Alternative to dual booting

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I see that it is quite common to dual boot Windows 10 and Windows 7 for folks who feel a need to retain the old familiar OS. That is also the case with folks who are using Linux OS's. It is hard to dump Windows 10 even though Linux has turned out to be quite functional.
I found an alternative to the dual boot solution. I bought a 120 GB internal SSD for under $40 and loaded Linux Mint 17.3 to it. It is in my desktop pc as well as the original drive with Windows 10. I bought a $31 120 GB USB 3.0 external hard drive to back it up. Now I can sell the pc if I wish and take my Linux SATA 3 SSD along to install in the next one. One more way to skin a cat.
 
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So when you remove the internal Linux disk to sell the machine the PC will then still be running GRUB at boot time and complaining about the missing disk? Or will you fix that.
 
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I assumed that the pc would boot from the remaining disk which has the Windows 10 OS. There is nothing on that disk but Windows 10. If I thought the Windows 10 disk would be altered in the slightest (which it will not), I would not even attach it to my pc when the disk with Mint was attached. I would manually remove and replace the SSD's when I wished to use a different OS. I do not anticipate using the Windows 10 ssd in any case so it can be stored in a completely separate location until I sell the pc. Actually, I do not plan to sell it ever but was just offering an alternative to dual booting. I have two separate Windows 10 pc's (with backup drives) if there was ever occasion to use Windows 10. I have them as backup only and update them periodically.
 
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So how do you boot Linux now? Normally one would use Grub which would boot either OS. It maybe, I don't know, that an modern machine with UEFI can just add the second OS into itself and then there would not be a problem.

When I have done this it was always necessary to load Windows first and the Linux would install Grub to boot either...but I admit I have not done this since the XP days.


I am asolutely willing to be told I am wrong, out of date, an old fogey...or whatever :)
 
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I have a Linux Mint media disk that I bought for $10 which I used to load the OS on a blank disk just as I do the Windows 10. I have heard of Grub but do not really know what that is. The beauty of the recent Linux system is that it loads and operates just like Windows. It is now usable by the average person. It is very similar to navigate as Windows as well. Many Youtube videos show this but I think this one shows what I mean best.
 
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I see that it is quite common to dual boot Windows 10 and Windows 7 for folks who feel a need to retain the old familiar OS. That is also the case with folks who are using Linux OS's. It is hard to dump Windows 10 even though Linux has turned out to be quite functional.
I found an alternative to the dual boot solution. I bought a 120 GB internal SSD for under $40 and loaded Linux Mint 17.3 to it. It is in my desktop pc as well as the original drive with Windows 10. I bought a $31 120 GB USB 3.0 external hard drive to back it up. Now I can sell the pc if I wish and take my Linux SATA 3 SSD along to install in the next one. One more way to skin a cat.

Well an alternative to dual boot is boot into one OS and install a VM (Vmware or Oracles Virtual Toolbox in Windows) to boot to the other.
 
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So how do you boot Linux now? Normally one would use Grub which would boot either OS. It maybe, I don't know, that an modern machine with UEFI can just add the second OS into itself and then there would not be a problem.

When I have done this it was always necessary to load Windows first and the Linux would install Grub to boot either...but I admit I have not done this since the XP days.


I am asolutely willing to be told I am wrong, out of date, an old fogey...or whatever :)
You are referring to dual booting but I am not dual booting. I am booting one OS to one drive but I have two drives so there is no need to change Windows NT (NTLDR) boot loader to Grub. NT loads Windows and Grub loads Linux.
It is possible to do this with Linux because it is free and there is no paranoid mother company which nags you to activate the install. However, with Windows you would have to purchase two operating systems to do this. That is why users dual boot Windows 7/Windows 10. It is to avoid the cost of a second OS as well as a second drive. Of course many have laptops not desktops so a second drive is impossible in that case.
 
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OK now I see. So Mint OS boots from media and then you have it mount your second disk to use? This would work I guess but I still see a problem with Linux updates unless one fiddles about somewhat. I do this with Raspbian . It boots from the SD card as all Raspberry Pi machines have to but the whole OS is on a USB attached disk. Several .conf files to adjust.

Or are you going to the BIOS and setting one or other drives as the first drive to boot from? Normally PCs like to have a writable drive to boot from if they are to do anything apart from being a demo.
.
 
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OK now I see. So Mint OS boots from media and then you have it mount your second disk to use? This would work I guess but I still see a problem with Linux updates unless one fiddles about somewhat. I do this with Raspbian . It boots from the SD card as all Raspberry Pi machines have to but the whole OS is on a USB attached disk. Several .conf files to adjust.

Or are you going to the BIOS and setting one or other drives as the first drive to boot from? Normally PCs like to have a writable drive to boot from if they are to do anything apart from being a demo.
.
Yes, I select the drive to boot in BIOS. In my case it is the Linux OS as I do not use the Windows 10 now. If I wished to use or update Windows, I would enter BIOS and change the boot order.
 
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Is that yes to the first or too the 2nd? :)

Either way it works.
There is no problem updating Linux or Windows. No fiddling, although updating the software takes a bit of fiddling to select download mirrors etc.. Linux Mint 17.3 is almost identical to Windows in the way it is navigated. They have done a great job copying Windows (LOL). The biggest difference is that the Linux OS is far more easy to personalize.
 
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No there would be no fiddling because at any instant the PC is either a standard Linux machine or a standard Windows machine. My earlier post that said fiddly was referring to another possible way of running the two OSs without dual boot.

If (when) I get bored with Insider W10 on my spare machine it will be Mint for me also. I used Ubuntu for several years and am quite familiar with Linux.
 
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Just use the grub bootloader. You're making things way too difficult.
I think you are right. I will just use the grub bootloader and forget Windows 10, dual booting, and multiple drives. Much simpler. After all I only need one OS. I can return the extra internal ssd and the external backup drive as well as the Windows 10 media disk since I have had those less than 30 days. Hey you just saved me about $200.
 
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I think you are right. I will just use the grub bootloader and forget Windows 10, dual booting, and multiple drives. Much simpler. After all I only need one OS. I can return the extra internal ssd and the external backup drive as well as the Windows 10 media disk since I have had those less than 30 days. Hey you just saved me about $200.
Just familiarize yourself on how to restore the windows bootloader, in case you decide to remove linux. That's the one negative with linux, is grub does overwrite the windows bootloader. I haven't done it with windows 10, but it was fairly easy to do with Windows 7.
 
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Just familiarize yourself on how to restore the windows bootloader, in case you decide to remove linux. That's the one negative with linux, is grub does overwrite the windows bootloader. I haven't done it with windows 10, but it was fairly easy to do with Windows 7.
The subject of my post was that I had 2 hard disks. One with Windows 10 (NT loader) and one with Linux Mint (Grub loader). I am not dual booted so do not have to restore anything.
 

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