I have an ASUS Vivobook laptop running Windows 10. It got it a couple years ago and did some upgrades. It came with a 1 TB HDD and 8 GB memory. A 500 GB m2 SSD and 8 GB more memory has been added. Windows 10 on the HDD was cloned to the SSD and is running fine. I no longer need this laptop for business but would like to keep Windows 10 for some paid software I still use occasionally. But I want to setup the laptop as a dual boot. It runs UEFI instead of legacy bios.
Should I partition the SSD and install Linux (Kubuntu 20.04) on the SSD? Or should I create a partition on the 1 TB HDD and install Linux on one of the HDD partitions? Everything else being equal I’d rather install both on the SSD and use the HDD as a data drive for both systems.
That can certainly be done. I would back up your Windows before making such an attempt, though. A shared data partition could be okay, but I think you would have to use NTFS. I don’t think Microsoft’s ext4 driver for Windows is coming anytime soon, though it is in the works.
EDIT: If you’re planning to use Linux for most things and Windows for the few paid applications, I would personally use the HDD for your Linux /home and copy files to a flash drive for Windows when the need arises. What apps are you talking about, if you don’t mind my asking?
Option 1: VM A: If you’re able to re-install that software, i’d install Linux on the 1st harddrive and run Windows in a VM. The data on the 2nd hard drive can be made accessible by moving it into a shared folder on that drive or linking it to a shared folder with something like bindfs. (Also allows you to use EXT4 on that 2nd drive). B: Do the reverse, VM Linux on Windows.
Option 2: Put Linux on the 2nd drive: A: Install Linux on the whole 2nd drive using NTFS as the format. B (Best): Install Linux on a partition covering part of the 2nd drive which’ll allow you to use “full” disk encryption and EXT4. The remaining space can be partitioned as a NTFS partition.
Option 3: If the storage needs to not have Linux on it: A: Install Linux on the whole 2nd drive and buy a 3rd USB drive for shared storage. B (Yikes): Put Linux on a separate partition from Windows on the same drive. Not recommended as there’s no guarantee Windows won’t bulldoze your Linux partitions with an update.
If I were designing a laptop at least one of the ports for the fastest available connector would be ejectable like you have with an icy dock. That way there would only be one OS installed at any one time.But that’s just me. I can shutdown the desktop pc; pop out the system SSD; pop in another and boot right into another OS. But that is not available on laptops anyone. I believe at one time there were some laptops available that were built so that the cd/dvd port was swappable with a HDD. It would hardly be difficult to make a caddy for an m2 SSD to be inserted into the chassis which would guide the connectors precisely into the m2 port on the motherboard. The latch securing the m2 SSD would be on the external chasis. The caddy could even be constructed so that it serves as a heat sink.
I’m leaning heavily towards partitioning the 1 TB drive to about 250 GB for Linux and 750 GB for storage. The storage would be NTFS so it can be used in both systems.
Okay, so I’ve installed Kubuntu 20.04 onto the 1 TB HDD. UEFI shifted that drive into the first boot order automatically. I went into UEFI and confirmed that the 1 TB HDD is first to boot. I rebooted and grub came up. I can boot into Kubuntu or Windows without issue. Now, I’m just updating Kubuntu which is taking forever.
The 1 TB HDD does not show up in Windows since it’s ext4. After gparted is installed the HDD will be partitioned and the new partition will have the nfts file system.