Question I have a ASUS AM4 TUF Gaming X570-Plus - can I dual boot Win11 from either of the PCIe SSDs drives?

[conticreative]

Can I dual boot windows 11 on my rig? These are the specs of the rig I built in 2019 and I am about to reconfigure:

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 12-core-24-Thread Unlocked Desktop Processor
MOBO: ASUS AM4 TUF Gaming X570-Plus (Wi-Fi) (2 PCIe SSD Slots)
PSU: Corsair RM 750x
Cooling: Corsair iCUE H100i RGB PRO XT
HD: Seagate FIRECUDA 510 1TB - 3450MB/s | 3450 MO/s (+ several 4 and 8TB HDs)
RAM: 128GB - Corsair 4x32GB 3200MHz Vengeance LPX
GPU: GeForce GTX 3080ti

I just bought a 2TB WD Black Gen 4 PCIE SSD and a couple of 8TB hard drives. My main reason for that is to do a clean install of Windows 11, since the Microsoft update to Win 11 made my computer a bit sluggish. It's still pretty fast and does the job (my "work" focus is on running several browsers and Adobe Suite + whatever at the same time).
It's time for a fresh install anyway after almost 4 years.

Here is the issue: Beside work, I also Game and compose music. I was wondering if it would be possible to run a dual boot with:

1. One SSD with Win11 pro dedicated to working apps (the 2TB new SSD)
2. The other SSD (the 1TB) with Win11 pro dedicated to gaming and music composition.

I have enough SATA ports and drives to dedicate 2 HD to each installation, but I was thinking of giving 3 to the Work installation (2 x 8TB + 4TB) since I use the SSD only to install programs, but documents, cloud drives are on separate drives + I keep one 8GB for 1:1 backups in case of disaster.

The Gaming boot would get "only" a 8TB HD, which should be more than enough for Music and Games (I mostly use flying and racing simulators)

Is this a plan or are there problems I haven't considered? Such as being unable to dual both Windows 11 on the same machine?

What about Windows licenses? By definition I am going to use Windows 11 Pro at one time only.

Thank you.

 

[Lutfij]

My honest opinion, I'd have just one OS. The smaller SSD can house the OS and app's, while your larger SSD is your game library, the other HDD's in your build are your stores for your production.

 

[conticreative]

My honest opinion, I'd have just one OS. The smaller SSD can house the OS and app's, while your larger SSD is your game library, the other HDD's in your build are your stores for your production.

That's actually sort of how my setup works right now. I have my office apps in the PCIe SSD while all my games are in a laptop style SSD. Then I have a profile I launch when I am gaming.

However, some startup apps like iCloud, Adobe, etc. which I need for work, need to be turned off one by one before a gaming session (or a recording session). I can see how much memory and CPU these apps are eating even after I set up the profile as best I can and I'd prefer to have separate OSs for the two things.
In most cases, I have to restart the computer anyway and then open my Music/Gaming profile, turn off those apps I cannot avoid and then start recording/gaming. It's really a bit of a pain and since I now have an extra SSD, I wanted to repurpose my 1TB SSD for a clean windows installation. No cloud drives, no MS Office, no Adobe. Just games and music.

That said, I appreciate your opinion, and you are right, life is simpler without having to manage two separate Win 11 installations, but if I get better gaming and better recording, it's a price I am willing to pay.

 

[conticreative]

I wanted to write a sequel to my post, despite receiving few answers, just in case someone else is wondering how this whole thing works.

For the record, it is entirely possible to run separate Windows 11 OS Installations, one on each of the PCIe SSD on the ASUS AM4 TUF Gaming X570-Plus (Wi-Fi).

I now have my original drive, still sporting my old apps, profiles, etc.
In addition I installed a fresh copy of windows 11 in the other slot (Volume 2 on my rig), while the original SSD (Volume 6) I installed a fresh copy of Windows 11.

This is important. During the boot process these two choices are presented but there are no other qualifiers.
Volume 2 = MOBO Top SSD Slot
Volume 6 = MOBO Lower SSD Slot
Your mileage may vary.

In any event, this experiment worked a treat. I now have a Windows 11 Installation completely dedicated to my work applications, programs and documents.
Additionally I am now working on cleaning up my original Windows 11 installation on the other drive and I am dedicating this Win 11 installation to music composition and gaming.

The advantages to me seem clear: My work Windows 11 is not carrying any of my music or game apps, like Steam, my various VST instruments for music, etc.

Conversely, my "Play" Installation of Windows 11 will eventually (once I am done with the configuration) only carry my DAWs, their relative digital instruments and Steam for my gaming. I further separate the Music and Gaming into two profiles, so that it's easier to get started on either Music composition or Gaming applications (that was the way it was configured before).

Additionally, I found plenty of tutorials on how to install various version of Windows or Linux on a partitioned SSD. This is no different, except that my MOBO has two drive slots.

Here is something I wish I knew before I started this venture: Make sure the hard drives have the same drive letters in both installations before starting to install any programs.

I really wish I had done that first, as now my Work Windows 11 is a bit of a mess with the various cloud services after I changed the drive letters to reflect the same drive letters of my original Windows 11 installation. Trust me, it's important, especially since I have 4 x 8TB drives and 2 x 4TB drives for data and each set will serve a different installation. You don't want to confuse things.

Other than that, it's working a treat. I also wish someone had told me how to recognize which drive I was installing windows into.
When I run windows 11 installer, I was presented with a screen giving me the choice of installing on either Volume 2 or Volume 6.
That was less than helpful, as I couldn't find any info on which was which. Volume 6 turned out to be my original SSD, while Volume 2 was the new SSD, but I had no way of knowing that.

Somehow, it worked out, but I could have easily installed a fresh windows 11 on my old SSD, wiping out the previous installation.

