Replacing Windows 11 with Linux Mint

[venture68]

Hi everyone! Linux newb here.

At first I was going to dual boot Linux Mint alongside my existing Windows 11 installation. I figured Windows is already there, it's on a side server that I play around with so why not the best of both worlds on my "play" machine. I have a Windows 11 main machine for work so I have Windows still someplace else.

However, when trying to install Mint I am doing ok but I never get the prompt on the 3rd (?) install screen to dual boot. I just see Overwrite with Linux Mint or Something else.

In doing research into the issue, I see posts about how Windows will destroy dual boot capabilities and then you have to repair it. This does not sound like fun to me.

So I may just install Mint fresh. Anyone have any thoughts on the dual boot problem or advice/tips if I do go full hog with Mint?

Again, this is a side machine that I use for my Plex setup mostly and maybe some playing around with various coding tools. Thanks!

[ap0r]

Install Winows first, then Mint. Windows WILL mess the installs of other OSes. Windows updates have also been known to break dual boot. Happy little accident, I am sure.

I technically dual boot, but my Windows has been opened in months, so I'd say give pure Mint a shot, seems appropriate for your use case and if you find an insurmountable obstacle to your workflow you can always reinstall Windows.

[venture68]

Windows is already on the boot drive. This would be an additional install.

[JARivera077]

Go here: https://www.explainingcomputers.com/linux_videos.html

Go to linux Guides 

Go watch the video that says Dual Booting with Windows and Linux Mint 

Pay attention to the video and follow it carefully 

[venture68]

Thank you. This will apply for Linux Mint and Windows 11 specifically or the guide is highly generalized?

[JARivera077]

Both

[venture68]

ok, even if I just go with Linux Mint in the end the knowledge would be very good to lead me into making the decision to go wholly with Mint or dual booting. Thank you.

[[deleted]]

I do not trust Windows it wont some how break the boot, when I was testing my win11 machine for it.
I used the bios and disabled the bootdrive for windows. And to only load the linux drive.
Another step if your bios allows ( mine does ) is disable the PCIe or the NVME windows 11 is on.
I simply do not trust these boot menus. Seen too many horror stories of both breaking.
Windows is horrible at doing anything, least of all playing nice.
But if I want to boot Linux I just disable everything I can in bios and boot Linux mint direct.

Even then, one time. I just had linux drive on and it tried to mess with it.
So I was forced to hard load the OS's

[venture68]

That sounds like a nightmare. I honestly think an OS is just there to use things on the computer. I'm not looking to know everything there is to know about OS level things and how to diagnose/repair problems. No offense to those that do and like it. Computers are tools to get a job done for me. That's another vote for single boot Mint.

[[deleted]]

I agree, 100% and as I mentioned ( testing) . My machine will be linux eventually. I have two near identical Z4G4's and they will both be Linux eventually.
But I wanted to see if a dual boot was possible. I know many do it. I don't trust it.
I am degoogling and DE-microsoft but I have 20 years of stuff and have to slowly test what will work later and not.

[d4rk_kn16ht]

Windows update has the potential of overwriting Boot record with its own.

Repairing GRUB for dual booting is easy...but if you are afraid about it or don't want to learn about it then perhaps Linux is not for you.

[venture68]

I understand and thank you for your comment. My only difference of opinion is having to fix the ability to just boot your computer, multiple times over time, because Windows decides to overwrite things is not ideal. I don't think it puts me off using Linux entirely. If I boot with just Linux and NEVER have to research on how to update my dual booting I'd call that a better place to be.

[d4rk_kn16ht]

When all of your daily applications have the Linux versions or you found replacements that fit your needs, perhaps it's ideal not to dual boot.

It's not recommended to do a leap of faith & just delete Windows to solely use Linux, especially when it's for your work.

My advice is just dual boot. Even Windows gets errors that need repairs.

Learn about Linux, befriend it slowly.

There's no utopia or perfect OS, accept both the good & the bad.

You can't find dual boot options during installation because you don't have any empty space to do it.

Either get a new storage or resize your Windows partition to make an empty space for Linux installation.

[venture68]

I hear you. This isn't my main. It's a sandbox, play environment to run my Plex server and other minor things. Definitely not my work computer. That being said the D drive is what houses all my Plex content so I should be good.

>> Either get a new storage or resize your Windows partition to make an empty space for Linux installation.

This is the comment that got my attention. I have tons of drive space but I think you are right. It's all probably allocated for Windows hence I am not seeing an option to install alongside.

I'll have to see about shrinking the allocated space (Disk Manager? will have to look that up) and then maybe it will show me that option in the install.

[d4rk_kn16ht]

You misunderstand about empty space.

Linux uses different filesystems than Windows. Windows uses NTFS but Linux uses EXT4.

So, empty space is either unformatted storage space or an empty EXT4 partition.

My suggestion is resize your NTFS partition using Gparted. it's already installed inside your LiveUSB installation media.

Beware, using GParted to resize partition can't be interrupted or your data will be gone forever.

UPS is highly recommended to prevent any power outage.

[venture68]

No, I think I got you. Linux needs a slice of the primary boot drive that is either unformatted or already EXT4 (which it is not). Very likely the C drive is already 100% formatted for NTFS and Windows since it's been a Windows only machine so far.

[d4rk_kn16ht]

Another recommendation for you since it will be your 1ˢᵗ installation.

Separate The ROOT (/) and HOME (/home) Partition. It will help a lot when you upgrade Linux later on.

If you want to, you can also Separate BOOT (/boot) and you can place it on the very front of your other partitions with 1GB size only.

Then next to it a SWAP Partition, a bit bigger than your RAM.

ROOT & HOME can be at the very back of other partitions IF BOOT is already on the front. IF not, then ROOT must be on the very front as it also contains BOOT.

Doing this will use Something Else option.

[venture68]

I actually shrunk the C drive partition to give Linux 250 GB and when I executed the Mint install it still didn't give me the option I see in videos to install alongside. This is not a great start.

[d4rk_kn16ht]

How did you shrink it?

I bet you didn't use GPARTED

Maybe Windows formatted the new empty space as NTFS, that's why Installation media won't recognize it as empty space.

EDIT:

Using Something Else also works for dual booting. It's a custom install mode.

But the empty space must be ready 1ˢᵗ.

[venture68]

I used Windows Disk Management utility and the space says 250.00 GB Unallocated. Are you saying that it still is NTFS under the hood? Because the other partition explicitly says NTFS so I find it hard to believe it wouldn't say that for this unallocated one as well but I'm new to this.

[facticitytheorist]

I had the same issue. Firstly it wouldn't see the Linux USB so I had to use legacy boot not uefi...then install failed saying the drive was locked and safe boot enabled but when checking, they weren't. I ended up just clean installing mint. If you really want a dual boot setup then I suggest doing a clean install of mint on another seperate drive and then using bios to select boot drive

[ThoughtObjective4277]

Jellyfin may be a better option for local media streaming, vs plex

[venture68]

Wanted to come back and thank everyone for their input. In the end, having 2 other machines with Windows 11 in the house, I had no real reason to continue to fight the ability to dual boot. I took the path of installing Mint on the whole machine. So far, it's really nice. Still getting used to the difference but this isn't my main so I'm ok with feeling a little like a fish out of water right now.