operating system is separated from the other so you’d be rather safe using the other operating system if one was infected. Best part is you could simply disconnect the infected drive! Probably no clear answer to a question like this so good question, bravo to you.

[@SivaKumar-gb5zq]

second disk (HDD) not showing up in disk management in ubuntu

[@2troke]

Have you tried Gparted in Ubuntu? Can you see it in Windows assuming you have Windows installed. I've had this with brand new drives before, try and put a partition table on it via any other means or as mentioned above.

[@razmac175]

Good Tutor well done mate! Ray UK

[@2troke]

Thanks mate, glad you enjoyed it

[@Elvis-dw7ux]

It use to work before - automatically - I used to get the Option screen in Linux Mint Cinamon - but now after reinstalling Linux Mint and XP on 2 separate HDD like before that option is gone??? Help...I never played with the GRUB Loader etc. so how did it work? Cheers from Toronto!

[@2troke]

Did you install XP before Linux Mint or after you installed Mint? Have you tried running ‘sudo update-grub’ in the terminal of Mint as shown at 30:20 in the video. If your system is UEFI then XP might not work properly, not sure how that would work. You should be able to bring up your hardware UEFI / BIOS (not grub) boot menu by pressing the appropriate key when you start the computer and choose the XP drive, esc F8 F12 delete, whatever your brand of PC may be. Shown at 31:12 in the video. If grub doesn’t show up when you start the machine (should display for 10 seconds) usually means it (Linux) is the ONLY operating system installed and therefore no need to display it. Hold the LEFT shift key down when you start up the machine should display the grub menu. If XP Isn’t on the menu run the command shown above and watch the output to see if it detected XP and added it to the menu then you should be good to go.

[@karunasagarprusty9526]

If we install Linux on second HDD/SSD and during installation if we select that HDD/SSD to install GRUB then what happens to the efi partition where Windows is installed?? Does installing GRUB on second drive creates another boot/efi partition for linux?? It is not recommended to have more than one efi partition on a single drive!! But we can have separate efi partition on separate drives.

[@2troke]

What happens to the Windows efi partition? Nothing. Does installing grub on second drive create another boot/efi partition for Linux? Short answer is yes/probably, however I usually manually create the efi partition myself. I'm guessing that you want to do something similar but have a UEFI system? But I've shown legacy/BIOS in the video. I filmed this in Virtualbox IE using virtual machines/computers as I can't get good quality by filming my screen with a camera, and I did it in BIOS mode. My actual hardware system is UEFI and when I installed Linux Mint 20.1 recently I did it as seen in the video, HOWEVER, I did create an efi partition manually (about 300MB) on the Linux drive during the install process and chose that same drive for grub/boot loader. I would guess that regardless of BIOS or UEFI, doing it as shown in the video would likely work. The best solution would be to remove the Windows drive during the install, this also avoids the possibility overwriting your Windows system accidentally, then reconnect afterwards, boot into Linux and run ‘sudo update-grub’ in the terminal and it will find the Windows system on the other drive and add it to the Linux grub menu. Then set your hardware BIOS UEFI first boot device to the Linux drive. Or just use your boot device menu to select which system you want. As mentioned it will most likely work regardless of BIOS or UEFI and there are so many options and different ways of doing this that I can't cover them all and that’s above my pay grade as they say. I went for what I believe to be the easiest option for most people that still gives redundancy should a drive/system fail. Also its impossible to know who is going to watch and try this and what their knowledge level is going to be so I'm assuming anyone watching can understand what I'm doing as you have demonstrated. I trust I've given some clarity for you. As usual back up your data first and do at your own risk.

[@chagoriver7159]

perfect just what i was looking for. thx

[@eriksandner5750]

Absolutely great tutorial 🙂 Thank You very much and greetings from Austria (near the Lake of Constanz)

[@2troke]

Austria, Well, G’day Mate. Being from Australia, I love that joke. I happen to be in Austria this weekend, well the other side of my computer screen is pointed your way, as the Erzbergrodeo is on. I imagine you've heard of it even if you're not into off road motorbikes. Very beautiful part of the world you live in. Oh, glad you liked the video, cheers from down under.

[@ObsessiveBf_]

Can this cause long term issues such with updating a specific OS? I am looking into adding a Linux drive to my windows computer

[@2troke]

Long term? Maybe forgetting about the other system and accidentally overwriting its bootloader. I've heard many people claim that Windows updates will screw up the Linux system but the worst thing I've had is Windows changing the time and screwing up the Linux time until it updates its time again, frustrating but fairly harmless. Long term issues, I'd say no. I installed mine in 2016 and no problems. I just let Windows do its thing regarding updates. So long as you're aware during Linux updates upgrades etc, to NOT put GRUB on the Windows drive, as I've been, you shouldn’t have any problems.

[@nobly94]

Hey can install Windows if I already have linux installed. Or is installing Windows on one of the drives a prerequisite?

[@2troke]

Generally Windows is installed first, then Linux. But I guess that’s assuming there both on the same drive. Not sure what Windows would do if Linux was already installed, and Windows can't read the Linux file system so it might see it as just another partition and overwrite it, or avoid it! If Windows is being installed on a separate drive I can't see why you couldn’t disconnect the Linux drive, install Windows then reconnect Linux, so Windows doesn’t try to overwrite GRUB on Linux drive. You could then run GRUB update in Linux to add the Windows drive/install to GRUB. I've never done it but can't see why it wouldn’t work provided they're on separate drives, and remove Linux just as security/safety from Windows install process. Let me know how it goes if you proceed.

[@ryaaand]

Why do I get a prompt to add an EFI partition? I mean, where I put this EFI partition? Sda or sdb (my windows at sda btw)?

[@2troke]

I put efi partition on same drive as the OS I'm installing! That way you don't touch your Windows drive. In your case looks like it would be sdb.

[@ryaaand]

@@2troke how much size?

