Resetting my laptop - advice needed

[Amsterdam4572]

Hi all, I’m going to reformat my laptop and go to a dual boot system as Windows in a VirtualBox environment still gives me some issues when updating hardware. Before I start I would like some advice on a few things. This is a UEFI laptop, I’ve disabled secureboot already.

1. what is a good partition setup for Windows 10, Endeavour OS on UEFI? I have a 250GB SSD because all of my data resides on my NAS
2. How do I clear out all existing UEFI boot entries? Do I need to clear them? (Note: UEFI confuses me quite a bit )
3. Any other things to watch out for (e.g. once I’ve installed Windows 10 remember to turn off fast startup before doing the Endeavour OS install).

Thanks

[keybreak]

Although you’re pretty determined, i’d advise you to go against making dual-boot with Windows 10, as this is not safe anymore:

Windows lets you now to access your Linux filesystem, but

… you will have to do it from inside WSL and then use File Explorer to browse it. So if you dual-boot Windows and Linux using different disks you can, with this update, access your Linux files on the Linux disk from inside of Windows 10 (albeit inside WSL 2 inside Windows 10). And because WSL 2 is able to expose Linux file systems to File Explorer (the file manager, previously called Windows Explorer) you can use browse a native Linux filesystem (mounted in WSL 2) as though it was a regular o…

If you really need Windows 10, better sandbox it and try to resolve your issues with VM.

---

Other than that i’m sure you can get help soon

[pebcak]

For Windows to have access to the Linux partitions, one needs to first enable WSL and install a Linux distro:

How to Install WSL 2 on Windows 10 (Updated) - OMG! Ubuntu!

[pebcak]

Just let Windows’ installation media have it’s way with the whole disk. Normally it would create four partitions.

Then set up your Windows and use its Disk Manager tool to shrink it to the size of your choice.

Disable fast startup and/or hibernation in Windows if you want to access it from Linux later on.

Install EnOS. The partitioning is up to you depending if you want a separate home or swap. The minimum requirements would be one EFI system partition and one root. You could use Windows EFI as well for installing the Grub.

Later on you could have a look at your boot entries and see if there are any remnants of the past installations via: efibootmgr -v and remove them.

[keybreak]

Yeah right…Problem is, that there is ability to do so now, and knowing how Windows 10 enables / disables settings that you explicitly set and install software on it’s will - i doubt it’s wise to trust M$ here

P.S. @pebcak Windows lets you now to access your Linux filesystem, but let’s continue there

[pebcak]

I’m not sure that there is any reported case so far of Windows having enabled WSL and installed a Linux distro (see the link) on its own.

[ricklinux]

Hello, @Amsterdam4572
It sounds like you are going to wipe your drive and reinstall Windows. Make sure secure boot and fast boot is off in UEFI.

I would install Windows first. The only issue with Windows is that it’s efi partition gets created is usually only 99 m which i feel is too small. You are able to change the size of the efi partition on the install by using (diskpart) tools built into windows but it can be difficult for some people. It doesn’t really matter but it just my opinion. Remember when you install Windows there will be some drivers you need to install but i would update it until it has everything the latest. It may pick up some drivers from Windows updates if you set the Windows updates settings to check & install other software. After you can check the devices and see what drivers are missing which you may have to download from the appropriate sites.

How to manually create ESP using Windows installation media

Before the partitioning step:

(Technically, you could also do this on the partitioning step and click Refresh afterwards.)

1. Press Shift+F10 to open Command Line.
2. Type diskpart Enter. Diskpart will take a while to launch.
3. Type list disk Enter A list of disks will be printed. Note the number next to yours (most likely 0). Select that disk: select disk 0 Enter.
4. Create ESP: create partition efi size=500 Enter (500 is partition size in MiB).
5. Exit Diskpart: exit Enter.

You can also google this if you are unsure. Or as i say you can let Windows create the defaults.

Once Windows is installed i would also turn off the fast start up feature that is built into Windows 10. Once you are ready to install Linux you can use the windows tools to shrink the Windows partition so you are left with an allocated space of the sizing you decided needed to install Linux. I’m not sure what you will use most so you could either split the drive in half or give Windows more? That’s up to you. Depends on your needs.

Installing EndeavourOS is the easy part!

[Amsterdam4572]

Thanks, I’ll probably end up with it split 50/50. Storage isn’t an issue because of my NAS. My main issue with VirtualBox is updating the firmware on my Cardo communication device. The software sees it, reads it but as soon as it tries to install the firmware it drops the USB connection and I have to enable it again in VirtualBox, and the upgrade fails. To be honest it’s the only thing I use Windows for, and the upgrade is once a year, so maybe I can drop VirtualBox and Windows totally and just go to a friend if it needs upgrading.

Looking at my EFI partition now it’s 300MB in size but only 2.12 MB used, so 99 MB shouldn’t be an issue I think.

Think I’m going to leave it for a bit but thank you for the advice