Dual Boot Desktop - How to select boot drive?

[AnthonyL]

I have an Asus PRIME B560-PLUS ATX LGA1200 Motherboard with Intel Core i5-11400 2.6 GHz 6-Core Processor in a Corsair Carbide Series 100R Mid-Tower Computer Chassis.

I'm currently running Win10 Pro on a WDBlue-500GBSSD as Drive C:

Data is on a 2TB hard drive partitioned as E: and a "spare" 500Gb is installed (D which is a copy of an old Windows install from a laptop.

My understanding is that I can also install one or two M2 drives.

In the past I have dabbled with Linux and I think the 500Gb has that as well but even so I'd rather start afresh with a new drive.

My memory of booting up with the old laptop was that I had a (messy?) Grub installation.

If I install a new hard drive with just some flavour of Linux on it how best do I choose or default which OS is loaded?

Will the Linux OS be able to continue to use my 2TB NTFS data drive?

Even though the computer appears to be Win11 compliant I'd rather have the soft option of being able to decide whether now is the year of Linux, especially as I'm no longer having to run one application which was Windows only. Though with the added freedom of the desktop compared to the laptop I'm hoping that I can more comfortably run a VM should I need.

 

[a_c_skinner]

Unless you can choose the boot drive in the BIOS you will, I think, have to install GRUB (or another boot manager) to select the boot OS. It usually works OK.

 

[Robert Zanatta]

You can install grub and then set it to pick your default boot OS and timeout. You can also install a boot menu theme.

Linux can read and write FAT and NTFS drives.

 

[AnthonyL]

You can install grub and then set it to pick your default boot OS and timeout. You can also install a boot menu theme.

Linux can read and write FAT and NTFS drives.

Presumably GRUB is best installed on the Linux drive rather than interfere with the Windows boot system?

 

[Simon Garrett]

I have an Asus PRIME B560-PLUS ATX LGA1200 Motherboard with Intel Core i5-11400 2.6 GHz 6-Core Processor in a Corsair Carbide Series 100R Mid-Tower Computer Chassis.

I'm currently running Win10 Pro on a WDBlue-500GBSSD as Drive C:

Data is on a 2TB hard drive partitioned as E: and a "spare" 500Gb is installed (D which is a copy of an old Windows install from a laptop.

My understanding is that I can also install one or two M2 drives.

In the past I have dabbled with Linux and I think the 500Gb has that as well but even so I'd rather start afresh with a new drive.

My memory of booting up with the old laptop was that I had a (messy?) Grub installation.

If I install a new hard drive with just some flavour of Linux on it how best do I choose or default which OS is loaded?

Will the Linux OS be able to continue to use my 2TB NTFS data drive?

Even though the computer appears to be Win11 compliant I'd rather have the soft option of being able to decide whether now is the year of Linux, especially as I'm no longer having to run one application which was Windows only. Though with the added freedom of the desktop compared to the laptop I'm hoping that I can more comfortably run a VM should I need.

I find it easier to run linux in a virtual machine using something like VirtualBox. It is as though you are running linux as a programme under Windows.

That way you can have Windows and linux (any distro) running at the same time.



Here's linux (in this case, Kubuntu) running under Windows.

You don't need a separate disk for linux, just space for a "virtual disk" for linux - 50-100G is plenty if you're just experimenting.

I use linux mainly for developing websites, as I find linux a better platform for that.

--
Simon

 

[Robert Zanatta]

You can install grub and then set it to pick your default boot OS and timeout. You can also install a boot menu theme.

Linux can read and write FAT and NTFS drives.

Presumably GRUB is best installed on the Linux drive rather than interfere with the Windows boot system?

I'm not an expert on this, but here's what I know.

Depends on the system and probably the Linux flavour. On my UEFI system with LM (Ubuntu) installed on a second drive, LM installed its bootloader where it wanted to (no option given). An EFI partition was created in the LM drive, but files were also placed on the Windows EFI partition. I've set my BIOS boot option to boot Ubuntu first. This loads the grub boot menu when my system hits, which then gives the option to select a LM or Windows boot. It's easy to changed the grub boot order list and timeout. It's also pretty easy to change the grub boot screen from a couple lines of text to a graphical them, such as the one linked:

Better Grub theme by default?

I use dual booting fairly extensively and I’ve always been disappointed by the way grub looks. Could Ubuntu install a better default theme perhaps? I’m sure we could do better. For example, here’s the " Stylish grub theme" from vinceliuice/grub2-themes:

discourse.ubuntu.com

 

[Breakfastographer]

You can install grub and then set it to pick your default boot OS and timeout. You can also install a boot menu theme.

Linux can read and write FAT and NTFS drives.

Presumably GRUB is best installed on the Linux drive rather than interfere with the Windows boot system?