[@2troke]

@@ryaaand 300-500MB should do it, PopOS asks for 500MB if your using that otherwise 300MB should work

[@joseph7105]

Thanks! I followed your instructions and put the boot loader on the 2nd ssd (the one i installed linux on) but after install im now getting the grub boot menu everytime i start up. Any idea why this would be?

[@2troke]

When more than one operating system is present on the machine, GRUB will display at start up. My multi boot machine displays its GRUB menu at boot up whereas my single boot (Linux Mint only) machines boot directly into Linux Mint without displaying GRUB.

[@joseph7105]

@2troke Thanks for the response. I mustve misunderstood the video. I thought the intention of putting the boot loader on the same ssd as Mint was so that Windows would automatically boot and Grub wouldn't show unless you press the boot menu key

[@2troke]

@@joseph7105 Sorry I'm a bit late getting back to you, we've had power/Internet outage for a few days. The main reason for putting GRUB on the same SSD as Linux is so you don’t touch/change the Windows drive / boot loader but can still access it anytime without having to press the boot menu key at start up but there's plenty of options for how you want to set up a dual boot machine. If you set your BIOS / UEFI to first boot device as the Windows drive (most machines would already be set this way) then it should behave much as you thought, boot into Windows and not even notice Linux sitting there (Windows can't read Linux file system anyway). I cover this at around the 7:00 minute mark of the video. Also see around 8:30 of the video. The way I've done it in the video would favour people wanting to boot into Linux mostly as it is at the top of the (GRUB menu) list. You can change the list order IE which operating system to boot first and the timeout countdown etc. You can even put GRUB on a USB drive! If you had removed/disconnected the Windows drive when installing Linux it won't even add it to GRUB, because its not present, giving you 2 totally independent drives / operating systems. You need to go into your machines boot menu to select the other drive / operating system of course. Its always a bit tricky trying to explain these things in a video as one never knows what the viewers system set up is, their knowledge and expertise or their desired outcome. If you want to boot Windows by default without seeing GRUB and only occasionally boot Linux do as mentioned above and set first boot device to the Windows drive and you should be good to go. Hope this helps.

[@joseph7105]

@2troke Thank you that is very helpful and that does make perfect sense. I will make these adjustments. Cheers!

[@Famelhaut]

Perfect tutorial. Thank you

[@bhushan2k]

Does this work for usb hdd too? I tried installing Ubuntu and grub on usb hdd. Didn't want to touch primary windows nvme. Ubuntu successfully got installed but grub installed on primary. I was confused. I did many things and after research i found the way to delete grub entry from primary and restore windows boot loader. Since then I have been watching videos to get a correct solution.

[@2troke]

Been awhile since I've installed onto a USB drive but I can't see why it shouldn’t work the same.

[@Twelvebut]

what if i have stuff on the second hard drive, although it haa free unallotcated space

[@2troke]

Your situation is shown on the second method starting at 19:40 on the video.

[@GoogleGoogle-qt9od]

Excellent Explanation😀- Greetings from Berlin! I love Both Linux and Windows :))

[@2troke]

Thanks mate from down under!

[@tonyknors672]

Super tutorial ! Thanks !!!!

[@DarthAndredu]

I am a little bit surprised because I´ve always heard that in a Linux Windows Dual Boot system the Linux Boot Loader belongs in the Windows EFI partitipn.

[@2troke]

Hi there, I just checked my main system that has Windows 10 on one SSD and Linux Mint on another SSD, on a UEFI enabled motherboard. Windows was installed in 2016 before I installed Linux (Zorin 11 at the time) on the other SSD. Since then I ran Linux Mint 18.x series (4-5 years trouble free) until I fresh installed (not upgraded from 18.x) Mint 20.x series in May of 2021. Windows has only been updated along the way so about 5 years old now. While I don’t recall exactly how I installed Mint 20.x I do know that I put ‘Grub’ on the same SSD as the Linux system (sda) and that the Windows SSD (sdb) was untouched/unchanged by this process even though I left it plugged into the board (normally I would disconnect the cable for ‘safety’). Both SSD’s have an ‘efi’ partition of about 200-300MB. Exactly where ‘Grub’ or the Windows MBR are I don’t know but seeing an efi partition on the drives is what I normally see. My Linux SSD (sda in Linux - Disk 0 in Windows) is the first boot device in the BIOS / UEFI and its ‘Grub Menu’ controls both systems, the Windows SSD (sdb in Linux - Disk 1 in Windows) is the second boot device. I just removed the SATA cable from the Windows SSD and turned the machine on and it booted into Linux as usual, Windows Boot Manager still appeared in the ‘grub menu’ but obviously wouldn’t boot as the drive was disconnected. Then I unplugged the Linux SSD and reconnected the Windows one and it booted into Windows (no ‘Grub menu’), just straight into Windows like any normal Windows system. I have never tested the system before like that but it worked exactly as I expected, if either SSD fails I still have the other. Its important to note that when creating a dual boot Windows/Linux system (on the same drive) we normally install Windows FIRST then Linux, which from memory will actually overwrite the Windows MBR with Grub. This is fine until you delete/remove Linux and Windows becomes unbootable until its MBR is repaired. Hence why I've done it the way I've shown in the video. Whilst I did not differentiate between BIOS and UEFI in the video it should work the same regardless as Linux Mint is UEFI capable although you may need to create an ‘efi’ partition in some circumstances and/or ensure your install media (USB) is started in efi mode. Hope this helps clarify things.

[@2troke]

Well you got me thinking about all this so I tested my system and it worked about as I expected save for some BIOS issues that I did resolve. Here is the result: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z4u8k3eJbdF2nas

[@vortex2422]

is it possible to create a partition on a drive that i have games/files on without wiping the whole thing?

[@2troke]

Yes, I do just that in part 2 starting at 19:40 just be sure you know what you're doing and have back up of your games/files.

[@vortex2422]

@@2troke well there's 200 gb of stuff on that drive sooo

[@tonyknors672]

Is it possible to preserve Windows 10 WITH Bitlocker ? What is a good alternative to bitlocker for Mint ? Thank You !!!!

