Arch Linux

Franco_64

Member

From: Milano, Italy

Registered: 2021-11-20

Posts: 35

Installing Arch on a second disk and switch to it with Uefi Bios

A simple question. I have Windows 11 installed on a NVMe disk. Can I install Arch on a second drive (Sata SDD) and simply boot on it switching the boot disk via UEFI bios?

Last edited by Franco_64 (2024-11-19 12:54:24)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 23,170

Re: Installing Arch on a second disk and switch to it with Uefi Bios

If there's an emphasis on "switch" (i.e. you'll routinely take out the drive and reinsert it) make sure that whatever bootloader solution you're opting for is prepared to boot via the fallback path on the ESP: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Unifie … nced_drive

Other than that, the generic answer is yes you can, if you need more details past this, get more detailed on your intended setup.

Franco_64

Member

From: Milano, Italy

Registered: 2021-11-20

Posts: 35

Re: Installing Arch on a second disk and switch to it with Uefi Bios

No, it's a Sata internal drive permanently connected to the pc. I only need that Windows doesn't touch the Linux disk.

cryptearth

Member

Registered: 2024-02-03

Posts: 961

Re: Installing Arch on a second disk and switch to it with Uefi Bios

the answer is still yes as that's how uefi's boot selection is designed: it's main idea was to get rid of boot "managers" like grub but load uefi binaries directly on its own
fun fact: if you load a ntfs filesystem driver most uefi are even able to boot system32\winload.efi directly without using bootmgfw.efi as bootstrap