GRUB has two components. One is the grub installer, which is what you can install within your Linux installation. This then installs the actual bootloader from within Linux onto the boot sector of your primary drive. This is the component that provides you with different boot options at startup.

 

[Breakfastographer]

I have an Asus PRIME B560-PLUS ATX LGA1200 Motherboard with Intel Core i5-11400 2.6 GHz 6-Core Processor in a Corsair Carbide Series 100R Mid-Tower Computer Chassis.

I'm currently running Win10 Pro on a WDBlue-500GBSSD as Drive C:

Data is on a 2TB hard drive partitioned as E: and a "spare" 500Gb is installed (D which is a copy of an old Windows install from a laptop.

My understanding is that I can also install one or two M2 drives.

In the past I have dabbled with Linux and I think the 500Gb has that as well but even so I'd rather start afresh with a new drive.

My memory of booting up with the old laptop was that I had a (messy?) Grub installation.

If I install a new hard drive with just some flavour of Linux on it how best do I choose or default which OS is loaded?

Will the Linux OS be able to continue to use my 2TB NTFS data drive?

Even though the computer appears to be Win11 compliant I'd rather have the soft option of being able to decide whether now is the year of Linux, especially as I'm no longer having to run one application which was Windows only. Though with the added freedom of the desktop compared to the laptop I'm hoping that I can more comfortably run a VM should I need.

I find it easier to run linux in a virtual machine using something like VirtualBox. It is as though you are running linux as a programme under Windows.

The problem is that you are left with all of Windows' security problems. Moving to Linux is one of the solutions to the end of support for Windows 10 for those machines where Windows 11 is not supported, or for those users that dislike certain things about Windows 11, like extensive spyware data sharing with Microsoft.

You don't need a separate disk for linux, just space for a "virtual disk" for linux - 50-100G is plenty if you're just experimenting.

Disk space sharing is also supported natively by Ubuntu. wubi is an installer that allows you to install Linux into a file on the main Windows partition. You just need to make sure you have the required space available. After the install, the startup process will just look a bit different. Otherwise your Windows experience will be unchanged. You just have to make sure that Windows never re-installs its boot loader or it used to be the case that you had a follow a multi-step procedure to restore access. But it's a surreal experience to then mount the NTFS partition within the booted Linux and inspect the file from within which you are contemporaneously running. For the ultimate mindbender, you could delete the file while running from within it. Educational purposes only.

So yeah, since disk space is cheap, I might generally recommend installing Linux on a dedicated partition or drive. You are then free to have Windows in a virtual environment. More secure that way around, especially beyond the EOL of Windows 10 if that's something you want to keep around (that last part is not a recommendation, just an observation).

--
39 raw converters tested:
https://breakfastographer.wordpress...erters-compared-including-on1-photo-raw-2019/

 

[New Wrycuda]

I find it easier to run linux in a virtual machine using something like VirtualBox. It is as though you are running linux as a programme under Windows.

The problem is that you are left with all of Windows' security problems. Moving to Linux is one of the solutions to the end of support for Windows 10 for those machines where Windows 11 is not supported, or for those users that dislike certain things about Windows 11, like extensive spyware data sharing with Microsoft.

Disk space sharing is also supported natively by Ubuntu. wubi is an installer that allows you to install Linux into a file on the main Windows partition. You just need to make sure you have the required space available. After the install, the startup process will just look a bit different. Otherwise your Windows experience will be unchanged. You just have to make sure that Windows never re-installs its boot loader or it used to be the case that you had a follow a multi-step procedure to restore access. But it's a surreal experience to then mount the NTFS partition within the booted Linux and inspect the file from within which you are contemporaneously running. For the ultimate mindbender, you could delete the file while running from within it. Educational purposes only.

So yeah, since disk space is cheap, I might generally recommend installing Linux on a dedicated partition or drive. You are then free to have Windows in a virtual environment. More secure that way around, especially beyond the EOL of Windows 10 if that's something you want to keep around (that last part is not a recommendation, just an observation).

Recently, I installed Zorin (free) on an old Acer laptop to replace a Win10 system. After 7 years of faithful service, I was reluctant to just toss the laptop. It would have needed updating and a general cleanup, but was no longer needed in its current form.

Boot drive is just 128GB SSD, so there was no question of dual booting, so I installed Zorin using an ISO boot USB. Only changes necessary were setting the USB as the boot drive and changing the boot logic to “Legacy” rather than UEFI. Installation proceeded normally, offering options to delete Windows and install Zorin, then updating multiple items.

After restoring the boot sequence the laptop was ready to use almost immediately. Only hardware not recognised was the numerical keypad and the single USB-3 port. The small SSD was about 80% full, while the 2TB HDD was easily mounted with the old Windows data intact.