[@music_and_stuff]

Good video, exactly what I was looking for. Thanks

[@2troke]

Hey cool thanks.

[@Stefan1971HH]

Thanks for this well done tutorial. I guess for Windows 11 instead of 10 and the newest edition of Linux Mint the methods remain the same...?

[@2troke]

With Windows who knows, but if its (Win 11) already installed hopefully it is the same.

[@davey820051]

Well done, Bradley! Thank you.

[@happyfeet4506]

Great video. This is now the way I have Windows and Linux. The grub loader is on the Linux drive so any issues just reinstall Linux and update grub loader job done 👍

[@2troke]

That’s it, you're onto it. Also if either drive/disk ‘fails’ the other one is unaffected and its system will still boot. Thanks for dropping by.

[@DrRizzwan]

Thank you. Wished i watched your video first. I watched other videos which didn't tell me about the formats of the drives beforehand. I had bitlocker enabled on my secondary empty drive, which locked my windows drive, oh well. At least my linux is sorted. To anyone else, make sure bitlocker is not enabled on your secondary drive to avoid this, else youd be looking for a decryption key.

[@fossbin]

Amazing video, took hours to find this but I'm glad I was able to find this video. I do have a question though. Does deleting the partition from the second drive (on which the bootloader is installed) delete the grub bootloader as well ? This is for the case that the drive also contains some files from windows and that Linux has been installed on a separate partition on that drive.

[@2troke]

Short answer, Yes, Grub will be gone. If I may ask, what is it that you are trying to do?

[@fossbin]

@@2troke oh that's great to know. I'm trying to do the 2nd method of the video. I couldn't find any clearcut guide before watching this video. Thanks for all the help !

[@2troke]

@@fossbin Cool. Feel free to ask questions if you're unsure.

[@OmlParadox]

Thx for the tutorial really helpful and detail

[@Attoszhun]

I can recomend this video to all linux beginners. This very detailed/verbose video gave me the confidence to make my first partitioning myself. In the future i might consider swap partitions which i found out about quite recently although with all these high RAM spaces it might not be essential to most users. :)

[@2troke]

Hi, thanks for the kind words about the video. Regarding swap partitions, Linux Mint and many Linux distros now use a swap file rather than a swap partition by default when you install the system unless you manually create a swap partition during install. You can check your system by looking at the root of your drive (/) and you should see a file called ‘swapfile’ likely around 2.1GB in size, so you should still have ‘swap’ available on your system. Also by looking at your ‘System Monitor’ via the main menu and you will see swap listed there. I don’t recall if I mentioned any of this in the video, likely not as newer users were the target audience. It is possible to later on create and use a swap partition if you desire and many videos on KZbin about how to do this. Hope this helps.

[@SarcasmForDummies]

Back in the days of Windows XP I had Linux and windows on the same drive. Today I prefer to have them on two different physical drives as I have had difficulty with the windows boot loader and grub over writing each other. I just ordered a 2nd HDD for my desktop and I'm going to reinstall Windows 10 on that leaving my Linux drive untouched. When I reinstall windows I will unplug my linux drive. I will then reconnect and update grub. I'm using Garuda linux which does not support or recommend dual boot. By using two different drives I'll just choose drive by F12 at boot up.

[@2troke]

Sounds like a plan to me. One question, when you reconnect and run grub update from your Garuda Linux isn’t it still going to find Win 10 and add it to its Grub boot menu? IE ‘changing it’, thus also enabling you to boot Win 10 from the Garuda drive if it works. I've only played with Garuda in virtual machines some time ago so don’t know much but thought it was Arch based and have in the past had (Manjaro) issues with dual boot, Grub changed/over written and kernel panic-non bootable system. I'm not saying this is or is isn’t going to work with Garuda. What you describe is basically how I do it with Win 10 & Linux Mint. You could, in theory install Grub onto an old USB drive and leave that plugged in and set you machine boot order to ‘first boot device’ old USB drive. I haven’t done this myself. I'm only asking the question, because if I was doing what your going to these are the issues I would be concerned with assuming Garuda is Arch. From my own personal experiences, and more than 5 or 6 years since I've play with Arch systems so I'm a bit rusty. I'd be happy to hear from you once you've finished and know how it went?

[@SarcasmForDummies]

@@2troke Going to try this weekend. I'm ok with Garuda adding a boot entry for Windows, or not. As long as Garuda doesn't mess with windows UEFI partition on the other drive and Windows doesn't mess with Garuda's own boot partition on it's own drive. I'll let you know how it works out. I plan to only boot into windows to update a Garmin or for my wife to use itunes for her iphone and I'll probably use "F12" on keyboard to boot that drive. Ideally they aren't even aware of the other; but you are correct in that if grub identifies it an entry will be added even if I don't plan on using it.

[@2troke]

@@SarcasmForDummies I've been Dual Booting Win 10 and Linux Mint, separate SSD's same machine, UEFI, since 2016 no issues so far. I use Mint's Grub to boot into Windows, but your method is still good. BTW, I added PopOS to the Win 10 drive 6 months ago then updated Mint's grub, all good. Keen to hear your result.

[@SarcasmForDummies]

@@2troke So I had Garuda on one drive with it's own UEFI partition and I physically unplugged it. I installed a second hard drive and plugged it in and installed Windows 10 using Dell recovery/restore USB. It must have changed BIOS settings because when I plugged in the Linux drive neither would boot. Windows changed BIOS: SATA: RAID Secure Boot: ON Windows Boot Manager, Garuda 2nd I changed: SATA: AHCI Secure Boot: OFF Boot Order: Garuda, Windows 2nd Booted into Garuda, updated grub then rebooted and tried to boot into windows but windows would not boot since I changed BIOS configurations but I was able to boot into a recovery mode for windows and allowed it to recover the OS with my chosen BIOS settings in place. I then was able to boot into Windows 10 through the linux grub menu on the linux drive. All is working good now. I intend to always keep them on different drives because of over writing problems that I have had in the past.

