I'm setting up a dual boot on my laptop where I have a new SSD for both Windows and Linux, and an almost full HDD for data. In the past, I've used a similar setup with legacy BIOS, which worked fine. However, I've heard that Windows updates can cause issues with GRUB, even in EFI systems. This got me wondering if I could avoid those problems by installing GRUB on the HDD instead, making it the main boot drive. I'd like to know if this kind of setup is feasible, how to go about it, whether the EFI partition for GRUB on the HDD needs to be at the beginning, if this could really prevent Windows from interfering with the Linux bootloader, and any potential downsides to this approach. Thanks!
2 Answers
You can technically create an EFI partition and install GRUB on your HDD, making it independent of the Windows drive. However, by doing this, you're sacrificing the speed advantages of the SSD. If you have enough space, dual booting both OSes on the SSD is the way to go for better performance. As for Windows messing with GRUB, that’s been a common issue for years, but fixing GRUB is just part of the Linux experience.
It's generally better to have each operating system on its own drive, along with separate EFI partitions. That way, both systems can operate independently, which helps with stability.
Does it really affect startup times that much? I thought GRUB from the HDD wouldn't slow things down too much since it's a small program. Are you saying it would make everything slower during use, even after booting?