SSD Partitioning for seperate OS

[Erothes]

So I was thinking of factory reseting my laptop which I use for school work and such and partitioning the 500 GB SSD so I could install different OS on it. So for example I do 350/150 partition and install Win 10 on the 350 GB partition and linux on the other one, would that be a possibility?

Would I even be able to do a partition on a SSD?
Is there a tool that would allow me for easier access/switch between the OS's without having to change which drive to boot from in the BIOS each time I wanna change?

+ Would it be even possible for me to for example do triple OS as in; 315/115/20 for Win 10/Linux/Tails, that would be ideal. I know bootcamp is a program which allows you to do something to the effect of my question but bootcamp as far as I am concerned is a Mac based program made to be used for MacOS and which allows dual OS.

 

[Barty1884]

Yes, that could work. You'll need to disable features like "secure boot" to be able to switch between them without issue.

You should have a boot override functionality (F8 etc) at post, where you could direct which partition to boot from. I don't think you'll find an easier solution than that, unfortunately.

Same rules apply to incorporate Tails* - it's just another Linux distro in essence.
3 partitions, secure boot disabled (might be a couple more tweaks required, but can't think of anything else right now), and use the boot override functionality at post.

*But Tails is specifically meant to be booted from a USB or disk - I believe it *can* be installed, but it's greatest "feature" is kinda moot at that point.


Re: BootCamp specifically, that's MacOS only. BUT, it's general principal is a VM (Virtual Machine) and there are numerous options available to run a VM inside Windows to be able to run Linux distros (or older Windows versions.... or even MacOS if compatible)

 

[USAFRet]

Agree that Tails is not really meant for this type of usage.
You can do it, but not really what it is designed for.

And I much prefer VM's for extra Linux installs, rather than a real dual boot. Can have multiple OS's running at the same time.

 

[Erothes]

Yes, that could work. You'll need to disable features like "secure boot" to be able to switch between them without issue.

You should have a boot override functionality (F8 etc) at post, where you could direct which partition to boot from. I don't think you'll find an easier solution than that, unfortunately.

Same rules apply to incorporate Tails* - it's just another Linux distro in essence.
3 partitions, secure boot disabled (might be a couple more tweaks required, but can't think of anything else right now), and use the boot override functionality at post.

*But Tails is specifically meant to be booted from a USB or disk - I believe it *can* be installed, but it's greatest "feature" is kinda moot at that point.


Re: BootCamp specifically, that's MacOS only. BUT, it's general principal is a VM (Virtual Machine) and there are numerous options available to run a VM inside Windows to be able to run Linux distros (or older Windows versions.... or even MacOS if compatible)

I do have tails on a usb, and I did use it on that laptop with secure boot off and legacy boot on, it worked just fine, the tails booted up and when I took it out the windows did too. The one thing that happend though is when I tried to turn on the laptop it wouldnt want to boot to windows at all and I had to do a reset with personal files preserved, could you shine perhaps some light as to what might have happend there? As said, I have used tails many times before on it and switched between tails and windows regularly without a problem but it just suddenly broke.

 

[Barty1884]

It sounds like it did a poor job at a "startup repair"..... perhaps due to an incorrect shutdown. There's nothing in what you described that should make Windows have to reset itself.