Hey guys, after 2 years since my last attempt (and recently trying fedora on my laptop) Im ready to try again to install it on my desktop. First time I installed Nobara and it nuked my windows boots partition which caused a lot of trouble and trauma (couldnt boot into windows no matter what). Basically I want to accomplish this:

1- I want to install Fedora on a separate drive and keep my windows drive completely intact (Need it for work).
2- Preferably I would like GRUB to ask which boot option I want to use if my linux drive is set to be my boot drive and to boot straight to windows if its my windows drive set to boot.

Can someone please guide me into installing it the safest way possible?

  • Dagnet@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
    3·
    16 hours ago

    but if I can remove my windows drive then it would be 100% safe right? Its an NVME drive and I think I can disable it in my BIOS, removing it would be a massive pain

    • Auster@thebrainbin.org
      4·
      16 hours ago

      Dunno what sort of setup you have, but what I would do, considering my setup and by being a tad on the neurotic side, is to unscrew and detatch any drives but the one to be flashed. This, I think, is the only way to be absolutely sure nothing goes in the wrong place.

      • Dagnet@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
        1·
        16 hours ago

        I would need to dismantle almost everything and would lose the heatsink past on my nvme too, I will just try disabling it since I dont really see how that would be different from removing, not like the fedora installer can mess with my bios settings no?

        • Auster@thebrainbin.org
          1·
          15 hours ago

          Been some years since I last used Fedora, so not able to confirm nor deny anything. Sorry for not being able to help further. =/

          • Dagnet@lemmy.worldOP
            1·
            14 hours ago

            Turns out my boot partition was on my other drive somehow (the drive I installed Linux) , am I completely fucked now?

            • Domi@lemmy.secnd.me
              1·
              47 minutes ago

              Do you mean your Windows boot partition?

              Windows does not support installing the boot partition on a different drive out of the box. Unless you modified your Windows installation, the drive where Windows is installed is also where the Windows boot manager lives.

              The biggest risk with installing with the drive connected is accidentally installing the Linux boot partition over the Windows boot partition, hence the usual recommendation to disconnect the drive just to be safe.

              You’re gonna have to provide some more details on your setup and what is working/not working though.