this post was submitted on 18 Apr 2025
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[SOLVED] Installing Linux distro without breaking Windows install (lemm.ee)
submitted 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) by Parptarf@lemm.ee to c/linux@lemmy.ml
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Solution: When I formatted all my drives to install Linux on one and Windows on the other, I kept both connected and they share EFI boot partition as a result. Every time I reinstall Linux it formats the drive and therefore deletes the Windows's EFI Boot as well. One way is to fix this is to reinstall Windows while disconnecting the drive you have Linux on. Or you can move the boot files if you don't want to do that.

I used this guide: https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/changing-windows-boot-manager-drive.3571420/post-21561626

Also remember to delete the Microsoft folder in the boot folder on Linux after you’ve checked that the new boot loader is working.

OP:

Currently dual booting as I need Windows for a few tasks and ganes Linux just won’t do. Since setting everything up I’ve reinstalled Linux twice, both times I’ve lost the ability to boot into windows and have needed to reinstall it.

Disk doesn’t show at all in Grub, tried all kinds of things but it just doesn’t show as a bootable OS. It doesn’t show in the boot options in the BIOS or the boot menu for my motherboard. Drive shows up and all the files are still on it. So my guess is the Windows bootloader somehow installs on the same disk that I have Linux on.

I run Linux(Fedora) and Windows on two separate drives.

Windows take forever to install. Anything I can do now to prevent this from happening if I need to reinstall Linux or if I wanna to some distro hopping?

Just to be clear, everything is working right now. But I want to prevent having to reinstall Windows every time I change distro or reinstall my Linux OS

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[–] Parptarf@lemm.ee 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Not sure what you mean here. This issue is related to moving Windows’s boot files to a different drive. Only relevant if you want to use the automatic partition option while installing a distro.

Booting in BIOS won’t make any difference whatsoever if the boot loader is gone.

[–] warmaster@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I daily drive Aurora (which is an image based distro) from an m2 caddy on my work laptop.

These kind of distros do not allow for manual partitioning, so they just use the whole drive.

My BIOS is set to prioritize Aurora.

My m2 caddy can be used on any other hardware and Aurora will boot just fine.

[–] Parptarf@lemm.ee 1 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

This is a completely different scenario?

As I wrote earlier. Windows doesn’t make a new EFI boot partition if there’s one on your system already. Regardless which drive it’s on and which drive you choose to install Windows to. It’s always been that way, I just forgot when I installed Linux on my old Windows drive and reinstalled Windows on a new drive. So when you do install Linux again after this, and choose automatic partitioning, it formats the EFI partition Windows used.

My solution is just how you move the Windows EFI partition and it’s files to a different drive, effectively isolating the Windows boot loader completely from the Linux drive.

I can chose which OS to boot into either by changing boot order in the BIOS, selecting it in the BIOS boot menu or in Linux’s Grub menu.

[–] warmaster@lemmy.world 1 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

What I failed to convey is: that method doesn't work with image based distros, unless you manually edit the boot partition maybe?

[–] Parptarf@lemm.ee 1 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

This method shouldn’t have anything to do with what distro you’re gonna be using as the fix itself happens in Windows.

It’s a Windows fix relevant for dual booting Linux.

Edit: I used this exact method when I had two Windows installs on different drives and wanted to remove the original one from my system. Back in the Windows 7 days.