Dual boot partition scheme in UEFI/GPT

davidbarros2

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Greetings guys!

Not the most well versed guy in linux here, but I just been offered a new computer that I wish to dual boot arch linux alongside windows 10.
My big question is essentially what would be a good partition scheme, given this computer have and SSD (128G) and a HDD (1TB).
Making things simples I wanna have the boot partition on the SSD, as well as root partitions for arch and windows. On the HDD I just wanna split it in half to windows data and /home.

What would be a good partition scheme and how many UEFI partitions should I need to have?
Does it make any difference windows or linux at the beginning of the drive?
Something on the likes of:

SSD:
  1. Microsoft system recovery | NTFS | 500 MB
  2. EFI system partition | FAT32 | 100 MB
  3. Microsoft reserved partition | something | 20 MB
  4. Windows system | NTFS | 50 GB
  5. /Root | EXT4 | 50 GB
  6. /SWAP | SWAP | 4 GB
HDD:
  1. Windows data | NTFS | 500 GB
  2. /Home | EXT4 | 500 GB
I know I previously I need to enable UEFI BOOT and to disable the following:
  • Legacy boot
  • Compatibility Mode (CSM)
  • Secure Boot
  • Fast Boot (USB stick might not be recognized at boot)
How many UEFI partitions should I have? One for arch and one for windows? Just one for both?
Should I install windows first and arch later so grub can overide the UEFI bootloader and allows me to chainload windows from it?
Should I pre-format the partitions using Gparted, windows included?
What extra things should I consider? Any advice would be very much welcome!
 


G'day David and welcome to linux.org :)

I have to leave for my Australian evening now but will be back on deck tomorrow with a bunch of ideas, in the meantime someone else will likely be along, so entertain their input :)

One question for now - do you know if the new SSD and HDD are formatted to GPT or MBR?

Cheers

Chris Turner
wizardfromoz
 
Thanks for you reply!
They're currently formated to GPT.
Either way i'll be doing a clean install of both OS's so I'm free to format the disks in any suitable way.

Best regards.
 
the basics are install windows first that will automatically install EFi and reserved bit; dont run anything from Windows, do maybe defrag shrink Windows partition to 30 Gig , then install Linux , grub etc. Then force windows to use grub bcdedit /enum firmware
Personally i would every thing on the HDD and treat the ssd like a usb stick
 
Make 2 ESPs
Leave the windowss' one and kreate a new one for the grub, because archs' grub might not recongnise windows. That's what happened to me.
 
Thanks for the input.
Any difference on having windows on the first partition (UEFI partition) or linux (ESP)?
How about the swap? Any noticeable difference or recommended practice between having it on SSD or on HDD?
 
They're currently formated to GPT.

My bad (dumb wizard!) saw that after.

That's good so that it does not restrict you to 4 partitions on the SSD.

I have to leave again, sorry, but how many GB of RAM, David?

Wizard

BTW

1. Windows install first, and it will dictate the size of its ESP
2. Likely won't need Swap, and it can be added after if needed.
3. Used any other Linux before? If not, Arch is a big learning curve.
4. Nicley planned, what you are doing, you have obviously done some research :)
 
Thanks - 16 GB of ram, so, not very much in need of a swap partition...
I've used mostly Debian for a decade, but ocasionally trying out all the rest.

After your kind suggestions I've done it with the advice of Peer, having 2 ESP on the same partition and grub2 being responsible to chainloading windows bootloader, everything working fine for now besides the Nvidia drivers (GTX960M) that I hope to fix it soon...

Thank you all for your help.
 


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