[Technology] Quick Linux dual boot question.

[1066familyman]

Straight to the point.

I'm soon to take delivery of a new 2nd hand laptop.

It's supposed to have a 500gb HDD and 120gb SSD. Windows 10 already installed.

I haven't used Windows in years. Very happy with my old Linux Mint. But I might just as well keep Windows on this one and I'm going to dabble in Pop OS as a dual boot.

Assuming they've put Windows on the SSD, what space would you recommend for each partition, and should I still leave a little bit as unallocated?

Thanks.

 

[maffew]

What would you want/need to partition the ssd? 120 GB with Windows 10 I dont think I'd even bother. I don't think the days of having OS and progs one one partition and your data on another matter too much these days

 

[beorhthelm]

Windows is a greedy bugger 80-100GB i reckon to avoid having to battle with it for space. turning off page file, service update and memory recovery will help. 20GB will be enough for Linux root and key partitions, put /home, /tmp, /usr, /var on the larger drive. might slow things down but give space to work .

 

[jackanada]

As above Linux won't need much and for any data Linux will read your windows partition just fine if needed.
Without knowing what laptop or from where can I still highly recommend wiping there entire thing and putting your own fresh install of windows 10 on. The product key will be stuck to the laptop and work fine and it's usually by far the quickest and easiest way to get rid of all the crap you didn't want preinstalled.

 

[1066familyman]

As above Linux won't need much and for any data Linux will read your windows partition just fine if needed.
Without knowing what laptop or from where can I still highly recommend wiping there entire thing and putting your own fresh install of windows 10 on. The product key will be stuck to the laptop and work fine and it's usually by far the quickest and easiest way to get rid of all the crap you didn't want preinstalled.

Good point! At least if I installed Windows again myself I could trim out all the crap, as you say.

In all honesty though, I probably wouldn't go to that trouble as I've not missed Windows in the good few years I've been exclusively using Linux. Was only thinking a dual boot option might be nice seeing as Windows is already there.

It's ridiculous how much space Windows wants to use. I read about Windows 10 needing a good 30 odd gb just for updates, but the figure beorhthelm quotes is crazy

 

[jackanada]

Good point! At least if I installed Windows again myself I could trim out all the crap, as you say.

In all honesty though, I probably wouldn't go to that trouble as I've not missed Windows in the good few years I've been exclusively using Linux. Was only thinking a dual boot option might be nice seeing as Windows is already there.

It's ridiculous how much space Windows wants to use. I read about Windows 10 needing a good 30 odd gb just for updates, but the figure beorhthelm quotes is crazy

I too default to Linux, though there is the odd thing I can only do on windows which is why it continues to exist. Tends to be DRM related but quite often after I've installed the windows program that will let me download something I can switch over to Linux and extract it into a user friendly format.

 

[1066familyman]

I too default to Linux, though there is the odd thing I can only do on windows which is why it continues to exist. Tends to be DRM related but quite often after I've installed the windows program that will let me download something I can switch over to Linux and extract it into a user friendly format.

I very occasionally have to go on a computer at work. They all use Windows 10 and are painfully slow due to the constant nagging, and me being unfamiliar with it.

My old Linux mint laptop at home does everything I need, which is mainly rip my music collection in Asunder and tag them in Kid3. The odd document I write I just use Libre Office. Internet browsing, connectivity and everything else runs a treat. I'm only changing because the charging port has nearly given up the ghost (it's about 15yrs old) and it's only 32 bit, so at some point I really need to upgrade anyway.

I think I'll save myself any frustration and headaches by just using the Windows already on this 64 bit machine to burn the Pop OS stick, then just go for a clean install and let it wipe Windows completely, once I've tested everything works fine on the live boot of Pop first of course.

The idea of dual boot did seem appealing, but the reality for me is, when all said and done, is that I'd probably never use Windows on it anyway, and give myself a headache in trying to work out partitions.

 

[happypig]

I had to use my son's W10 laptop the other day.
I cannot believe how bloody awkward it is, could not connect to a Samba share without enabling something and would not reconnect at boot without further faffing, had to install a program to ssh into a linux box.

 

[Wardy's twin]

I very occasionally have to go on a computer at work. They all use Windows 10 and are painfully slow due to the constant nagging, and me being unfamiliar with it.

My old Linux mint laptop at home does everything I need, which is mainly rip my music collection in Asunder and tag them in Kid3. The odd document I write I just use Libre Office. Internet browsing, connectivity and everything else runs a treat. I'm only changing because the charging port has nearly given up the ghost (it's about 15yrs old) and it's only 32 bit, so at some point I really need to upgrade anyway.

I think I'll save myself any frustration and headaches by just using the Windows already on this 64 bit machine to burn the Pop OS stick, then just go for a clean install and let it wipe Windows completely, once I've tested everything works fine on the live boot of Pop first of course.

