Partition a drive for dual boot?
Hey guys. Pardon me if my question is a bit dumb. I’d rather run it by you guys before taking any action.
Basically I would like to create a separate partition on an SSD for windows, as the system I use for gaming of course isn’t compatible with all PC games. League for example I’d probably need to use a Windows OS to run.
My current system is bazzite-gnome-deck, and I use it as a home heater PC.
I was thinking of getting an external SSD to use whenever I needed to, but I don’t know how well that’d work. Unfortunately I don’t have any more space for an internal drives. My case doesn’t support more drives, and motherboard doesn’t have any more SATA ports.
Do you guys have any suggestions? I have read a bit of the dual boot documentary, and it does advise only creating a separate drive before installation. So any advice regarding an already existing bazzite setup would be greatly appreciated.
Solution:Jump to solution
1) boot Gparted Live 2)Shrink Btrfs 3) remove ESP label off EFI System Partition 4)Booted up Windows ISO 5) In Windows ISO I selected the empty space 6) Installed Windows 7) Done
92 Replies
if you plan to have windows on a separate external frive, then i would recommend using rufus and make the drive into a "windows to go" drive.
rufus only works on windows so you can set this up on a different device and then only boot the external on your handheld (as i am assuming this is a handheld we are talking about)
if you do not have another device then i would recommend making a windows virtual machine (you need to free up space for this), then plug in the external (and make sure the partitions were not mounted in bazzite, use gnome disks to unmount the partitions! not the file manager, as the file manager will also eject the usb!) and add its device node (ex:
/dev/sdb) as a new usb disk to the virtual machine, then go through the rufus windows to go setup there.
driver installation for the windows to go system on the external you will have to take care of yourself
once you verify it works, you can remove the virtual machine and its disk fileIf it's just for booting it every once in a while, Windows-To-Go is the way for sure.
If you plan to use it more often as a real dual boot, I'd recommend using the normal ISO installation. (Windows To Go has some limitations and annoyances if using a lot)
There's a trick to make Windows not use the existing EFI partition on your device (I'll explain if you want to go this route), and thus allow installation after bazzite is already installed. So that's an alternative route you could go.
Please do explain this trick. If it means I don’t have to go out of my way to buy an external SSD just to install windows, that’d be great.
I have been wanting to make a virtual machine. Is there any documentation on how to do this on this platform?
@Hugo H5 You need some free space on the drive
You need to use Gparted Live to remove the esp label off the EFI System Partition used by bazzite. Apply the changes and then go ahead and install Windows
using the free space on the drive
Windows will then make a new ESP partition just for itself
How would one go about doing this on Gnome? From what I’ve seen, installation seems to have mounted my drives a bit differently compared to the usual config. It’s kinda like it’s in RAID mode? I could be wrong though, I dunno. I never used RAID prior.
Btrfs supports shrinking
just use your partition manager
Gparted Live works too
for shrinking
Ahhhh I’ll check it out!
that's how I initially tested it
Thank you both, this is very helpful info
What I did to test the trick was:
Solution
1) boot Gparted Live 2)Shrink Btrfs 3) remove ESP label off EFI System Partition 4)Booted up Windows ISO 5) In Windows ISO I selected the empty space 6) Installed Windows 7) Done
I would recommend re-applying the esp label, but its not strictly necessary to be able to boot bazzite, but maybe certain tools require it to be visible
Only shrink at the end of the Btrfs partition, not the front, that will cause issues with booting, as mount points change this way (Gparted Live warns you if you try to do this)
Thanks so much. I’ll take a look when I get home
One last thing, if you do shrink the Btrfs partition, sometimes it requires balancing, which can take a very long time depending on how full the partition is, but do not try to interrupt it as it will leave you with a corrupted partition
Understood
ujust setup-virtualization will set you up with virtual-machine-manager
if you plan to keep windows squarely on an external though, resizing the btrfs partition is not neccessaryPardon my ignorance, but would an external be necessary here then? Right now I don’t have one on me and would need to go buy one, so if possible I would prefer to use existing internal space.
So in that case, would resizing the btrfs partition be the way to go?
sorry when i first read the message i read it as you had filled up the internal drive 😅
move along with the btrfs resize
No worries at all!! Likely my fault for not being clear lol.
I’ve got a good amount of space left on this pc. I’ve filled it with 2 Sata SSDs, each 1TB worth or storage, 2 HDDs, 1.5 TB total storage, and a 500GB Nvme for boot.
Would this info be relevant to how I proceed with this then?
Yes, a little bit. Depends on where you want to install Windows
Ideally you want Windows to at least be on an SSD.
When you have time can you do
sudo parted -l?
when in bazzite
this will provide us with some info about disks and their partitionsMay I share the results here when I can?
Yes of course
Perfect. Will be heading home soon
You'll also want to prepare a USB with both GParted Live and Windows
if you only have one usb, use Ventoy
Believe I used Ventoy to install Bazzite originally
Cool, that means the USB is already prepared with ventoy and you can just drop the ISO's in the USB root folder
Both Gparted and Windows ISO?
I ask because Gparted is a new discovery for me; been learning a lot of new things since installing Bazzite
I assume it’ll have its own ISO if I’d need to drop it into the Ventoy USB root folder
Yes, you'll just need to download the livecd.iso version of Gparted
As per request
I would resize the btrfs partition on one of the sata SSD's
how much space do you reckon you want to have for Windows?
Well, probably give or take 100-300 gigs? I know playing Apex isn't possible on any linux-based system, same for league, same for valo. That being said, I can't really tell how much space is available to use?
