Arch Linux

Chindusky

Member

Registered: 2024-02-02

Posts: 4

Dualboot on two hard drives?

Hello,
I have a PC with one Nvme 1TB drive where i have windows 11 installed and second 500GB nvme drive. I wanted to dualboot windows 11 + arch on my main 1TB drive but windows wont let me shrink the volume more than about 1GB, so now i want to have windows 11 on 1TB drive and arch on 500GB drive. My question is, is it possible to do that, is installation process significantly different from one-disk setup and how to make grub work and detect both OS? thank you for your help

d.ALT

Member

Registered: 2019-05-10

Posts: 920

Re: Dualboot on two hard drives?

Perfectly doable, no need to worry at all.

1. If your computer's UEFI implementation is good, then its Firmware will be capable of recognizing another additinal ESP onto the 500GB drive
   or,

2. Just re-use the already present (Windows)' ESP (mount it to /efi or /boot)

- EFI System Partition (ESP): Typical mount points
- GRUB: Detecting other operating systems

---

<49,17,III,I>    Fama di loro il mondo esser non lassa;
<50,17,III,I>    misericordia e giustizia li sdegna:
<51,17,III,I>    non ragioniam di lor, ma guarda e passa.

Chindusky

Member

Registered: 2024-02-02

Posts: 4

Re: Dualboot on two hard drives?

Well, so installed arch on my second drive but now i have a problem that i can only boot into windows. When i try to select boot drive i only get windows boot manager to choose. If i boot from my USB stick and chroot into my linux installation and using efibootmgr i can't see arch either. When i install grub into boot directory (with boot partition mounted there) efibootmgr does show arch linux but after a reboot it's gone again. This is how my current partitions are set up:

Both drives have GPT partiton schemes. I can still get into my arch installation but only with chroot from a USB. How can i make GRUB to show up?

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 19,808

Re: Dualboot on two hard drives?

uEFI system in uEFI mode?

If so please post the output of uefibootmgr -u

---

Nothing is too wonderful to be true, if it be consistent with the laws of nature -- Michael Faraday
Sometimes it is the people no one can imagine anything of who do the things no one can imagine. -- Alan Turing
---
How to Ask Questions the Smart Way

Chindusky

Member

Registered: 2024-02-02

Posts: 4

Re: Dualboot on two hard drives?

So here is output of efibootmgr after chroot into my arch installation:

There is what i get after running grub-install (exact command visible on picture):

And after rebooting and ejecting USB here are my boot device options:

If I were to chroot from USB again i would have what 1st picture shows and the cycle repeats.

Also I'm not sure if it changes anything but just to repeat I have two ESP, one for windows on my main drive and second for linux on second drive

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 11,614

Re: Dualboot on two hard drives?

Yeah, this happens with broken firmware. It's finding a valid Windows installation so it deletes everything else. See grub-install's --removable flag to install to the default loader location, might or might not work depending on just how broken the firmware is.

Chindusky

Member

Registered: 2024-02-02

Posts: 4

Re: Dualboot on two hard drives?

Alright, it seems like it actually helped for some reason,
Thank you all so much for help

whjones2

Member

From: Honolulu, HI

Registered: 2018-05-27

Posts: 11

Re: Dualboot on two hard drives?

Aloha Chinduscky,

At least in the image provided, you forget the next command:

grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

I just came across this today - I know this is time late, but I didn't see anyone else pointing this out.  It's not the firmware, but you have to configure grub.  Also, check /etc/default/grub to uncomment the OS_PROBER line (also make sure you have installed the os prober package.

---

Arch2-D2
Arch Linux (Rolling) // GNOME DE
MSI MEG X570 Unify
Ryzen 7 5700X // Radeon RX 6600 // 32GB RAM