I may end up doing that anyway, as the reason for my fresh install was a sluggish OS after updating from Windows 10 to 11, but first I am going to try to uninstall all my work programs and "clean" my old windows 11 installation.

If things remain stable and quick enough, I'll leave it alone, at least for now, since installing all my music apps, plus my Gaming apps and drivers (I mostly do Online Racing and Flying simulation, which means a lot of peripherals such as wheels, pedals, gear shifters, rudders, etc.) would be a time consuming and error prone pain in the behind.

That's it. If like me you would like to separate your Work and Play windows 11 installations, and you have a MOBO with two SSD slots, this is how you do it.

Now I am about to flash the BIOS on my Motherboard and I am shitting bricks.
I have to do it in the hope that my start-up time gets fixed. Ever since I bought my ASUS AM4 TUF Gaming X570-Plus (Wi-Fi), long startup times have been a bane for me. We are talking easily 3 or 4 minutes before windows even came into play.
The TUF GAMING splash screens stays on for at least two minutes (either that or a black screen) and then eventually Windows starts running. That takes 15 seconds.

Now that I have a dual boot, that time has almost doubled if I want to switch installations, which is why I think I need to flash the BIOS and reconfigure it. I am thinking of upgrading my CPU from my current AMD Ryzen 9 3900X to something a bit newer, and in order to do that I have to flash the BIOS. My MOBO won't recognize the new CPU series.

I hope this will be useful to somebody.
Cheers.

 

[CountMike]

I wanted to write a sequel to my post, despite receiving few answers, just in case someone else is wondering how this whole thing works.

For the record, it is entirely possible to run separate Windows 11 OS Installations, one on each of the PCIe SSD on the ASUS AM4 TUF Gaming X570-Plus (Wi-Fi).

I now have my original drive, still sporting my old apps, profiles, etc.
In addition I installed a fresh copy of windows 11 in the other slot (Volume 2 on my rig), while the original SSD (Volume 6) I installed a fresh copy of Windows 11.

This is important. During the boot process these two choices are presented but there are no other qualifiers.
Volume 2 = MOBO Top SSD Slot
Volume 6 = MOBO Lower SSD Slot
Your mileage may vary.

In any event, this experiment worked a treat. I now have a Windows 11 Installation completely dedicated to my work applications, programs and documents.
Additionally I am now working on cleaning up my original Windows 11 installation on the other drive and I am dedicating this Win 11 installation to music composition and gaming.

The advantages to me seem clear: My work Windows 11 is not carrying any of my music or game apps, like Steam, my various VST instruments for music, etc.

Conversely, my "Play" Installation of Windows 11 will eventually (once I am done with the configuration) only carry my DAWs, their relative digital instruments and Steam for my gaming. I further separate the Music and Gaming into two profiles, so that it's easier to get started on either Music composition or Gaming applications (that was the way it was configured before).

Additionally, I found plenty of tutorials on how to install various version of Windows or Linux on a partitioned SSD. This is no different, except that my MOBO has two drive slots.

Here is something I wish I knew before I started this venture: Make sure the hard drives have the same drive letters in both installations before starting to install any programs.

I really wish I had done that first, as now my Work Windows 11 is a bit of a mess with the various cloud services after I changed the drive letters to reflect the same drive letters of my original Windows 11 installation. Trust me, it's important, especially since I have 4 x 8TB drives and 2 x 4TB drives for data and each set will serve a different installation. You don't want to confuse things.

Other than that, it's working a treat. I also wish someone had told me how to recognize which drive I was installing windows into.
When I run windows 11 installer, I was presented with a screen giving me the choice of installing on either Volume 2 or Volume 6.
That was less than helpful, as I couldn't find any info on which was which. Volume 6 turned out to be my original SSD, while Volume 2 was the new SSD, but I had no way of knowing that.

Somehow, it worked out, but I could have easily installed a fresh windows 11 on my old SSD, wiping out the previous installation.

I may end up doing that anyway, as the reason for my fresh install was a sluggish OS after updating from Windows 10 to 11, but first I am going to try to uninstall all my work programs and "clean" my old windows 11 installation.

If things remain stable and quick enough, I'll leave it alone, at least for now, since installing all my music apps, plus my Gaming apps and drivers (I mostly do Online Racing and Flying simulation, which means a lot of peripherals such as wheels, pedals, gear shifters, rudders, etc.) would be a time consuming and error prone pain in the behind.

That's it. If like me you would like to separate your Work and Play windows 11 installations, and you have a MOBO with two SSD slots, this is how you do it.

Now I am about to flash the BIOS on my Motherboard and I am shitting bricks.
I have to do it in the hope that my start-up time gets fixed. Ever since I bought my ASUS AM4 TUF Gaming X570-Plus (Wi-Fi), long startup times have been a bane for me. We are talking easily 3 or 4 minutes before windows even came into play.
The TUF GAMING splash screens stays on for at least two minutes (either that or a black screen) and then eventually Windows starts running. That takes 15 seconds.

Now that I have a dual boot, that time has almost doubled if I want to switch installations, which is why I think I need to flash the BIOS and reconfigure it. I am thinking of upgrading my CPU from my current AMD Ryzen 9 3900X to something a bit newer, and in order to do that I have to flash the BIOS. My MOBO won't recognize the new CPU series.

I hope this will be useful to somebody.
Cheers.

Just why would you think it wouldn't be possible to run 2 windows or any other OS combination on separate disks if those OS's work when alone ? As long you install them with only one disk present, there's no chance of them interfering with each other. Presently I have 3 OSs on 3 disks, Windows 11 and it's insider variant as well as Linux Mint on third disk and that's not even counting several Linux live distros thru USB connected SSDs.