I'm currently using Arch Linux on my not-so-great PC, but I'd really like to install Linux Mint 18 alongside it. I'm looking to dual boot both operating systems because Mint has better support for my old NVIDIA 9200M GS graphics driver. However, I'm concerned about potentially corrupting my hard drive again since I had an issue previously with ChatGPT's advice. Could someone guide me on how to set this up properly? Also, if I share the same "/home" directory between both, will that create any problems?
3 Answers
Do you want to completely replace Arch with Mint, or are you planning to run them side by side? You're going to need to manually partition your drive during the installation of both OSes. I'd suggest first installing Arch and using about half of your drive's space. Then, when you install Mint, just set it to use the leftover space. If your Arch installation is corrupt, you may need to start fresh anyway, but if not, use GParted to adjust your partitions on the drive before installing Mint.
It’s super important to have backups! Definitely make sure everything important is saved. Maybe try using your phone to store anything critical until you're done with the installation.
Yep, I have my backups on my phone!
Given your setup, if you want a dual boot, just make a new partition for Mint specifically for the root directory. Ensure that your EFI partition is adequately sized, which it should be if you followed the Arch install instructions. Once Mint is installed, you can use Grub to auto-detect both systems or try out rEFind for a more user-friendly boot manager. And if you have a separate '/home', you can mount it for both systems, but be careful with shared configurations.
What if I'm not great at partitioning? I messed up and corrupted my drive last time!