[@2troke]

@@SarcasmForDummies Well you got there that’s the main thing. I was terrified of UEFI at first and had some strange stuff happen like only one or the other system would boot. For the most part now it just works. When I added PopOS to my Win 10 SSD making my machine a triple boot I wasn’t sure what would happen. PopOS forces you to have 500MB UEFI partition so the Win 10 drive has 2 UEFI partitions and Linux Mint has its own UEFI on its drive but it seems to work. I'm not sure but think if I removed my Mint drive I could probably only boot Win 10 (maybe PopOS from F12 boot menu??) on the other but all three boot from the Linux Mint drive’s Grub menu. The ‘normal’ way to dual boot Windows and Linux is install Windows first then Linux. I'm wondering as you had Garuda already ‘installed’ albeit on it own removed drive that if you had installed Garuda on its own drive AFTER you installed Windows (normal way) if it would have picked up or accepted the BIOS more easily if you know what I mean. I don’t mess with my system these days like I used. I installed Windows 10 in 2016 then Linux Mint 18 about a year later (already had Zorin) on separate SSD's and had no issue until I fresh installed LM 20 about 4 years later (a year ago now) and had to turn off secure boot or something like that also. I have NOT had any of the systems overwrite boot loaders or such since 2016 BTW. Windows is a sort of necessary evil for many of us, and UEFI was a MS thing as far as I know, more evil??. I really only keep Win 10 around too, well, update Windows 10 about once a month as I don’t use it but its like a spare tyre just in case. One other thing and I still haven’t figured it out as I've given up is getting the time/clocks between Windows and Linux to play nice. Every time I start Windows to run updates it says “you use your PC from 2AM to 6AM would you like to set as your preferred hours’ or some such thing. If Windows runs for long enough to update itself (often happens) it will reset the system (BIOS) time to its time, or has a different way of dealing with daylight saving (summer / winter time) than Linux does and then when I boot into Mint the clock is all wrong and some stuff (web browser even) doesn’t like that, won't work. Both Win and Mint are set to “use Internet time” but it can take a while to update. I was hoping there was a registry setting to force Windows to play nice, Windows is just Windows. The joys and challenges of dual booting but hey it is rewarding when it works. Glad to see you won your Windows battle mate.

[@smprinon4503]

I'm using dual boot. I have only 120 gigs of ssd. If i buy a new Hard drive then how i'll add it to my preinstalled operating systems (Windows+kali Linux).

[@2troke]

If you add an additional HDD or SSD to your machine and install Linux onto that it will find and add the other operating systems from your 120GB SSD to its boot loader during install, then you set your machines first boot device/drive to the new HDD in the BIOS. Make sure during install that you choose the new HDD (most likely sdb shown at 6:28 - 9:34) for grub install otherwise it will install grub on the 120 SSD (likely sda / C: drive) and overwrite that. You could let it install grub onto the 120 SSD if you wanted to and not bother to change the machines boot order in the BIOS, however this defeats the whole purpose of what the video is about, redundancy if a drive fails. Either way will still work though. Finally just an idea, if you're adding an additional HDD, and as your SSD is only 120GB, the HDD will likely be much larger giving room for a new Linux system and extra data storage in which case you may want to consider creating an NTFS partition on it prior (or after installing Linux) to installing Linux for data storage between Windows and your Linux systems. I'm sure you already figured out Windows can't read Linux (ext4) file systems! Hope all this makes sense.

[@vagabond-xd1vd]

Hello, what if I have data on this disk but I want to install Linux in the free space only, the problem is it shows me the whole disk as free space even though it has data. And thanks in advance

[@2troke]

If you use ‘Gparted’ partition editor from almost any Linux Live USB session you should be able to ‘see’ the data as the yellow area. Then resize/move the data/partition and create new partitions as needed for the Linux installation. When in the live USB desktop session click the menu and type gparted.

[@justrosy5]

How do you undo this? If I have two drives, one with Windows 10, the other with (any) Linux, set up as a dual boot, how do I later remove Windows from the dual boot list and make it so my PC is just Linux (and only uses the old Windows 10 drive for data storage)? Is there a way to switch everything over like that, so I can dual boot until I'm ready to only use Linux and just forget Windows ever existed? (I want to do that because I don't like how hackers can still screw around with a Linux root if they can access your PC via Windows if you have a dual-boot system). Could I just reset the boot order to USB first, remove the Windows 10 drive, stick in the Linux (any flavor, I'm thinking Ubuntu for myself personally) USB in, boot up, use that to put the bootloader onto a new, blank drive that will always stay with the PC, call that drive "Drive 0", then put a new drive in along side it, call that "Drive 1" then install a Linux flavor to that drive, then shut the whole thing down, keep the Linux USB in, put the Windows hard drive back in, boot up to the Linux USB, then somehow add the Windows drive to the bootloader on "Drive 0" (so now, the Windows drive would be "Drive 2")? Is that even possible? Would I be able to use the Linux USB to later remove the Windows drive from the bootloader on "Drive 1", shut everything down, then remove the Windows drive and everything would work smoothly? Also, if that would work well, then how big of a drive would I need for my new "Drive 0"? How much space does a bootloader actually need to function well?

