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So I built a pc, and I have a 500GB SSD nvme and an other 1T SSD nvme. I wanted to ask what was better and easier, to put windows and linux in different drives or in the same one.

Also, I have the non active windows, should this report an issue?

Thank you, and let me know if more information is needed.

Gonzalo Etse
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    If this was my setup, I would probably install Ubuntu to the secondary drive, but I would not use the entire drive; I'd partition about 500GB of it for Ubuntu and the remaining 500GB for a shared NTFS partition between Windows and Linux. That's just me though. – Daniel M. Jun 11 '20 at 12:15
  • Hi, thanks for the response.

    So, If I understand this right, I would put Windows in the 500GB SSD.
    And devide the 1TB SSD 50/50 between Ubuntu and shared NTFS partition?

    Maybe I'll go this way since I already have Windows in the 500 GB installed.

     – Gonzalo Etse Jun 11 '20 at 13:26
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    "Better" seems subjective. What's better for you is whatever you clearly understand and are able to maintain and repair. That might be different from person to person. – user535733 Jun 11 '20 at 14:19
  • Better is what would be "easier" since it's the first time I'll do it. I will go with what Daniel Massey suggested since I found a guide that seems to cover how it goes:
    https://askubuntu.com/questions/726972/dual-boot-windows-10-and-linux-ubuntu-on-separate-hard-drives     – Gonzalo Etse Jun 11 '20 at 17:26

1 Answers1

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IT is certainly "Better" to install Ubuntu in the 2nd drive. Like Daniel Massey said, it is advisable to partition the 1TB drive and create a shared NTFS partition so that you can safely access files created by both OS without accidentally damaging or deleting important system files by accident. Follow these instructions and you will be fine.

A) UEFI/BIOS

  1. Set to "UEFI mode only" (no legacy/CSM).

  2. Disable "secure boot"

  3. Disable "Intel Rapid Start" (if equipped)

  4. Disable "fast boot" in UEFI (note this is different than the "fast startup" setting in Windows 8/10). The options in your UEFI/BIOS might say something like Full/Minimal/Automatic for boot mode. Select Full (or thorough, or complete, etc whatever your UEFI vendor has chosen to call it).

B) Advanced Power Options (Fastboot)

Disable fast startup in Windows 8/10 under "advanced power options". Restart computer to ensure that this subsequent boot and the next reboot/shutdown will be in "normal" mode.

C) Rufus / Bootable USB stick

Use Rufus to create a bootable USB stick with your choice of Ubuntu based distro. Make sure in Rufus that you CHOOSE the option UEFI/GPT only. This ensures the Linux environment boots only into UEFI mode during your install.

D) Boot Menu

Reboot your computer and press key for one time boot menu (Dell is typically F12). Select your USB stick from the boot options.

Note:

Make sure it says UEFI in front of the USB stick in the boot menu.

If not, return to Windows and recreate your USB stick with Rufus ensuring you choose the UEFI/GPT (only) option.

E) Boot into USB Stick

Boot into Linux live environment and begin the install.

F) Installation type

When you get to the installation option, choose "Something else" at the bottom of the Ubiquity installer.

G) Create partitions

Find your secondary HDD that you will be installing Linux to.

In my case it was listed as /dev/sdc (with /dev/sda being the windows drive and /dev/sdb the USB drive [which was invisible in the installer]).

So basically:

+--------------+--------+---------------------------+--------------------------------+
| Device path  | Device | Operating System (OS)     | Visible in Ubiquity installer? |
+--------------+--------+---------------------------+--------------------------------+
| /dev/sda     |  SSD   | Windows 10                | yes                            |
| /dev/sdb     |  USB   | Ubuntu 20.04 (Live Stick) | no                             |
| /dev/sdc     |  SSD   | None                      | yes                            |
+--------------+--------+---------------------------+--------------------------------+

  • 1st Partition / EFI (For separate EFI partition. See below for what this does.)

    1. Select your target drive (in my case /dev/sdc)

    2. Select "Make New Partition Table" (IMPORTANT: This will format the entire disk. Do not do this if you have any data you want in this disk. In that case, you can back up the data and proceed. You can recreate a partition and store the data back in there.)

