Arch Linux

topher

Member

Registered: 2016-04-28

Posts: 8

replacing everything on a disk with an existing esp

I'm getting ready to install arch on a new System76 Galago Pro (galp5) laptop. I don't want to use System76's Pop!_OS, so I'll be wiping everything on the ssd. That is to say the Pop!_OS partition, the Pop!_OS recovery partition and and the existing swap partition. I will not be dual booting. The arch installation guide says:

If the disk from which you want to boot already has an EFI system partition, do not create another one, but use the existing partition instead.
(<https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Installation_guide#Partition_the_disks>)

The wiki article on EFI partitions says:

When dual-booting, avoid reformatting the ESP, as it may contain files required to boot other operating systems.
(<https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/EFI_system_partition#Check_for_an_existing_partition>)

My question is this: Since I am going to wipe everything on the disk and replace it with only arch  do I still need to keep the existing ESP, even though it would contain data for partitions that no longer exist? Or would it be safe to partition the entire disk from scratch with a new ESP?

Trilby

Inspector Parrot

Registered: 2011-11-29

Posts: 29,530

Website

Re: replacing everything on a disk with an existing esp

It's safe to partition the entire disk from scratch.  This will allow you to chose the size your your ESP yourself and not need to clean out any useless leftovers from the previous system.

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"UNIX is simple and coherent..." - Dennis Ritchie, "GNU's Not UNIX" -  Richard Stallman

topher

Member

Registered: 2016-04-28

Posts: 8

Re: replacing everything on a disk with an existing esp

Thatś what I thought. It seems that the installation guide means to say that there should not be multiple ESPs on the same disk, but the wording seems a little ambiguous to me.

Thanks for your quick reply, Trilby!