[@2troke]

To undo/remove Linux from this set up, just remove or reformat its drive, then set BIOS boot order back to your Windows drive. To remove Windows from this set up: 1. remove and/or format the Windows drive as desired, if you want to remove Windows from the GRUB menu, see below. 2. boot into Linux on the other (Linux) drive or use the live USB 3. in the terminal run ‘sudo update-grub’ (without quotes) and it will search for boot devices/operating systems and as Windows isn’t present it won't appear. Then use your formally ‘Windows’ drive as required. See 30:30 in the video. Also I've done a few other videos about changing boot order and GRUB so look back on my channel for more info. Drive numbering, drive 0, drive 1 drive 2 etc is determined by which port its cable is connected to on the motherboard. So if your Windows is currently drive 0, and you plug your Linux drive into that port/cable, Linux is now drive 0 and Windows will become whatever port its plugged into. Hence if you move Windows to another port to make Linux the first port, and your BIOS boot order is drive (port) 0, Windows won't be ‘seen’ unless you have option to include other ports in the boot list, which most PC's have/do. Eg most systems will default to USB first, floppy 2nd, drive 0 3rd, drive 1 4th, etc etc so bear this in mind when moving drives around as your system might not boot depending on BIOS settings. If no other drives are present, GRUB will be written to the currently installed drive! Otherwise you can chose what drive to install GRUB onto during installation of most Linux systems. See 6:25 to about the 13 ½ minute mark for more detail from the video. My Windows is seldom ever used, mostly I start it every few months just to let it update, when I not need PC for several hours, then boot back into Linux. If Windows isn’t running then its little more than ‘data’ sitting on a drive/partition, not much of an attack vector really. So personally I don’t worry about things like that. Plus me, and most likely you, aren't a target, we have nothing of value so to speak. So long as we’re sensible, don’t click random links or suspicious email links etc you're generally safe. I've had no issues with Linux (or Win 10) for over ten years now. I could live without Windows at all and have for about 10 years now but its a bit like a spare tyre (tire) in your car, you may never need it but nice to know its there if you do. Perhaps you could encrypt the drive/partition so even if you use the rest of the drive for data Windows is still ‘locked’ away on there just in case. Just giving you some options to think about as unless you've been Linux only for some time you may need Windows to get you out of a pickle in the future! Maybe Linux or its drive dies one day, if Windows is still there, even if not on the Linux GRUB boot menu (won't be if drive dies), you can still boot into Windows by choosing that drive/device in the BIOS, which is sort of half the benefit of installing Windows on one drive and Linux on another as I've shown in the video. But its your computer so do as you see fit, just some options to explore. To my knowledge the boot loader is very small, MB's or maybe only KB's in size, however some systems, PopOS for example, might require about 500MB for UEFI boot configurations. Either way its tiny for today’s systems. Hope this helps. All the best my friend.

[@justrosy5]

@@2troke Thanks for all the helpful info! Mine is a newer setup though; it doesn't use the old style cable with multiple ports on it. It's all M.2 and SATA/SSD drives and USB ports. I wanted to get the old Master/Slave cabling, but that wasn't available, so I had to learn how to install everything based on the new tech when I built my PC. Thing is, I don't really know how to ensure that "Drive 0" is always in the correct slot. I just have one M.2 in its slot on the motherboard, plus other drives connected via SATA or USB, depending on the connections they came with. I have 2 other M.2 slots, and want to use all three of them for this setup. Ultimately, I'd like to have this be sort of an operating system "plug 'n play" kind of a setup, where I can pull the Windows drive out before bootup, then use a M.2. reader to read the data off of it (via USB) for the data, on one day... Then on some other day, if I want to, pop that drive back in prior to bootup, remove the Linux drive, boot up, then use the Linux drive for its data. Eventually, I'd be happy to add a Mac OS (OS X? I haven't kept up with that) into the mix, but I figure I should at least try to learn this just with Windows and Linux first. Ultimately, I want to just build multi-OS PCs that just allow users to do what they wish, when they wish, and get on with their lives. I know most people just pick an OS and run with it, but more and more, that's not good enough for people, and anymore, it's not what I want either. I know there's nothing wrong with just keeping everything listed in the bootloader and then just choosing the OS wanted for a session while leaving the others as-is, but I think there's some benefit to having more flexibility than that as well. This is why I'm wanting to put GRUB onto it's own smaller drive (thanks for the 500 MB info!), etc. If for no other reason than that an OS can die, especially if you're in root and make a fatal mistake. I'm not very familiar with UEFI, other than that it exists on my system, but I remember MBR and what a mess that was if Linux died because of a root mistake. Windows couldn't handle it if all the sudden, Linux wasn't there when the MBR was looking for it. I'm keeping your notes on this and will refer back to them as I design my setup! Do you know how to know for sure which M.2 slot (or other drive inputs, such as SATA or USB) is supposed to be which Drive number (0, 1, 2, etc) on motherboards that have multiple M.2 slots and the other connections (SATA, USB, etc) as well? Is it just the order in which the drives themselves are installed, if you do it one at a time?

[@2troke]

