Dual Boot Support

[signal gale]

I'm planning to dual boot Linux Mint with Windows 10 to prepare for windows 10 end of support. Can somebody guide me step by step? I've tried doing it but I seem to mess up the boot menu. Attached is my partition table and my system information. I want to install it on disk 1, which is an HDD, there wouldn't be any problems with that right?

also, please let me know how to backup the boot in case something breaks

[summer mist]

Make an usb stick with linux mint and boot from it. Then on the installer, when it asks for partitions choose something else. Then make an 512 MB EFI system partition, one root partition(ext4), and one swap partition. Make sure it is on the second disk and that is mostly it.

[summer mist]

After install do a timeshift snapshot so you can revert from it.

[balmy pier]

It's probably better to just ventoy that USB instead of risking your Windows bootloader to be wiped tbh. At least that way, you can still try Linux Mint.

[thick crescent]

wait like use ventoy to install it on a usb and boot from it?

[balmy pier]

Yes

because it seems like your windows on your desktop/laptop is using both of the disks at the same time

[thick crescent]

and just access the windows drive from there for data and stuff i'm guessing

[balmy pier]

yeah Linux can actually bypass Windows encyption

even if it's on a USB, etc.

[thick crescent]

funny thing, we installed it together last time and tried this but for some reason grub really didn't like that second drive and wouldn't read from it

so it'd just spit us out onto a grub shell

[thick crescent]

still that needs a usb to be plugged in anytime they want to use mint

[balmy pier]

That's not that much of a problem tbh.

[plain sleet]

@signal gale here is my recommendation:

When you boot the Linux Mint USB, open files and click on the devices in the side panel to mount them and ensure the installer can find them.

During the install, the guided installer will ask you if you want to install Mint alongside Windows. Choose this option, then make sure you have the correct disk selected and adjust the parition size as needed.

actually I think because you have it pre-partitioned, the installer will recognize that and skip the size selection so you won't have to worry about that

[plain sleet]

regarding this; Mint comes with a utility called Timeshift that backs up your system files. Set it up and create a snapshot after initial install so that you can roll back to it if needed.

[indigo juniper]

you gotta open Disk Management from in Windows, and look thoroughly. if there is ANY mention of Bitlocker, then it must be deactivated, AND decrypt that drive, then u can install linux onto it or modify partitions.

[indigo juniper]

it should be noted that Mint and Ubuntu now automatically create swap files. More importantly, the efi partition for bootloader must be told in the installer, as per the red text here.

and you only need about 105 MB (100 MiB) size for EFI partition

[signal gale]

Hey bog! I used your method, but now I get into this bootloop kinda thing. Where it says "Reset System" quickly then shuts off.

here's the boot summary.

paste.ubuntu.com/p/fgzgd8zqYS/

[indigo juniper]

this needs special ubuntu account to view.

can you redo a summary, save it as .txt file, then upload it here?

also see #1303794165712420906 message @signal gale

turning off Fast Startup in Windows OS #1193345280733622272 message

also in Windows, do windows key+r , then msinfo32 and see what it says near middle of screen for BIOS MODE