I am currently using a Lenovo Yoga 730 13IKB with a 512GB SSD
I want to dual boot with Pop_os as I am planing to switch to Linux until September when my new semester starts. As there are some software that I can’t run on Linux yet I want to keep my Windows partition and use 120 GB for my Pop OS partition.
I created a new 120GB partition using the Windows disk manager, formatting it to exfat. And I wanted to boot form my 16GB USB with the Pop OS ISO on it (I have installed Linux and Windows many times on other machines and this way always worked for me) It was a hassle to get the Yoga to boot to the USB (Lenovo still uses BIOS and not UEFI) but I managed to boot to Pop OS and run the installer.
To the Problem:
I wanted to select my 120 GB SSD partition but it was not existent, event tho I selected advanced mod. GParted only shows the 16GB USB stick.
Is there a trick on how to show the partitions from the main drive or dose Windows block dual boot on Lenovo Yogas?
I know this doesn’t help you to do what you are trying to do, and may come off as unhelpful and for that I apologize in advance.
I strongly recommend AGAINST dual-booting Windows and Linux where they share the same drive. You’ll want to have two separate drives, and if that isn’t possible I recommend two separate computers. The preferred alternative depends on what your goal for installing Linux is in the first place. If it is your intention to acquaint yourself with the operating system I recommend just using a virtual machine until you eventually make the leap in September as you say. There are many problems with dualboots and further problems with dual boots sharing the same drive.
On topic to your original inquiry, in many cases the computer’s primary drive not being detected by the installer comes down to certain BIOS settings such as SATA mode and the like; however be aware that changing these settings can cause Windows to fail booting if the drivers for that SATA mode aren’t already installed on the system.
Thanks for the advice but as I can’t open my Yoga and even if It would most definitely not fit another drive so my options are limited. I want to switch to Linux but then all has to work fine (I tried before with Manjaro and I had a lot of problems) I really want to dual boot keeping my options to go back to windows in a instant open. I am not planing to carry 2 laptops around campus just so I can try if Linux can be my daily system.
fdisk -l only shows 2 errors
fdisk: cannot open /dev/loop0: Permission denied
fdisk: cannot open /dev/sda: Permission denied
Can I somehow check if the SATA drivers are installed ?
The BIOS is really shit on the Yoga, still the blue/gray Interface like 20 years ago.
If I switch to SATA and try to boot and it doesn’t work, could I just switch back and Windows should boot again?
You really should look at just running Linux in a VM on Windows. It’s not uncommon for the Linux dual boot to hose the Windows boot or the Windows boot to hose the Linux boot.
This doesn’t mean anything. Most laptops will have the standard text style BIOS settings, this doesn’t mean the laptop doesn’t have UEFI.
Yes, you should be able to switch back and boot again.
windows will update its bootloader from time to time and when it does… well now you get to learn how to reinstall grub because you didnt separate your installs with different drives.
I’ve never had grub mess up so bad it wouldnt boot windows but that doesnt mean when you inevitably get tired of a broken linux install taking up room on your drive, that you wont want to get rid of grub… and that process is less fun than recovering grub after windows wipes it.
Install linux to this and use the bios to choose when to boot it. Its faster than a mechanical drive by a good bit and will leave your windows install intact.
it wont be as fast as bare metal but you can at least try a distro to see if it really does meet your needs. The positive here is, no commitment.
I’m only telling you not to install on the same disk because I used to do that all the time. It does work and can be done… but you really should avoid it if you can.
bottom line, if you need windows, use windows. If you dont need windows, use linux. Since you dont know enough about linux to know if you can use it, dont install linux (at least not in a way that you must commit your windows drive to).
Or an SD card if you want something that you can leave in your laptop and still carry. Keep in mind that the SD card may be slower unless you get a faster one (which I would recommend doing)
I had some issues with dual booting Linux and windows on my Razer Blade Stealth. What I ended up doing was wiping the drive and installing (then Mint, now Fedora) and then installing windows. I partitioned 250gb out of my 500gb SSD to Windows during the install process. When I boot i get the option to switch between the two. It will automatically go to Fedora if I do not select Windows Boot disk. I have not had any issues with switching between the two.
Did something change? Duel booting used to be a working option right? But as echoed here my recent laptop refresh I duel booted on the new ssd and if I remember correctly win10 got corrupted, or maybe nix… I tapped out and run win10, VMWare player for winxp (because greddy EMU demands it) and nix.
no, dualbooting from the same drive has always been a PITA. There’s no technical issue when it comes to dual booting on separate drives, but there are practical issues that I have with it.
Dual boot is fine, I do it on my main machine. I don’t use the same disk for both installs though. I keep the bootloaders separate and use my motherboards one time boot menu to switch. This keeps windows from messing up grub.