@@justrosy5 Your motherboard manual should list the port numbers or some sort of identification system. On the whole if GRUB / MBR is on the drive the operating system is on you can likely still plug it into any available port and boot it OK, unless for example GRUB is expecting to find the operating system on a different drive/port number (dual boot installs on separate drives for example) and you've moved it... been awhile since I've played with this sort of stuff!. I built my machine in 2016. Installed Windows on one drive then installed Linux on the other and let GRUB find Windows on the other and set the Linux drive as first boot device and select which operating system I want from there. Since then, still same Windows installed, I've upgrade Linux Mint (reinstalled new versions) a few times as shown in the video, letting it rediscover Windows each time without any issues. I haven’t moved drives about or replaced any as you're planning. I did disconnect Linux about a year ago, and Windows still booted up fine. Sort of pretended Linux died as a test, all worked OK, then plugged Linux back in and it was all good again. Although my UEFI BIOS had changed boot order so I had to reset it again. GRUB has options for customisation via terminal commands and there's an app called Grub Customizer in the Linux Mint software Manager and I've used it without issues but I don’t bother with any of that these days. I've shown/done some of this stuff in other videos over the last several years. Pretty sure I do some ‘fancy’ GRUB stuff in here, sorry you'll have to scan through them or check if I've put timestamps in description. kzbin.info/www/bejne/m2e2nGODms9oqdU kzbin.info/www/bejne/pXK8ioqwqM6hZ68 You can install GRUB onto a USB drive, so if you've got a few older 1 or 2GB USB thumb drives laying about you can use them for GRUB. This way you could likely have a few ‘preconfigured’ set ups of drive combinations/operating systems and just chose the right USB from BIOS. There's also EasyBCD boot loader (for Windows from neostart dot net) and other boot loaders such as ‘lilo’ and more. neosmart.net/EasyBCD/ If you're doing this for other people, good luck, I think confusion and issues when chopping and changing will inevitably happen, you'll be getting phone calls! Might be best to install each as stand alone all on its own drive...remove all other drives during each separate system install would be my best guess. If Linux is the only system on a drive and no other systems present during install then GRUB does not display during boot up (after install) so no confusing options are offered. To bring up the GRUB menu you hold the left Shift key during start up of the machine. Each M.2 port will probably still be listed as a number, right click the Start button in Windows and choose ‘Disk Management’ from there it shows disk 0 disk 1 dick 2 etc and I think the app ‘’Disks’ (gnome-disks) in Linux Mint will list them as sda sdb sdc or m.2a m.2b m.2c (its different for M.2 but I forget what they're called) basically a b c or similar IE 0 1 2 etc, same thing different. CD/DVD drives are sr0 sr1 sr2, USB drives just get the next letter after SSD/HDD in the order they're connected, sdd sde etc. Then you could identify which ports/drives are which! I forget what M.2 NVMe and mSATA or other form factor/types of drive show up as but it should be different. Normal cable SATA SSD's or HDD's are sda sdb sdc. So port 0 would be sda, port 1 sdb and port 2 sdc. I think M.2 NVMe is ‘nve0 nve1 nve2’ or something like that, I don’t have any M.2 drives yet. Even a live USB should work for this before you install from it. Just search ‘disks’ in the menu. I'd reckon the port a drive is in would determine what ‘id’ number or letter (Win/Linux) the drive is allocated but can't say for sure and different motherboards might be different also. I'm not very familiar with M.2 systems but I know my motherboard will disable one of the SATA ports if I connect an M.2 due to there only being so many ‘BUSES’ on the board, so that might be something to watch out for although it probably won't really effect things for the most part as far as plugging and playing other than your drives may be in different positions (port numbers) so be careful when formatting and reinstalling etc. And Grub or Windows boot loaders will/might ‘fail’ because things aren't where they expect to find them. If your drives are different brands/sizes then that might be a better way to monitor things which is what I do, Samsung 128GB xxxxx, Western digital 256GB xxxxx and so forth. As to making fatal mistakes, if you have a large enough spare USB HDD laying about. I only have 128GB SSDs for my operating systems so this still works for me with a 1 TB USB! Remember the app ‘Disks’ is a “drive/disk” tool not “partition” as far as this form of back up is concerned. Only takes 15-30 minutes to fully restore everything or even to revert back to some other operating system. Haven't tried it on UEFI. kzbin.info/www/bejne/nYrTeYObaLt0hdE An earlier version of the same video I think! part 1 kzbin.info/www/bejne/rauXpK2wgbt5n6s part2 kzbin.info/www/bejne/sKm7gpaKq7V2fKc Seems like you're playing and experimenting with things rather than trying to set up your actual system, in which case you have the luxury or just reinstalling or whatever else you want to try rather than ‘risking’ your system and data, I'm just guessing from some of your remarks though. Been there done that. These days I just want it to work when I turn it on. But if that’s what you're doing then have fun with it, that’s how I learnt. That said, if you're using your actual system then be careful, back your data etc etc... Finally: I've used this a few times when GRUB breaks, from a live USB drive. community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/245 sudo mount /dev/sdXY /mnt sudo grub-install --root-directory=/mnt/ /dev/sdX Just two lines, XY might become ‘a1’ or whatever on your system on the first command X might be ‘a’ or whatever on your system on the second command Easy when you know what to look for. Once again ‘Disks’ is a good tool for identifying your drives even from a live USB.

[@justrosy5]

@@2troke Wow, thank you so much for all this info! It's a lot to take in, so I'm going to take my time with it! Thanks for reminding me about the motherboard manual. I do need to familiarize myself more with it than just finding the ports for the parts when building it! Makes me wonder if maybe the drive numbers are printed on the board, too. Anyway, I'll let you know how this goes! Thanks for posting all of this! I'm sure it'll help a lot of people out there!

[@emendoesyt]

hey can i use the same method for zorin? Both are ubuntu based right?

[@2troke]

Should be almost the same although I haven't used Zorin for a few years, I think you'll be fine.

[@emendoesyt]

@@2troke nice

[@manjunathanj9316]

Grub shows after deleting linux partitions from my second HDD... Please reply what should I do

[@2troke]

What HDD did you install grub too when you installed Linux? The first or second HDD? If Windows is on the first drive and Linux was on the second and you put grub on the second HDD also then you should be able to go into your BIOS and change the first boot device to the Windows (1st HDD) and all should be as it was before you even installed Linux. Or pressing whatever key brings up your system (hardware) boot menu when you turn on the computer should take you straight to Windows, assuming it was on the first drive to begin with. Or you could try disconnecting the second drive and see if it boots straight to Windows that way other wise it would seem you overwrote the Windows boot loader when you installed Linux by NOT putting GRUB on the second drive. This is fixable so don’t go deleting anything until you can figure out what the issue is.

[@manjunathanj9316]

@@2troke thanks

[@manjunathanj9316]

@@2troke I was trying to wipe a particular partition in second drive using dispart that I suspect to have grub. I the process I wiped my whole second disk. Even after that I rebooted my system and It entered into "gnu grub 20.4 minimal bash-like single line " this interface. My bad... Then I entered into bios there I found "ubuntu" to be first in boot priority. I brought it down to the last now my system boots into windows successfully.

[@2troke]

@@manjunathanj9316 So its fixed then?

[@manjunathanj9316]

@@2troke yes!!! From now I'm going to use virtual box to try out linux distro. Because All my data in second disk is no more. Thanks mister for helping out to get rid of this problem.

