[SOLVED] Need help setting up a weird kind of dual boot

[Deleted member 2808023]

Hi everyone, I'm trying to get two different hard drives to work on my PC, both having different OSes. For details, I'm trying to get a Lenovo Ideapad 330S-15IKB to load a hard drive with Windows 10 and an SSD with Debian

I know this isn't the kind of setup you see every day, it definitely goes against the way the computer was meant to be used, but I don't understand what could go wrong, I don't use the SSD all that much so I'd only ever switch between them a few times a month

 

[Flashgo1]

if you have win10 pro. you can dual boot both os off the ssd. dont ask me beyond that. i learned that when i was going to dual boot my pc until my new job were im not home anough to bother. you will have to hunt down the process on a linux forum. some here might know it.

 

[USAFRet]

Hi everyone, I'm trying to get two different hard drives to work on my PC, both having different OSes. For details, I'm trying to get a Lenovo Ideapad 330S-15IKB to load a hard drive with Windows 10 and an SSD with Debian

I know this isn't the kind of setup you see every day, it definitely goes against the way the computer was meant to be used, but I don't understand what could go wrong, I don't use the SSD all that much so I'd only ever switch between them a few times a month

More details, please.

A dualboot of Windows and Linux is common, in various configurations.

But we need a lot more details.
Both these drives in the same Ideapad?

 

[Deleted member 2808023]

The idea is I have a hard drive with Windows 10 Home and an SSD with Debian Linux. I want to be able to take apart the laptop, remove the hard drive, put the SSD in and boot Linux.

The Ideapad is a small laptop which can only hold one drive at a time, there's only ever one drive inside the laptop at any given time, which is why I understand what I'm asking isn't usual.

 

[USAFRet]

The idea is I have a hard drive with Windows 10 Home and an SSD with Debian Linux. I want to be able to take apart the laptop, remove the hard drive, put the SSD in and boot Linux.

The Ideapad is a small laptop which can only hold one drive at a time, there's only ever one drive inside the laptop at any given time, which is why I understand what I'm asking isn't usual.

Repeated disassembly of the laptop WILL wear out the screw threads.

But, the way forward is just to install the OS with only that drive connected.
Remove, swap in the other drive, and install the other OS.


But instead of a drive swapping dualboot, have you considered running the Debian in a VirtualMachine?
Guest under the Win 10 Host.
Can work quite well, and no disassembly needed.

 

[Deleted member 2808023]

Yeah I set up a VM for now, works fine. I tried installing both OSes as you say and it simply doesn't work though, I think it has something to do with Lenovo having a preinstalled windows license. I'll try it with something like Windows 7 then, hopefully it'll work fine.

Are the screws really the only thing I should be worried about ? To be honest one of the reasons I'm interested in doing this is figuring out how tough the motherboard is.

 

[USAFRet]

Yeah I set up a VM for now, works fine. I tried installing both OSes as you say and it simply doesn't work though, I think it has something to do with Lenovo having a preinstalled windows license. I'll try it with something like Windows 7 then, hopefully it'll work fine.

Are the screws really the only thing I should be worried about ? To be honest one of the reasons I'm interested in doing this is figuring out how tough the motherboard is.

What OS did it originally come with?
If Win 10, a reinstall of Win 10 should not incur any licensing issues.

 

[Deleted member 2808023]

What OS did it originally come with?
If Win 10, a reinstall of Win 10 should not incur any licensing issues.

Windows 10, reinstalling also does not work, I get a valid windows license every time I reinstall it.

EDIT : Also, there's a Windows product key provided in the BIOS

 

[USAFRet]

Windows 10, reinstalling also does not work, I get a valid windows license every time I reinstall it.

EDIT : Also, there's a Windows product key provided in the BIOS

Where are you getting the Win 10 install?
You're doing a full wipe and reinstall in this process? Delete ALL existing partitions?

During the install, if it asks for the license key...skip that section and continue.
Later, when it goes online, it should activate itself.

 

[Deleted member 2808023]

Where are you getting the Win 10 install?
You're doing a full wipe and reinstall in this process? Delete ALL existing partitions?

During the install, if it asks for the license key...skip that section and continue.
Later, when it goes online, it should activate itself.

Using the license already included on the computer ? Could you explain how that works ?

 

[USAFRet]

Using the license already included on the computer ? Could you explain how that works ?

Assuming that laptop originally came with Win 10, that license is activated, and the server farm at MS knows about it.
A full wipe and reinstall on that same hardware, even a different physical drive, simply means that when it tries to activate itself, it talks to the activation server farm at MS.
"Oh, this system. Yes, we know about it....proceed with the activation"

Otherwise, and dead drive replacement or a simple reinstall after a nasty virus would mean buying a whole new OS license. Which is NOT the case.

Do that install from a newly created WIn 10 USB.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

When/if it asks for the license key, skip that section and proceed on.

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[Deleted member 2808023]

Assuming that laptop originally came with Win 10, that license is activated, and the server farm at MS knows about it.
A full wipe and reinstall on that same hardware, even a different physical drive, simply means that when it tries to activate itself, it talks to the activation server farm at MS.
"Oh, this system. Yes, we know about it....proceed with the activation"

Otherwise, and dead drive replacement or a simple reinstall after a nasty virus would mean buying a whole new OS license. Which is NOT the case.

Do that install from a newly created WIn 10 USB.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

When/if it asks for the license key, skip that section and proceed on.

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com

Is this done by firmware or is it just CPU instructions ? I know this is a weird question but I'm curious if there's a chip on the motherboard built specifically for this license activation thing.

 

[USAFRet]

Is this done by firmware or is it just CPU instructions ? I know this is a weird question but I'm curious if there's a chip on the motherboard built specifically for this license activation thing.

On a laptop with a preinstalled OS, this is held in a combination of the hardware and the activation server farm.

 

[Deleted member 2808023]

Thanks for the replies man, I suppose I'll make a full backup and reinstall different editions of windows 10 until my "dual boot" works.

I just remembered I didn't actually reinstall windows, I just used the install disk to try and fix the bootloader while messing around with the laptop's bios settings, it didn't work unfortunately.