Hey folks, I'm having a frustrating issue with my setup and could really use some help. I'm primarily using Linux, but I recently added an extra SSD and installed Windows 11 on it. Now, I've got two SSDs: one with Linux and another with Windows 11, and each has its own EFI partition. I've enabled UEFI mode and tried toggling CSM on and off, but here's the kicker: when both drives are connected, my BIOS only recognizes the Linux drive as bootable. The Windows drive doesn't show up at all. However, if I unplug the Linux drive, my PC boots into Windows without any problems. I can access the Windows SSD from Linux without issues, so I'm puzzled. I've verified that both drives are using GPT, and the Windows EFI files are all there. I've also switched the SATA/NVMe ports around and used efibootmgr, but only the Linux entry appears. Interestingly, the BIOS logo screen takes longer to pass when both drives are connected, almost like it's struggling to decide what to boot. Any thoughts on what might be happening?
1 Answer
It sounds like your issue might stem from the order in which the operating systems were installed. When Windows is installed after Linux, it can create some conflicts. One solution is to add the Windows boot files to your systemd-boot configuration. You might want to look into using rEFInd to automatically detect the Windows boot option and add it to your bootloader. There’s a detailed guide on this in the Arch Wiki, it’s really helpful!
Thanks! I was initially just going to adjust the boot priority in the UEFI, but it seems like adding it to systemd-boot could be the better option.