Will be installing either Mint or Pop_OS on a new laptop which has a 512gb SSD. Will keep Windows for gaming, at least for now, with the games installed on an external HD. But otherwise, this is to experiment with living in Linux.
I understand that I can unallocate HD space from Windows in order to make room for the LInux OS, leaving at least 25 or 30gb for the Linux OS itself.
Do I then extend that space further, so to speak, to allow for any other programs I might install as well as for data? Do I create a third partition for data that will be shared between the two OS?
What’s a reasonable breakdown?
e.g.
Windows 100gb; Linux 400gb or
Win 100gb; Linux 30gb; Data (NTFS) 370gb?
Also, I’d say install Windows first, then Linux. Windows assumes it’s the only OS in the universe and tends to steamroll over the whole boot setup, so I’ve found it much easier to just let Windows do whatever it wants first, then fix it with Linux afterwards.
I know this is not an answer to your question, but I’ve found everything to be immensely easier with a second drive. I’ve screwed my pooch before!
This is with a laptop. So one would have to be on an external drive. That wouldn’t slow it down?
It would slow it down a bit depending on USB 2 or 3, HDD or SSD and such. But, allowing each OS to have its own boot partition on its own drive usually prevents Windows from overwriting your linux boot. Solves some big dual boot headaches.
Default boot to Linux! I had dual boot set up for years and never actually booted into Linux. Once I changed the default to Linux I never booted into windows again (and eventually deleted that partition)
windows can and will destroy your bootloader at least once, show it no mercy
Keep a minimum of 30GB free, for Windows update processes on the windows system partition. I don’t how much the windows installation counts in space, but add that to the 30gb free space. I would recommend to have a extra partition for the games on NTFS and move your steam, epic, ubisoft, whatever library to that partition.
I have tried to use the same gaming partition between Linux and Windows, but failed every time. In the worst case this can alter your Windows privileges. At least I had this issue.
Currently I’m using Windows only for 2 games: Space Engineers and Empyrion. The rest works with better performance on Linux. Satisfactory, Ark survival, Elder Scrolls Online have more FPS on Linux with the same settings. I have to use a nvidia 1050 Ti in my laptop. With a AMD GPU the situation is a lot better on Linux.
I’m not a hardcore gamer, mostly im coding here and there. But sometimes gaming is a must have.
I was going to put games on an external hard drive, at least for Windows side. Maybe I should also partition the external HD and have an ext4 formatted partition for when I decide to game on the Linux side?
Yes. Because some games work only with proper privileges. This can get complicated on NTFS.