[@k327dev]

10:47 What do you mean by that?

[@2troke]

Unplug/remove the Windows drive so that you can not accidentally choose and overwrite/delete/damage the information on it. A bit of a guarantee if you will. If the Windows drive is not present it can not be changed. Hope that clears this up for you.

[@k327dev]

@@2troke Ok, and how can I accidentally choose it?

[@ceruaphadion]

Can I install linux mint to a empty 2nd hard drive D drive (windows) on it and over write. Is it going to be a disaster? Thanks

[@2troke]

I'm guessing you don’t want to keep any data on the second drive whereas I've ‘preserved’ it in the video? If so you can ignore the part where we shrink the volume with the data on it and just install Linux Mint onto that drive. So long as none of the contents of the second drive are needed for your current operating system on the first drive you are basically doing what I've shown in the first part of the video, IE adding a new drive to the machine, in which case you should be fine.

[@hristovasilev5846]

does this splitting and putting in two operating systems damage computer in any way?

[@2troke]

Damage? Change yes! You could ‘damage’ the computer putting in a second hard drive if you weren't careful or didn’t know what you were doing. Or you could ‘damage’ (delete) data if you didn’t know what you were doing. If your computer already has 2 hard drives inside it then all you would be doing is installing a second operating system onto that drive, Linux in this case. What the video is showing is a way of having both Windows and Linux on the same computer but both operating systems are ‘independent’ of each other, if one drive failed the other and its operating system would still work. If you make a mistake installing Linux you could accidentally erase Windows so be sure you know what you're doing. Whilst I've attempted to explain it as simply as I could I don’t recommend doing this unless you have some understanding of how your hardware is configured, BIOS boot order, that sort of thing.

[@Nazareth434]

I beleive that If you delete Linux from dualboot single disk, you would just have to just run something like macrium reflect free, from a disk to a live cd session, ie boot into the disk or USB, and run "fix boot issues" (located in the left hand column once the macrium reflect reaches desktop environment)- this would reset windows to boot up with windows bootloader again. Great bit of software macrium, and free (free version still available online from major geeks- get it while it's still available) and I've cloned from a larger disk onto a smaller one with success, although I've had to run "bootfix" in Linux live cd session, and also run macrium reflect to get windows to boot too after doing the cloning. Kind of a pain, but it does work.

[@2troke]

You are correct. Plenty of tools available to fix problems for sure. As long as you know what you've done to select the right tool. I'm sure I've reinstalled Windows and Linux many times when a tool such as the live CD/USB would have worked. Fixboot, reinstall GRUB etc. Cloning is very interesting technology, done a bit years ago with Norton Ghost, very cool. As frustrating as computers can be there's also that sense of YES when you finally figure it out! I've generally learned how far I can bend it before it breaks these days. Many a night up till 1-2AM reloading Windows and drivers...Or inserting the Linux Live CD/USB. Thanks for the well written and informative comment.

[@wolfenstein6676]

I have the two operating systems on separate drives, when I boot the computer they both appear as an option, however, when Linux Mint goes to boot all I get is a black screen and a command prompt with this on it 👉 GRUB>_ It flashes, waiting for me to type something in order to continue to Linux Mint. When I disconnect the Windows hard drive the Linux operating system boots without any problems. I used 'EasyBCD' to dual boot them too, but still no joy. Does anyone know how fix this?

[@2troke]

Do you have a UEFI enabled BIOS? Did you create an efi partition on the Linux drive? There is an option in the Linux Mint installer to do this. I suspect Windows is installed in UEFI mode and Linux in BIOS mode. GRUB may need to be re-installed which you can do from the live USB drive you installed Linux Mint with or if you've just installed Linux Mint and haven’t begun to use/configure it up yet re-installing Linux Mint, with the efi partition on the Linux drive might be just as easy. Remember to place the ‘boot loader’ onto the Linux drive so as not to overwrite the Windows boot loader on its drive. Or disconnect the Windows drive first (best) and run 'update grub' once LM is up and running as shown at about 30:20 mark in the video. You can use ‘Disks’ app found in the Linux Mint main menu to view your partitions.

[@mf-wg1qi]

What about Secure Boot or BIOS Mode UEFI?

[@2troke]

As I understand it, if your system is UEFI then Windows (10) should already be installed in UEFI mode (unless upgraded from an earlier Win version that was installed BIOS mode on UEFI capable hardware...) and Linux Mint will detect and install itself in UEFI mode. In my experience, when you boot up the machine from the USB with Linux Mint on it, if the initial screen showing options etc displays in the centre of your monitor its BIOS mode and if that same text appears in the top left hand corner its UEFI and remember it might not be totally in the top left of your monitor due to graphic card drivers so might be in the top left of the displayable area if that makes sense. Either way Linux Mint will install in whatever mode the hardware is in. I have had trouble earlier on several years ago but most of that seems to be fixed now regarding BIOS and UEFI. As noted in the description section of the video I did this in a virtual environment but the steps are about the same on my hardware. Also as this video is showing ‘Windows & Linux Mint Dual Boot, 2 Separate Drives, 2 Methods’ it should not effect your Windows System Drive should you have any issues, redundancy! It can all be a bit tricky and confusing and I'm no expert just sharing what I did myself. Its up to you if you feel you can do it or not. I hope this helps you. As usual back up your data first and do at your own risk.

[@mf-wg1qi]

@@2troke Thanks, appreciate the video and your comments. Just seemed strange that my HP PC tells me every so often to update HP UEFI software but yet when I go into BIOS the screen displays like a Legacy BIOS and not a NEWER UEFI screen. My guess is motherboard manufacturer's choice. Again thanks for comment and video.