The idea of dual boot did seem appealing, but the reality for me is, when all said and done, is that I'd probably never use Windows on it anyway, and give myself a headache in trying to work out partitions.

do you use any graphic/photo software?

 

[dadams2k11]

You will have to install Linux first then install win 10 to dual boot.

https://youtu.be/Pn7jZ5i1RTM

Have done this will Kali and win 10 and works well. Just get the bootloader correct otherwise you will have issues.

 

[1066familyman]

do you use any graphic/photo software?

Nope. Only Gimp to a very basic standard, like resizing images etc.

 

[1066familyman]

You will have to install Linux first then install win 10 to dual boot.

https://youtu.be/Pn7jZ5i1RTM

Have done this will Kali and win 10 and works well. Just get the bootloader correct otherwise you will have issues.

Thanks. The tutorial I had a look at before used os prober.

 

[1066familyman]

Windows is a greedy bugger 80-100GB i reckon to avoid having to battle with it for space. turning off page file, service update and memory recovery will help. 20GB will be enough for Linux root and key partitions, put /home, /tmp, /usr, /var on the larger drive. might slow things down but give space to work .

Any chance of some simple help here please, regarding storing stuff on the larger drive?

I played with Windows 10 for all of 10 minutes before realising I still hate it and have no use for it. So I now have Pop OS sitting happily on it's own on the SSD and doing everything I need flawlessly It still leaves me with 90gb to play with there too. That's not enough space for my music though.

What I want is for my home files to go on the larger HDD (which was a nice surprise at 750gb, not 500gb as advertised) while all my programs and the OS stay on the SSD.

I can't quite work out to do that though. Any chance of walking me through it please?


Edit: Don't worry for now. Just worked out how to frame the question correctly and found a youtube tutorial from a trusted Linux user that should be easy enough to follow

 

[1066familyman]

Unfortunately, moving my home folder from the SSD to HDD hasn't proved easy to follow at all. I've now watched several videos, all with varying methods using terminal and I can't make head nor tale of any of them

So if anyone wants to show me with some simple terminal commands here, it'll be much appreciated.

 

[beorhthelm]

my knowledge these days stops at knowing what to google for. i'd have etup the home drive on the second drive when installing Linux. however if is already installed, need to fdisk the second drive to format (as NTFS if you want Windows to read it), then use mount to make it a drive seen by the OS. the correct mount incantation will make it stick on reboot, or edit the fstab file. (hey i remember more than i thought)

 

[1066familyman]

my knowledge these days stops at knowing what to google for. i'd have etup the home drive on the second drive when installing Linux. however if is already installed, need to fdisk the second drive to format (as NTFS if you want Windows to read it), then use mount to make it a drive seen by the OS. the correct mount incantation will make it stick on reboot, or edit the fstab file. (hey i remember more than i thought)

Thanks for getting back to me.

At the moment the HDD is mounted in 'other locations'.

Are you saying I need to format it (I'll be using ext4 as no longer have Windows on the machine) then reboot for it to be mounted and seen by the OS as a drive?

If the above is correct. Then how do I go about moving my home directory over to it from the SSD?

 

[happypig]

https://www.tecmint.com/move-home-directory-to-new-partition-disk-in-linux/

This looks like the way to do it.

Alternatively, back up /home then re-install setting /home to /dev/sdb1 (or whatever your hdd partition is)

 

[beorhthelm]

it'll need to be formatted using fdisk, and mounted, using mount command or editing fstab to be seen by OS. /etc/fstab is the file that holds the file system table, edit with text tools then reload with mount command. looks techy but just follow the format and column spacing of other entries, always make a copy before editing.

to move /home or (sub directory) to the drive can add the /home entry in fstab to something like /dev/sda2 /home (really winging it there).

this looks helpful, copying existing /home files to the new location https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Partitioning/Home/Moving

 

[1066familyman]

https://www.tecmint.com/move-home-directory-to-new-partition-disk-in-linux/

This looks like the way to do it.

Alternatively, back up /home then re-install setting /home to /dev/sdb1 (or whatever your hdd partition is)

Thanks. Having briefly read through that I still feel a bit out of my depth, like I did with the YouTube tutorials.

I'm feeling a bit like BG right now. Life was so much simpler when I just had one drive on my old Linux Mint set up.

I'll persevere though. As it is I've also got some tinkering to do with Pop OS as I can't change folder colours for starters, which is a deal breaker for me with my eyesight. So I'm wandering off into KDE Plasma desktop now.

Wish me luck....I may need it!

 

[1066familyman]

No luck with the techmint guide happypig put up.

I'd already formatted the drive. I saw it was formatted as NTFS, so I formatted for ext4 instead.

I thought it was mounted, but perhaps not.