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Best way to dual boot laptop - Linux and Windows (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/linux@lemmy.world
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I'm looking to install Linux on our home laptop and see if I can convince my wife to migrate off Windows. Since I'm not sure there won't be times we need or want to boot back into Windows, I want to set it up so we can dual boot. The laptop only has a spot for one drive however so I can't use two drives and chose them with the bios. I know in the past Windows has been problematic with dual boot setups on a single drive, corrupting the boot drive following updates and what-not. I'd really like to avoid that if possible.

Any suggestions on how best to go about it, or something I should at least avoid because it's known to be problematic?

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[–] 1 point 1 year ago* (4 children)

Being that this laptop is probably 15 years old

Core2Duo? Or 1st-gen i3/i5/i7? Either way, that will still run Linux just fine.

Being able to boot back to Windows in a pinch will be beneficial though.

That's where a VM will shine.

With dual booting, you have to reboot the whole system into the other OS. With a VM, you can just run Windows inside that in the background, and open it right back up if needed.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 1 year ago* (3 children)

    I'll definitely have to try that. What VM software would you recommend? My experience with VMs is very limited and only on Windows, not Linux.

    The CPU is an Intel 47xx... can't recall exact model. It's a decent machine with 12GB of memory so should handle a VM ok even.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

    i7-4770 or i7-4790? Those Haswell-based CPUs are legendary, even in 2025. I built an i7-4790K based gaming rig probably 10 years ago or so, it was an absolute monster.

    For VMs on Linux, I would recommend something called "Virtual Machine Manager". It's in nearly every distro's software repository, and uses qemu (common virtualization tool in Linux servers all over the world) for the backend. But whatever you do, stay away from "VirtualBox".

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

    It's an i7-4700MQ. Definitely still a decent CPU and with 12GB of ram more than adequate. Not sure I'll get touchscreen support with Linux, but I usually forget it's a touchscreen anyway.

    Thanks for the VM tip. I used VirtualBox in the past but not heard anything good about it lately.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    Not sure I’ll get touchscreen support with Linux, but I usually forget it’s a touchscreen anyway.

    Depends what laptop it is, you might actually get native touchscreen support. Linux has come a long way, it supports quite a lot these days.

    Thanks for the VM tip. I used VirtualBox in the past but not heard anything good about it lately.

    Yeah, unfortunately VirtualBox is owned by Oracle, and Oracle is an objectively horrible company.

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