[@2troke]

@@mf-wg1qi I think some of the earlier UEFI systems were much like a typical BIOS as far as the interface goes. I have a 5 year old Asus motherboard UEFI and the mouse works like a GUI yet a few other systems that don’t. Its all very confusing. As you say maybe its your (HP) manufactures choice. As for updating BIOS / UEFI firmware, I'm a little ‘ain’t broke don’t fix’ attitude. Sure you might get extra functionality or features but could also brick (break) the system (hardware/motherboard). I've seen videos where people flash there BIOS UEFI like installing software updates but heard a few horror stories also. Maybe business/enterprise systems might be more critical, home user not so much me thinks, but that’s just IMHO. If you look at some of the earlier videos I've made you can see I had some issues when I upgraded from Linux Mint 18.x to the 20.x series regarding the Linux kernel and my graphic card and secure boot so making one change can impact something else, it was a bit of a headache at the time and not at all what I expected. Having some way of rolling back (back up) systems gives one the confidence to tackle almost anything, and that’s part of the idea of this video, Linux over here Windows over there on different physical drives. If one drive/system fails you have the other and if done correctly your Windows drive is unchanged and should boot up just as it always has. Cheers.

[@emendoesyt]

How do I delete it after the installation if I no longer needed it?

[@2troke]

Delete the partition, using 'Disks' from the Linux USB or even from Windows using the disk management tool

[@emendoesyt]

@@2troke I dont need to do the other weird stuffs like fix the bootloader?

[@2troke]

@@emendoesyt If you put the boot loader on the second drive (not your Windows drive) as shown in the video then your Windows drive should be untouched and still boot normally, you can test that by disconnecting/unplugging the second drive (Linux) and booting Windows, and changing the BIOS boot menu back if you altered it after installing Linux. Windows should boot as it did before. Did you not like Linux? Seems you didn’t have it installed for very long?

[@emendoesyt]

@@2troke I did like linux, but i might be switching to any other distros

[@johneagle4384]

Thank you. This is exactly what I needed.

[@2troke]

Awesome. I've done a bit of a companion or follow up to this just a few days ago where I got to ‘break’ my system and fix it again, I love busting stuff, apparently! Other video here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z4u8k3eJbdF2nas

[@SmellIt-p7q]

How’d you get it to run the iso

[@2troke]

I forget now but likely just added the iso in the settings of the machine and pressed F12 to select it during the boot/start up phase rather than letting the machine boot from GRUB. I think I also created a second HDD in the settings also.

[@johnwebster5983]

All done. The only thing is that when I rebooted it went straight to GRUB, so I fixed that in BIOS, and now it's all good. Now all I need to do is get it working with 2 monitors.

[@2troke]

Interesting, I've had similar experiences whereby installing a new OS changes the boot drive priority of the BIOS/UEFI. Let me guess, your system is UEFI? I can't ever recall such a thing happen on my older BIOS machines.

[@analogisch1145]

found it right when I was scratching my head how to properly do the dual boot on two disks ,because on one disk it´s a problem sooner or later...

[@2troke]

Nice to hear it helped.

[@kaflex7896]

will this work for pop os since it has different bootloader?

[@2troke]

If its boot loader discovers other operating systems like grub does, including on other drives, and you put the boot loader on your Linux pop os drive then I can't see why not but I haven’t tried so you'll be the guinea pig. Remember to back up any data first and as usual do at your own risk. Let me know how it goes if you proceed.

[@kaflex7896]

@@2troke i will do it today so i will tell you

[@kaflex7896]

@@2troke i found out that pop os does not detect my raid 0 array so tomorrow I am going to delete this array, reinstall windows and I'll try to install linux

[@kaflex7896]

@@2troke Thank you man it works just as it should! I could not find another video this much complex and easy to Understand. Other tutorials are not even close to your one.

[@2troke]

@@kaflex7896 Looks like you have a rather customised hardware system. Interesting it wouldn’t detected your RAID, I've never tried something like that.

[@timcollins2881]

Perfect the only additional thing I had to do was create a small EFI partition.

[@2troke]

Just curious, did it fail without the efi partition or you just knew it was needed?

[@HexCSharp]

I have a question, how can I boot into grub without going to boot manager? Other than that thanks for the tutorial, its still the best out there

[@2troke]

I take it you have to press a key (F12?) at start up if you want to choose Linux otherwise it boots straight into Windows? But you have to do this every time you start up and you would like to boot directly into the GRUB menu each time you start the machine and choose Windows or Linux from there? Go into the BIOS (UEFI) and make the drive with Linux on it the ‘first’ device/drive the machine boots from.

[@HexCSharp]

@@2troke Thank You!!

[@benrogers5736]

Great video, thanks

[@2troke]

Hey thanks Ben

[@informativecontent4778]

Best KZbinr out there

[@2troke]

Thanks mate

[@emendoesyt]

thanks for this video dude

[@joebalingit]

very useful man..thank you so much!

[@2troke]

Hey thanks, I did a follow up to this where i 'broke' my system and fixed it again here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z4u8k3eJbdF2nas cheers

[@pjmg]

Thanks for the video!

[@motif5775]

Thank you!!

[@micromonde]

Excellent

[@2troke]

Thanks

[@TheHaykokalipsis]

Thank you

[@johng.4959]

Great video! I'm wondering though if you can comment on this KZbin video where he uses a "Grub customizer" software to change the boot-loader. Apparently, this is to allow Windows to update fully and to avoid confusion on where to place the boot-loader. (Windows Drive or Secondary drive.) - kzbin.info/www/bejne/d5mvaGmbnN2AqdU I really like the idea of NOT touching the Windows 10 drive or even adding the boot-loader to the this drive. Can you comment on this?

[@OriginalSocalgranny]

This is a terrible and inconvenient way to dual boot. Who wants to have to go to BIOS every time you want to boot into Linux!

[@2troke]

You don't have to boot from BIOS, Grub (Linux boot loader) can boot either system/drive, although you could do BIOS boot if you wanted.

[@vip19817]

really helpful, thanks!

[@2troke]

Thanks mate

[@RSBot2jar]

Thanks for the video 😊

[@simont557]

cheers mate, very helpful

[@2troke]

Thanks