Silly question about install possibilities

Im brand new to the idea of trying anything other than windows, I know you need to add the iso of bazzite to a usb and boot with it, but i had a question: I have a spare SSD, can i install bazzite on the spare SSD instead of my main one/dual booting on my pc?

wolfyreload•2/6/25, 3:36 PM

It's actually easier dual-booting in that way, just make sure that you select the right drive during the install. Then in the installer you'd want to remove all the partitions (typically there would only be one) and just install. With Linux in general you can even put that SSD drive in another machine and it will just work

wolfyreload•2/6/25, 3:37 PM

I prefer to unplug the drives that I don't want to install to just to prevent me accidently installing to the wrong drive... Which I have done on numerous occasions.

HikariKnight•2/6/25, 3:38 PM

Unplugging the other system disk before installing also helps you avoid installers being dumb

Darmy67OP•2/6/25, 3:39 PM

If i install bazzite on the spare SSD, how would I change the boot BACK to windows and vice versa?

HikariKnight•2/6/25, 3:40 PM

You want to avoid Linux and windows sharing an efi partition.

DDarmy67 If i install bazzite on the spare SSD, how would I change the boot BACK to windo...

HikariKnight•2/6/25, 3:41 PM

Bios boot menu, select other disk.
Or go into bazzite and run ujust regenerate-grubujust regenerate-grub to add windows to grub (since the disk was disconnected during install)

HikariKnight•2/6/25, 3:42 PM

You might also have to run

ujust configure-grub

ujust configure-grub

HikariKnight•2/6/25, 3:42 PM

Which will let you enable/disable the grub boot menu

HikariKnight•2/6/25, 3:43 PM

If you use bitlocker on windows however. Use the bios boot menu!
Otherwise you risk bitlocker demanding a recovery key on boot (once it asks for this you're locked out until you provide it)

Darmy67OP•2/6/25, 3:44 PM

This is a lot, but thank you for the speedy responses lol

HikariKnight•2/6/25, 3:46 PM

Before enabling the grub boot menu you should check in windows of you have bitlocker enabled.
It's enabled by default in win11 when using a Microsoft account

Darmy67OP•2/6/25, 3:47 PM

Should i keep it enabled? Im unfamilliar with it

HikariKnight•2/6/25, 3:49 PM

on a desktop i keep it disabled.
if this is a portable device that leaves the house (or burglaries are common in your location) keep it on

HikariKnight•2/6/25, 3:50 PM

disk encryption like bitlocker makes it near impossible to recover files without booting into the system (which requires a password) and makes it even harder to steal any data if they just steal the disk

Darmy67OP•2/6/25, 3:50 PM

Would i need to turn that off from my microsoft account, or is that a setting on my PC?

HikariKnight•2/6/25, 3:55 PM

you need to turn it off in windows

Darmy67OP•2/6/25, 3:58 PM

oh. mines already off

HikariKnight•2/6/25, 4:05 PM

thats good then

HikariKnight•2/6/25, 4:05 PM

means you can just use the grub boot menu once you have bazzite installed on the other disk

Darmy67OP•2/6/25, 4:06 PM

thank you very much for the help

Silly question about install possibilities

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