I was planning on installing windows to my new ssd for a dualboot, but I noticed that windows installer didn’t allow me to select the disk. I learned that it just installs to the drive that is marked as M2_1 in the bios. I thought that had something to do with boot order initially, but I’m not sure about that now. If it is boot order, my second ssd doesn’t even show up in the boot order menu So:
- Does windows install to whatever is second in boot order or whatever is marked as M2_1 in the bios, and
- How can I edit this to prevent windows from nuking my main linux partition and using the empty ssd, and after the install, how should I make sure both drives are available to boot into?
Motherboard is MSI MS - 7E10
What do you mean by swap them around, and what do you mean by interface?
by swap them around i mean physically take the two drives out and put them in each others connectors. by interface i mean physical interface, like the plug or socket or slot they connect to the motherboard with.
the bios usually enumerates drives based on their position on the bus, so switching the connector they’re plugged into would fix the problem.
linux usually handles drives based on uuid, a unique identifier per device, so it wouldn’t mess up linux.
you didn’t specify if one was like a sata or esata or nvme and the other was different so i had to qualify “if theyre the same interface”.
Oh that makes sense. They’re both nvme of the same size so I could do that. Thanks! I’ll give an update
Just a quick question, will I need to do this every time I want to boot into a different OS?
No, just to install windows on the right drive. It doesn’t matter after that.
Oh thanks. I swapped them, the new Drive doesn’t show in the boot menu but it is marked as a higher number than the the old one. Will windows install to the new drive?
The new drive probably doesn’t show in the boot menu because it doesnt have a partition table or anything.
Are both drives the same size? What I’m trying to figure out is would you be able to recognize when the windows installer is trying to install to the wrong drive.
The drive is formatted, but it has no data on it. They’re both the same size
As long as you have some way of recognizing which is which in the windows installer so you don’t accidentally wipe your existing drive.
If you’re worried, just pull the one you don’t want wiped out of the system while you’re installing.