I used https://www.windowscentral.com/gaming/pc-gaming/how-to-install-windows-on-steam-deck to set up Windows-To-Go for a few games that won’t work in SteamOS. It seems to be working fine, but now I wonder if this would work…
I currently have a 1 terabyte SD card that I’m using for SteamOS. I know Linux partitions can be shrunk, so I’d like to shrink it down to half the size. Then I’d clone the partition(s) from the Windows-To-Go SD card to the now-empty space on the 1 terabyte SD card.
I think I’'ll need to clone the Windows partition(s) to the beginning of the drive. So when I make the empty space by shrinking the Linux partition, I’ll create the empty space at the beginning of the drive.
I’ll be using GParted and Clonezilla since I’m used to them.
I have two questions:
- Will Windows care that the second half of the SD card has a LInux partition? I don’t want/need it to see or read/write to the Linux partition.
- Will SteamOS still see the Linux partition automatically as if nothing’s changed and just ignore the new Windows partition(s)?
I don’t know about SteamOS specifically but you can dual boot windows and Linux on the same drive. Each can exist on their own. The partition will still show up in windows but you can ignore it and it won’t do anything. The problem is Windows and GRUB for Linux. Windows has a bad habit of just bulldozing GRUB and making Linux unbootable.
Thanks for the warning.
This isn’t the Linux/SteamOS boot drive. It’s an SD card. I tell it to boot to the internal storage or the SD card using the option in the Steam Deck BIOS.
Because of this and because it’s a Windows-To-Go install, neither OS should interact with the other’s bootloader. Theoretically.
Linux/SteamOS should just see this SD card as a data drive.
Ok I got ya now. So are you wanting Windows and Steam OS on the same Sd card as well as steam OS on the internal hard drive?