    3. Partition the target drive as follows:

    • Size: 650 MB

    • Type for the new partition: Primary

    • Location for the new partition: Beginning of this space

    • Use as: EFI (this will be listed as /dev/sdc1 efi in the partitioning tool once you create it)

  • 2nd Partition / Root (All the software you install are stored here)

    1. Select "free space" under your target drive (in my case /dev/sdc)

    2. Select "+"

    3. Partition the target drive as follows:

    • Size: min. 10 GB (25+GB recommended. I have 40GB)

    • Type for the new partition: Primary

    • Location for the new partition: Beginning of this space

    • Use as: ext4

    • Mount point: Choose "/"

  • 3rd Partition / Swap (Only needed if you want to Hybernate)

    1. Select "free space" under your target drive (in my case /dev/sdc)

    2. Select "+"

    3. Partition the target drive as follows:

    • Size: Depends on your RAM. See Swap FAQ.

    • Type for the new partition: Primary

    • Location for the new partition: Beginning of this space

    • Use as: swap

  • 4th Partition / Home (Only needed if you want to keep your personal files separate from / Root partition)

    1. Select "free space" under your target drive (in my case /dev/sdc)

    2. Select "+"

    3. Partition the target drive as follows:

    • Size: Remainder of space on the drive or any size you want. (You will need to leave some space if you want to make another partition. As you are going to create a shared NTFS, leave 500GB free. Of course, you can always shrink "/home" partition later)

    • Type for the new partition: Primary

    • Location for the new partition: Beginning of this space

    • Use as: ext4

    • Mount point: Choose "/home"

H) Boot loader Device

  • BEFORE clicking "Install Now", from the "device for boot loader installation" option button, select the 650MB EFI partition you just created as the target for the bootloader. (example /dev/sdc1 in my case).
  • Click "Install Now".

I) Installation & Reboot

  • Finish the installation process and reboot (removing the USB stick when your UEFI/BIOS screen logo appears).

J) Upon reboot

After UEFI/BIOS reads the new bootloader entry that Linux has added to it, you will be presented with the grub menu with a listing of your Linux distro as well as a listing to boot Windows 10.

  1. Boot into Ubuntu

  2. Install any updates and then reboot and attempt to enter Windows 10 from the grub menu to make sure that grub correctly handles the hand-off to the Windows 10 bootloader.

  3. In Windows disk manager, select the free space in the drive with Ubuntu and create an NTFS partition. (I will assume you gave it the drive letter D:)

K) Setup Automout for D:

  1. Boot into Ubuntu.

  2. Open the "Disks" utility.

  3. Select the partition you want to automount. (D:)

  4. Click the icon with 2 cogwheels. (Additional partition options)

  5. Select "Edit Mount Options".

  6. Turn the "User Session Defaults" option to "Off".

  7. Check the box "Mount at system startup" Make sure "Show in the user interface" is also checked.

  8. Replace the line that says nosuid,nodev,nofail,x-gvfs-show with users,uid=1000,dmask=027,fmask=137,x-gvfs-show,utf8.

  9. Change the "Mount point" to something less complicated like /mnt/D or /mnt/MyFiles.

  10. Change the "Filesystem Type" to ntfs-3g.

  11. Click "OK" and you are all set!

What you have done:

You have installed the Linux EFI bootloader to the newly created EFI partition. In the process of this, Linux has added an entry to your UEFI listings in your systems UEFI/BIOS. Linux has also automatically detected your Windows 10 install and added a grub menu item to boot it. Your computer at this point will now automatically boot to Linux unless you choose to boot to Windows (from the Grub menu). You can make it boot straight into Windows by moving "Windows Boot Manager" above "Ubuntu" in the boot sequence in firmware settings (You will not see grub when you do this and you will only be able to boot into Ubuntu again through boot options (Usually F12 during boot) or by moving Ubuntu up in boot sequence again).

What you have not done:

You have not in any way altered your Windows 10 install or its bootloader or even so much as touched the Windows 10 EFI partition. Everything is reversible simply by removing the Linux UEFI listing from your UEFI/BIOS settings. How to do so varies from each vendor.

Borrowed and edited from user613363's answer. (Dual Boot Windows 10 and Linux Ubuntu on Separate Hard Drives)

VidathD
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