I have a desktop PC running Windows and a laptop running Fedora with the COSMIC desktop. The laptop's screen broke, so I want to repurpose it as a home server and move its Linux SSD, along with another SSD and an external hard drive, into my desktop. I mainly use Windows for games and applications that do not support Linux, while Linux is what I use for college. Will the existing Fedora installation boot normally after being moved to different hardware? What problems should I expect when dual booting it alongside Windows?
3 Answers
The move itself should not be dangerous, but make a backup before changing the drives around. Check that both systems use the same UEFI boot mode rather than mixing UEFI and legacy mode, and be careful about which drive the installer or bootloader targets. After Windows updates, you may sometimes need to manually select Fedora from the firmware boot menu. Also expect the system clock to be wrong by a few hours when switching between Windows and Linux; that can be corrected in either operating system.
It will probably boot without much trouble. Linux generally detects the new hardware during startup, especially when using a standard distribution kernel. The biggest possible issue is graphics support—for example, you may need to install the appropriate NVIDIA driver if the desktop has an NVIDIA GPU. Otherwise, you can usually boot into Fedora, install any missing drivers, and continue using the existing installation.
With Windows and Fedora on separate drives, the operating systems normally stay independent. Use the motherboard’s boot menu to choose which one to start, or set the preferred default drive in the BIOS/UEFI boot order. It is a good idea to disable Windows Fast Startup, since it partially hibernates Windows instead of fully shutting down and can cause problems when accessing shared drives or hardware from Linux.
Windows updates can occasionally change the boot order or overwrite the bootloader entry, making Fedora disappear from the normal boot menu. That usually does not damage the Linux installation; you can normally restore the Fedora boot entry from the firmware settings or with a recovery method.