Windows Dual Boot on separate drive which has ext4 storage partition?
Hello, clever people. Couldn't find this one, so I'm asking:
I've got a well established existing Bazzite install on an NVME drive too small to contain my storage and games library, with need to have a Windows dual boot on a temporary basis due to extremely expected game incompatibility for some time.
I have a secondary normal SSD, but it's the one I use for most of my storage and games library. I created a secondary NTFS partition on that storage drive for the Windows install, but then saw in the "Dual Boot Preliminary and Post-Installation Setup Guide" that if they're on the same drive, Windows needs installing first. Would this still hold true for an ext4 storage partition on the same drive as Windows, even if Bazzite itself is on a different drive entirely?
There is no intent to have a shared library between these or give Windows access to the ext4 partition contents. This would be only the one Steam game for the time I would play it with someone else and I already know it doesn't work well with Proton. I just wanted to ask if the same problems warned against in the "Same Drive Method" section of the dual boot guide would apply here.
Thanks for any and all help you can provide.
Solution:Jump to solution
easiest would be to turn that ntfs partition into unallocated(free) space, then disconnect the nvme and install windows (and select the unallocated space during install) and windows wont do any funny business during the install
disconnecting the nvme is crucial since that contains a non windows OS...
18 Replies
It's usually preferable to disconnect anything else when installing Windows. If you don't Windows might still install it's boot files in your Bazzite EFI partition because even if you select a different drive it will still install it's files in the first EFI it sees. It's a bit of a pain disconnecting an NVME drive though.
Solution
easiest would be to turn that ntfs partition into unallocated(free) space, then disconnect the nvme and install windows (and select the unallocated space during install) and windows wont do any funny business during the install
disconnecting the nvme is crucial since that contains a non windows OS
it's not just might, it will do it, even if its on a different disk for god knows what reason, ive had this happen
please disconnect any drive already containing an EFI/ESP partition before installing Windows, because Windows will find a way to use it.
I've been doing some experiementation in a VM. There was a trick I learned where you change the flags of the partition in gparted first so it doesn't look like an EFI partition. Then Windows makes it's own EFI and you set the boot flags back. I'll probably do a video on it or create some documentation around it
Then you don't need to unscrew the nvme disks which is annoying
This makes sense. EFI system partition is nothing more than a fat32 partition with an "esp" flag
This is what happens if you don't disconnect the drive already containing an EFI system partition, as a practical example of what happens.
Note how there's no EFI partition where Windows is installed. This is why you need to disconnect the drive where Bazzite is installed @Keeper Magpie
:clueless:
this was Windows installed AFTER bazzite was installed
So ideally unscrew the NVMe, it sucks, but will prevent big issues later on.
Understood! This, I can do. For absolute clarity, there's no risk to non-EFI allocated space on the same drive?
Nah Windows doesn't touch other partitions
just make sure you select the empty space on the drive where you want windows to install
Thank you all for not just explaining the what, but the why.
When I'm back on that desktop I'll mark a post as solution.
@wolfyreload I want to try this: so basically just use GParted Live to remove esp, boot flag and then install Windows?
Yeah. In my testing you can do it for installing Bazzite too. Then the terrible Anaconda installer doesn't share an efi partition with Windows and you don't need to do manual partitioning in the installer. Just put the esp flag back on when you done. Will need to do more testing in my VM though
new windows installer update detects any fat32 partitions and reuse them as esp if present during install going forward :clueless: (this is obviously a joke)
Then we'll need to make a fake honeypot fat 32 partition for windows 😂 😂 😂
Most bioses don't even need the flags, right???
like how else woudl you boot a normal fat32 usb stick?
but maybe grub doesn't like it
or windows boot loader
It's something worth experimenting with. Because it's really annoying unplugging the drives. Still need to figure out the ins and outs of it though
I'm going to experiment with this on lgo right now
Lol straight to real hardware. Good luck 🤞