Got an old laptop from a friend I’d like to rejuvenate, the plan is to set up a light distro so it wouldn’t be as slow as it is right now with windows 10.
Now, I’m aware windows updates can fuck up a dual boot system, so i have a few questions about how to minimize the threat of that happening.
What i think of doing is running a few scans to check the disk, then setting up Linux Mint, because it is beginner friendly, and (relatively) light weight.
What I’d need help with is trusted guides and also tips for setting up dual booting, I’m sure I’ll need to do disk partitioning and I’ve done that before but I’d still want to make sure I’m doing it correctly.
Any help would be welcome.
I wouldn’t recommend duel booting on one drive.
I’ve done it before and hated it. As many pointed out windows will just destroy that partition because it wants to.
I’d honestly just stick with windows if you are going to need it.
If you don’t need it I’d just wipe the drive and install mint.
Duel booting can work well but usually only on separate drives
Windows will actively attempt to destroy your Linux partition at every opportunity, you can dual boot but it won’t be a fun experience.
If the laptop supports dual drives (not unheard of but not the norm) it’s way safer to dual boot from different physical drives.
Whatever OS you choose make sure they have a guide for dual-booting. Any Linux OS should be capable of dual-boot but not all will support that configuration equally.
As a failsafe I would also make a rescue USB, especially SystemRescue because of the findroot option.
Make sure to disable Windows hybrid sleep. If your system isn’t shutdown properly and you access the Windows partition from another system that can destroy data.
If you just want to keep the data on the Windows partition and usually don’t need to run Windows, I’d remove the Windows drive and keep it somewhere safe, and get another SSD for Linux. That way, the two systems are completely separate and can do nothing to each other.
Swap is mostly a crutch for too little RAM, if the system doesn’t have enough the best solution would be an upgrade. If that’s not possible, consider zram-swap, or if you have to, swap to an SSD (that will reduce its lifespan, though maybe not in a relevant manner). If you swap to an old HDD you won’t have much fun using the system.
You probably know most of it so just some advice: Don’t format the Partition table (MBR to GPT etc.) on the disk whose data you wish to keep.
Shrinking a partition or moving it carries a small risk of data loss and will take significantly longer than creating a new partition (since data needs to be cut and pasted from one area of the disk to another). If your old laptop has an empty slot for another SSD or NVME drive you can plug that in, and still dualboot and having the new drive Linux only.
Also to deal with the occasional Windows cockups, just carry a boot-repair USB, the auto repair has fixed the Windows issue for me 90% of the time (the other times are usually boot order priority or other BIOS setting)
