Dual Boot Help

[Akash Rai]

I own a laptop that has two OS installed in two different partitions in the hard drive. One is windows 10 and the other one is BOSS Linux. I want to switch the linux distro from BOSS to linux mint. but I am scared that it would kill my laptop which I don't want it to do. and also I have read that the GNU GRUB is in the linux partition and many say that if I wipe that linux partition my laptop won't boot up.

Please can anyone help me in this in a way where all my windows files and data remain untouched and my linux distro is changed?

[Kazooduck]

17 minutes ago, Akash Rai said:

I own a laptop that has two OS installed in two different partitions in the hard drive. One is windows 10 and the other one is BOSS Linux. I want to switch the linux distro from BOSS to linux mint. but I am scared that it would kill my laptop which I don't want it to do. and also I have read that the GNU GRUB is in the linux partition and many say that if I wipe that linux partition my laptop won't boot up.

Please can anyone help me in this in a way where all my windows files and data remain untouched and my linux distro is changed?

Well before anything back up the whole drive so nothing happens if you mess up

[OhioYJ]

I've done this many times, installing new versions (updated) of Linux, or different versions of Linux. Currently running Mint. I've always just chose the something else option during the Mint install, wiped only the Linux partition. It will re-install / reconfigure Grub, and it should detect your Windows install.

[Akash Rai]

Also I don't have the key to the windows OS. as it came preinstalled. Just wanna make sure that if I get messed up and try to reinstall Windows will it get activated automatically? Cause I heard some people say that windows 8 and above authorise the motherboard with the key so unless I change the motherboard It would get automatically activated

[drdrewnatic]

23 hours ago, Akash Rai said:

Also I don't have the key to the windows OS. as it came preinstalled. Just wanna make sure that if I get messed up and try to reinstall Windows will it get activated automatically? Cause I heard some people say that windows 8 and above authorise the motherboard with the key so unless I change the motherboard It would get automatically activated

There are two types of Windows licenses (actually 3 but the thrid is irrelevant). The first is a retail license. Retail licenses allow you to change hardware to your hearts content. They can also be migrateted to another PC. The second is an OEM license. OEM licenses are tied to the first computer they're installed on and allow all hardware upgrades except for the motherboard.

 

If you reinstall, Windows should already detect that your hardware has been activated and re-activate it. Just click "I don't have a product key". To be on the safe side, you should probably write down your product key just in the slight chance that it doesn't work. Now, this is very unlikely but it's better safe than sorry.

 

To do this, copy and paste this script into Notepad and save it as a .vbs file. When you run it, a dialog box will pop up showing your product key.

Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
MsgBox ConvertToKey(WshShell.RegRead("HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\DigitalProductId"))

Function ConvertToKey(Key)
Const KeyOffset = 52
i = 28
Chars = "BCDFGHJKMPQRTVWXY2346789"
Do
Cur = 0
x = 14
Do
Cur = Cur * 256
Cur = Key(x + KeyOffset) + Cur
Key(x + KeyOffset) = (Cur \ 24) And 255
Cur = Cur Mod 24
x = x -1
Loop While x >= 0
i = i -1
KeyOutput = Mid(Chars, Cur + 1, 1) & KeyOutput
If (((29 - i) Mod 6) = 0) And (i <> -1) Then
i = i -1
KeyOutput = "-" & KeyOutput
End If
Loop While i >= 0
ConvertToKey = KeyOutput
End Function

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