"parallel" boot (vs. "Dual Boot")

[PC Gearhead]

First, as opposed to “Dual Boot”, would like to “parallel Boot”; (i.e. O/S installed on discrete drives)
That is, Lenovo ThinkStation P720 has 2 Bootable NVMe slots.
NVMe 1 is “C:\” drive, with win11Pro Installed.

Referring to Image 2 - “NVMe 2 Annotated” should explain available drives;
Blue indicates NVMe drives 1 & 2 (C:\ and D:\ respectively)
Red (nka drive “E:\”) indicates a RAID 0 array, via ASUS Host Bus adapter(Intel VROCSTANMOD Key + 4x 2TB 990PRO M.2 NVMe
Green (nka drive “F:\”) indicates Intel BIOS-based RAID (10) array via O/B Intel C600+/C220+ chipset.

With “F12”. I can select which drive for Startup.
Idea is to boot via “D:\” (NVME 2) drive, where Zorin18/Mint will be installed....

(recommendations for transition from long-term windows User??)
Previously, had tinkered with Zorin... debs, flatpacks, etc. found a bit confusing (vs. simple double-click .exe files)

A while ago, I had stumbled across installing both O/Ss installed with an option window.
I have no idea how I did this.
Here for a "second opinion"... (that I can understand)
Thank you for any useful information,
John

 

[kc1di]

Hello @PC Gearhead
Welocme to the Linux.org forum,
What you propose should work for you. there are a couple ops here that do something similar. Good luck with your project and enjoy!

 

[Condobloke]

I have no idea how I did this.

I am glad I am not the only one who occasionally achieves that type of outcome.

Welcome to Linux.org

 

[KGIII]

Hmm... This is just a trivial aside...

As far as I know, and from a few minutes spent on Google to confirm this, the use of 'parallel boot' is definitely non-standard, nor is it commonly used. I understand what you're saying, which is good. It'd still be called 'dual boot', as far as I know. I can't really find all that many people using it, nor are there any useful results for a 'vs' type of query.

It might actually make sense to call one 'dual boot' and the other 'parallel boot', just to give a greater indication of intent or result, but that's not currently common vernacular.

I do kind of like the idea of using one designation for one and another designation for the other. It makes some sense to me.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled discussion.

 

[Random_Poster]

Easy.
Disconnect current W11 drive.
Connect second drive by itself.
Install OS of choice on second drive.
Create a tiny USB drive running rEFInd Boot Manager.
Connect both OS drives.
Point BIOS to boot to the rEFInd USB.
Choose which OS you'd like to load from the rEFInd menu.
USB remains in the machine as your primary boot drive.

I do it with multiple(4) OS drives.
ps, get away from calling them C & D drives, that's a Windows thing. ;-)