 

[AnthonyL]

You can install grub and then set it to pick your default boot OS and timeout. You can also install a boot menu theme.

Linux can read and write FAT and NTFS drives.

Presumably GRUB is best installed on the Linux drive rather than interfere with the Windows boot system?

GRUB has two components. One is the grub installer, which is what you can install within your Linux installation. This then installs the actual bootloader from within Linux onto the boot sector of your primary drive. This is the component that provides you with different boot options at startup.

Thanks, and to Robert Zanatta whose response I've marked as Answer as it gave just a bit more detail.

To others who have mentioned other approaches I perhaps should have been clearer that one day I would like to "turn off" Windows, so VM or USB boot solutions do not suit.

I'll now source a nice new drive to hopefully fit in my desktop and install a flavour of Linux, probably Kubuntu as I felt reasonably comfortable with it last time I tried it. I have 16Gb RAM so hopefully if needed I can in due course run a Windows VM within Linux. There are a couple of apps that I might struggle to replace nicely as well as Canon's DPP with its inbuilt lens correction etc. They will likely be questions for another day.

 

[nail33]

There are a couple of apps that I might struggle to replace nicely as well as Canon's DPP with its inbuilt lens correction etc. They will likely be questions for another day.

That's the only reason I use windows at all.............to run Canon's DPP.

Linux for everything else

 

[Simon Garrett]

I have an Asus PRIME B560-PLUS ATX LGA1200 Motherboard with Intel Core i5-11400 2.6 GHz 6-Core Processor in a Corsair Carbide Series 100R Mid-Tower Computer Chassis.

I'm currently running Win10 Pro on a WDBlue-500GBSSD as Drive C:

Data is on a 2TB hard drive partitioned as E: and a "spare" 500Gb is installed (D which is a copy of an old Windows install from a laptop.

My understanding is that I can also install one or two M2 drives.

In the past I have dabbled with Linux and I think the 500Gb has that as well but even so I'd rather start afresh with a new drive.

My memory of booting up with the old laptop was that I had a (messy?) Grub installation.

If I install a new hard drive with just some flavour of Linux on it how best do I choose or default which OS is loaded?

Will the Linux OS be able to continue to use my 2TB NTFS data drive?

Even though the computer appears to be Win11 compliant I'd rather have the soft option of being able to decide whether now is the year of Linux, especially as I'm no longer having to run one application which was Windows only. Though with the added freedom of the desktop compared to the laptop I'm hoping that I can more comfortably run a VM should I need.

I find it easier to run linux in a virtual machine using something like VirtualBox. It is as though you are running linux as a programme under Windows.

The problem is that you are left with all of Windows' security problems. Moving to Linux is one of the solutions to the end of support for Windows 10 for those machines where Windows 11 is not supported, or for those users that dislike certain things about Windows 11, like extensive spyware data sharing with Microsoft.

I agree with all that. If one wants to renounce the Microsoft devil and all his works then it makes no sense to boot into Windows just to use linux.

For me, avoiding Windows is not an option. I depend on it for much of my computer use, so have to put up with the good, the bad and the downright ugly of it. As I spend more time using Windows than linux, having the latter in a VM is the better solution for me. I have a Win 7 and even a Win XP VM tucked away somewhere for when I had a few programs that need them (run without network access), but I can't remember the last time I needed either.

 

[bmoag]

If you install a second OS it really should be Win 11. You can see its basically the same pig as Win 10, just different lipstick. You might then realize that doing an update in place of your Win 10 installation is not the horror you've been led to believe.

Unless you pull/unplug the existing Win 10 drive the Windows 11 installer will insist on putting the Win 11 boot loader in the same EFI partition as Win 10. That should also install the Win 8 era Metro boot menu, which is self explanatory when you see it, to choose which OS to boot, which is the default, timeouts etc.

The Linux installer is nearly as stupid as the Windows installer and by default will install the Grub boot loader in the Windows EFI. Usually not a problem but not infrequently a disaster.

You can format your target drive for the Linux install, the drive needs to be wiped first, from within the live distro. You only need three partitions--there are short videos to walk you through it. The Grub bootloader should install into the EFI partition on the Linux drive.

That way Linux and Windows retain their own bootloaders. The Grub boot loader on the Linux drive should recognize Windows so you can boot from either OS. If some thing happens to one of the OSes the other should still be good to go.

The Windows bootloader only sees Windows, which I assure you is what you want to maintain.

I just did that with Mint on a Windows desktop, got everything configured in Mint and now can't find a single reason to use it. Oh well, killed a few hours.

If you want a real adventure, and to end up with something potentially useful, you can install macOS in that machine as long as you have a compatible AMD GPU (the Intel GPU in an 11th gen CPU will not work). I've been doing that for a long time, its an excellent cure for mac envy.