I'm trying to install Pop!_OS, but my current EFI partition is too small for that. I'm curious about what might happen if I have two EFI partitions. Can anyone offer advice on how to handle this situation?
5 Answers
You can boot from a USB stick and use Pop!_OS in live mode to resize your EFI partition before the installation. Just make sure you have your Windows installation media handy, as you might need to repair the Windows bootloader afterward!
If you're already on Windows, I'd suggest getting a second drive if possible. SSDs are affordable these days. You can install Pop! on that drive, and it'll create its own EFI partition without clashing with Windows. Plus, consider installing rEFInd for an easy boot manager that works well with multiple OSes!
One thing you could try is using a Windows partition manager to enlarge your EFI partition before you install Pop!_OS. It sounds tricky, but I've done it before with tools like MiniTool or EaseUS. Worst case, Windows might not boot, but that's fixable!
The outcome really depends on how your UEFI firmware handles multiple EFI partitions. From my experience, most systems manage fine with two, but some can run into boot issues. It's a bit of a mixed bag!
So, I guess it's a gamble? Hopefully, I won't end up with boot problems!
Creating a second EFI partition for Pop!_OS is also an option, but you might want to be cautious about it. It could work, but it’s not really recommended unless you're experienced.
That's good to know! I heard there’s usually a 16MB partition next to the EFI that's hard to move. Did that affect you?