I'm about to install Windows 11 on a drive that's separate from my Linux drive, and I'm wondering if there's anything special I should keep in mind during this process. Also, I'm planning to format the new drive to NTFS using Linux. Will that cause any problems? I'm currently using Fedora 42 with KDE.
2 Answers
Make sure to disconnect your Linux drive before starting the Windows installation! Windows tends to scan all connected drives for an EFI system partition and can accidentally wipe your Linux bootloader. It happened to me once, and it was a hassle to fix it later. Better safe than sorry!
Should I remove my other ext4 drive too, just to be on the safe side?
It's actually better to format the drive using the Windows installer rather than from Linux, since the NTFS support from Linux isn't officially backed. I recommend marking the new drive and setting a specific partition size so you won't accidentally format your Linux drive. Don't forget to have a Linux boot USB handy to repair Grub afterwards, just in case! If you install Windows on its own drive, you can use BIOS to boot into Linux and then update Grub from there. Just saying, it's a good practice to remove the Linux drive to avoid issues altogether.
So by marking, do you mean to keep track of the size in megabytes? Also, should I remove my ext4 drive too?
Totally agree, having a backup plan is key!
Good to know! I wasn't sure about that either.