Questions about dual-booting Windows 10 and Linux

[LambChopSupreme]

Hi guys!

 

Not sure if this is the right place to post this, but oh well. I have a few questions about dual-booting Windows 10 and Linux that I hope to have answered. I am using an HP Pavilion Power Laptop 15-cb002ne which has a 128GB boot SSD and 1TB HDD. I am running the preinstalled Windows 10 Home edition and would like to dual-boot Linux (haven't decided yet between Ubuntu and Debian), installing the Linux distro on the 1TB HDD. I already saw this video tutorial regarding dual-booting linux and windows. Now, here are a few questions:

 

1. Is it possible to adapt the methodology using a drive separate from the Windows 10 installation? If yes, do I have to do anything else to make it work?

2. Let's say I want to remove the linux installation to make way for hardware upgrades, how can I remove the linux installation without messing up the Windows 10 installation?

 

If there is another topic which discusses similar questions, I would appreciate the link.

 

Thank you very much!

[LambChopSupreme]

9 minutes ago, Cvet76 said:

I suppose you're running windows on SSD and you're using the HDD as a data drive? If that is so, make sure you move all the things you have on your HDD before installing anything, because it will be formatted during Linux installation and reformatted as a Linux boot drive. Which is not something windows can use (at least that was the case when I installed Mint on my pc).

If you just got the laptop, and there's nothing on it yet, then you can do that easily.

Since I got the laptop last year, there are a lot of files on the data drive. Is it possible to just partition the data drive to make room for the linux installation?

[LambChopSupreme]

45 minutes ago, Cvet76 said:

Not as far as I know. A short google search points to some software that's supposedly able to do this, but I wouldn't risk it. If you have another PC in the household or can borrow an external drive from a friend or even a laptop until you finish what you're intending, I'd do that. Much less risk involved.

Okay. I understand. Thank you for the advice!

[shahaan]

I did not see the video but I have a lot of experience dual-booting Linux and Windows.

• Yes, you can dual-boot by installing Linux to the HDD instead of the SSD.
• Yes, you can shrink the existing data partition on your HDD (using Windows Computer Management > Disk Management) and install Linux in the resulting free space (50GB should be more than sufficient for testing and trial).

I recommend Ubuntu 18.04 LTS if this is your first time. Get the Ubuntu Desktop ISO image file and write it to a blank USB flash drive using Etcher. You will be presented with the option to use the largest available free space when you boot with the USB and follow the prompts.

• You will be presented with the choice to install GRUB boot loader to either drive. Be sure to select your HDD, otherwise GRUB will overwrite the Windows boot loader on your SSD and it will be a chore to revert back if you choose to remove the Ubuntu installation later on.

An alternative way that will make the disk selection for install more fool-proof is to go into your laptop's BIOS and check if it allows you to disable the SATA port to which the SSD is connected. That way, when you boot with the Ubuntu USB, the installer will only see your HDD and will not touch your Windows installation. Then, to select whether to boot into Windows or Ubuntu, you simply press the appropriate F-key (e.g. F11 or whatever it is for your laptop) to access the boot device selection menu (if available, or go into BIOS if not) and manually select the drive to boot from. Later, if you choose to delete Ubuntu, it is as simple as deleting the Ubuntu partition using Windows Computer Management > Disk Management) from the HDD and expanding the previously shrunk data partition back to its original size.

 

Hope this helps.

[LambChopSupreme]

10 hours ago, shahaan said:

I did not see the video but I have a lot of experience dual-booting Linux and Windows.

• Yes, you can dual-boot by installing Linux to the HDD instead of the SSD.
• Yes, you can shrink the existing data partition on your HDD (using Windows Computer Management > Disk Management) and install Linux in the resulting free space (50GB should be more than sufficient for testing and trial).

I recommend Ubuntu 18.04 LTS if this is your first time. Get the Ubuntu Desktop ISO image file and write it to a blank USB flash drive using Etcher. You will be presented with the option to use the largest available free space when you boot with the USB and follow the prompts.

• You will be presented with the choice to install GRUB boot loader to either drive. Be sure to select your HDD, otherwise GRUB will overwrite the Windows boot loader on your SSD and it will be a chore to revert back if you choose to remove the Ubuntu installation later on.

An alternative way that will make the disk selection for install more fool-proof is to go into your laptop's BIOS and check if it allows you to disable the SATA port to which the SSD is connected. That way, when you boot with the Ubuntu USB, the installer will only see your HDD and will not touch your Windows installation. Then, to select whether to boot into Windows or Ubuntu, you simply press the appropriate F-key (e.g. F11 or whatever it is for your laptop) to access the boot device selection menu (if available, or go into BIOS if not) and manually select the drive to boot from. Later, if you choose to delete Ubuntu, it is as simple as deleting the Ubuntu partition using Windows Computer Management > Disk Management) from the HDD and expanding the previously shrunk data partition back to its original size.

 

Hope this helps.

I'll try this. Thank you so much! Although unfortunately, the bios in this laptop does not allow me to disable the boot SSD. I guess I'll remove the SSD itself.

[shahaan]

Yes, removing the SSD during installation of Linux will, obviously, be the best guarantee that it will not touch the Windows installation. Definitely a valid option if convenient to do so. I did not suggest it earlier as physical modifications to laptops are becoming more complex and many are not comfortable with it.

[jpenguin]

You could resize your data partition with a gparted liveusb (I'm sure there are windows toils for this, I'm just no familiar with them), the is always a small risk of losing data when shrinking partitions. Remember that by default Linux uses UTC for time, while Windows uses localtime- switch one of them or wait each boot for your NTP server to fetch the time