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What to know before Dual Booting Windows + Linux? (lemmy.ca)
submitted 2 years ago* by to c/linux@lemmy.ml
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I'm looking to finally use Linux properly and I'm planning to dual boot my laptop. There's enough storage to go around, and while I'm comfortable messing around I'd rather not have to run and buy a new device before school while fixing my current one.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VaIgbTOvAd0

This was the general guide I was planning to follow, just with KDE Plasma (or another KDE). I was going to keep windows the default, and boot into Linux as needed when I had time to learn and practice.

I assume it should be the near similar process for KDE Plasma?

I'm ok with things going wrong with the Linux install, but I'd like to keep the Windows install as safe as possible.

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[–] [S] 4 points 2 years ago (3 children)

I've seen people talk about Windows messing up the Linux install. Have there been cases where the windows install itself was messed up after an update (or is it straight up "you never know" and anything can happen)

I only have one slot, and I'd prefer to not have to carry around a USB or external drive if I can avoid it. I'm ok with having to redo the Linux install/setup, and it might be nice practice anyway. But I definitely need to have windows running and stable for schoolwork.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago

    When I was using windows 10 + linux mint for over the 2 years I never got a boot problem from windows update. You just need a separate EFI partition for linux boot loader.

    My Partitions: Windows boot C: D: Windows recovery or some other crap Linux EFI for grub / (Root directory) Swap

    I don't bother with separate /home because I never know how much I will fill up my disk

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    I've never had an issue, outside of bios updates (see last paragraph). I've even booted into windows after hibernating in linux (but not the other way around, since I don't let windows hibernate; not saying you can't, just that I don't), and everything was fine when i got back. I use a swap partition for hibernating, in case you're curious.

    I do try to make sure I'm watching when it reboots after a windows update (because linux is my default, so i have to select windows from the boot loader) just in case, but i've also fucked that up a time or two with no ill effects.

    My one piece of advice is: once you get it working, take a picture of your bios settings. You may have to fix some settinga after bios updates, as they can get set back to the default values. I did not do this, and while it led to a very confusing afternoon due to my inexperience, it would have been a non-issue if I'd have taken some pictures and known to look at them.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    So for me USB sticks dont even work on Secureboot, so you need to disable that.

    Then you can shrink your windows partition and install Fedora or something in the rest. Only use the unallocated space.

    I actually removed the windows Bootloader manually, the IT simply removed the Linux bootloader instead, lol.

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