I would do 300GB
Apex is massive, Valorant+League is also quite big
those are only a few examples too
could always be more to add to the list later on
Download gparted-live-1.6.0-10-amd64.iso (GParted)
A partition editor to graphically manage disk partitions
Drop this on the Ventoy USB
on it
and your Windows ISO
Wait, I just noticed you already have a 4TB NTFS partition on one of the HDD's?
external drive for backups
don't know why it's ntfs though
then again, it's literally an external
it doesn't matter much for backups lol
Ok
I assume it's that format because I used it elsewhere before it became a backup drive
I may have had to reinstall bazzite a few times
I'm getting tired of doing that
at least without the data you know
anyway
windows iso is downloading, though for some reason it's taking it's time
ah
wait a sec
should be fasster now. bandwidth was being hogged by another download
alright, both are on the ventoy disk
Boot into Gparted Live
anything I should know going in?
There's always a potential loss of data when resizing a partition
but that's just as a general warning
its rare
Noted
Will try to figure this program out then
All you need to do in Gparted Live is remove the
esp flag off the EFI System Partition on your NVMe drive (so that the Windows install does not use it)
and then resize the Btrfs partition on one of your SATA SSD's
to accomodate Windowsseems it doesn't want to boot properly
what's it doing?
well
I can see it says "Debian GNU/Linux trixie/sod debian tty1"
with more text following for a few lines
its not loading the gpu driver correctly
I don't know if that's considered command prompt
try safe graphics mode
figures
just gotta reboot
if that doesn't work, i recommend downloading Ubuntu and use that in live mode and use Gparted from there
Ubuntu has Gparted too
And it has a live environment without installing anything
which is a lot bigger in filesize, but it's much more likely to actually work. Gparted Live often has issues with the graphics driver
sigh, still the same issue in safe graphics mode
can't even reboot
keyboard inputs aren't fully responsive
just press the power button
once
that I can do
don't hold it unless that doesn't respond
but it usually will still respond to shut down command
Gotta boot back into bazzite and download this instead: https://ubuntu.com/download/desktop/thank-you?version=24.10&architecture=amd64
Ubuntu
Thank you for downloading Ubuntu Desktop | Ubuntu
Ubuntu is an open source software operating system that runs from the desktop, to the cloud, to all your internet connected things.
put it on the same usb, and boot into it, this should work just fine
when you boot, select "Try and Install Ubuntu" and then it will open the live environment and you can click on the apps menu and search for Gparted there
so I don't actually need to install Ubuntu?
nah
thank goodness
anyway, it's downloading now
the reason I try Gparted Live first is because its just much much smaller
and it auto-opens Gparted
Ubuntu will open the installer, but you can just ignore that and select the apps menu (it's GNOME) and search for Gparted there
will try as soon as I can thank you
managed to get in
launched gparted
giving it some time to search the partitions
alright so
how does one remove the esp flag
nvm
done
so
question
Do I need to rezise from the end of the partition?
so from right to left?
the end
Change the Btrfs partition size but use the lower box to fill in 300GB
so that it empties space to the right not the left
because what otherwise happens is that the btrfs partition is recognized differently by udev
if you clear some space to the right this doesn't happen
I think I did it!
Worst case scenario, I do have backups
thank goodness for the 4TB drive
so
I've done it
What's next?
Do I install windows onto the partition I just created?
No
You need to have empty space
Not a partition
Windows will partition the empty space
Sorry for the late response I was busy
no worries ^^
So you removed the esp flag off the EFI System Partition on the NVMe
and you have empty space now?
on the SATA SSD?
300GB?
If so, you can go ahead and boot the Windows ISO
Don't have it like that right now, but initially did have it like that. 290GB on the SSD yes
Windows ISO was giving me an error every time I tried installing
yeah 290GB is fine its probably because you did 300000MB instead of 300GB*1024 😛
correct
I'm lazy that way
10GB shouldn't be that impactful anyway
no it doesn't
Which version of Windows?
11?
Can you show me a picture of the error?
11 yes
Is it an error with TPM?
requirement?
I can if I use my phone I suppose lol
if so there's a way around that
not TPM as far as I'm aware
If Windows already made the partitions you can delete them again using the Windows ISO
and try again on the same empty space created
when you install Windows you need to select the empty 290GB of space and then just click Next
the thing is
is does not even give me the option to choose
gives me the error before
What is the error?
Is it "your hardware does not meet the requirements"?
nope
Well now I'm curious
0x80070001
When does that happen?
is that after the partition setup?
You need to select Custom
there is no partition setup
and if its WIndows 11 24H2 you need to select "delete all files, settings, bla bla" checkmark
this is after selecting language etc
have checked that as well
Select
"Previous version of setup"
and then Custom
Try that
attempting now
we're getting further
oh looks like it's installing
that seems to work
will keep you updated
thank you again for your help
you're a star
No problem
The new installer doesn't like other unknown partitions
like btrfs
Microsoft likes to release stuff untested
After Windows is done installing and you're on the desktop, you want to boot back into the Ubuntu ISO and put the ESP flag back on the EFI System Partition on the drive where Bazzite is installed.
If you did everything correctly there should be TWO EFI System Partition's; one on the SATA SSD where Windows installed, and the one used by Bazzite.
You want to put the ESP flag back on the Bazzite one to prevent any potential issues later. I am entirely unsure if it matters (GRUB doesn't seem to care), but better safe than sorry