Arch Linux

another_newbie

Member

Registered: 2024-04-21

Posts: 13

I need help switching my disks' operating systems without losing any

Hello,

So I have a little bit of an issue. I'm dual booting on my Acer Nitro 5 machine Arch Linux and Windows 10.

I used to get help from a friend with Arch who helped with installing the system on my 1TB SSD, but now I find myself not really using it that much, my other SSD is 512GB and I'm kind of running of storage and want to use the other 1TB.

However, I still wanna learn how to use Arch, so i was wondering if there was a way to switch the SSDs systems, or something of the sort, because alternatives seem slightly hard. on the one hand, if i format the arch disk, it will be hard to reinstall it (especially on an acer as i faced many issues before). and im also not sure how i can install windows on a pure arch machine.

what do you guys suggest? thank you for your time!

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 20,638

Re: I need help switching my disks' operating systems without losing any

How is the Arch Linux drive partitioned?   What is the output of lsblk    ?

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another_newbie

Member

Registered: 2024-04-21

Posts: 13

Re: I need help switching my disks' operating systems without losing any

this is what i have:

 NAME        MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
zram0       254:0    0     4G  0 disk [SWAP]
nvme1n1     259:0    0 953.9G  0 disk 
|-nvme1n1p1 259:6    0   512M  0 part /boot
`-nvme1n1p2 259:7    0 953.4G  0 part /
nvme0n1     259:1    0 476.9G  0 disk 
|-nvme0n1p1 259:2    0     1G  0 part 
|-nvme0n1p2 259:3    0    16M  0 part 
|-nvme0n1p3 259:4    0 469.3G  0 part 
`-nvme0n1p4 259:5    0   6.7G  0 part 

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 20,638

Re: I need help switching my disks' operating systems without losing any

Well, that was not what I had hoped.  It appears your friend partitioned your disk into a small boot volume and the lion's share as your root partition.  No home partition.

If we are going to to anything, we should reduce the size of that root volume from 953G down to something more rational.  Then you could create a new partition in the newly free space and use it as what Windows users might call a "D:" drive.  That would be a lot easier than trying to 'switching' your drives.   If that sounds okay, then post the output of mount so we can see what file systems you are using.   Also, what are you using as a graphical environment?  I ask as some DEs have reasonable GUI tools for managing partition sizes.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Parted … partitions

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Nothing is too wonderful to be true, if it be consistent with the laws of nature -- Michael Faraday
The shortest way to ruin a country is to give power to demagogues.— Dionysius of Halicarnassus
---
How to Ask Questions the Smart Way

cryptearth

Member

Registered: 2024-02-03

Posts: 2,185

Re: I need help switching my disks' operating systems without losing any

im also not sure how i can install windows on a pure arch machine.

As long as you have a running system and at least two drives (not matter if one is fixed internal and the other is a usb thumbdrive or yet another fixed internal) that's the easy part. If you have only one drive this can get quite tricky.