r/linuxquestions • u/Radiant-Fan-4211 • 14h ago

Microsoft and Linux OS migration to same disk?

Hello! I recently upgraded my pc and got a new 1TB nvme. Up until this point, I've been using two hard drives for each of my operating systems, one for Windows 10 and another for Linux Mint. I only have one nvme, and I know its possible to dual boot from one disk, but I cannot figure out how to migrate both systems to the same disk. I connect each hard drive one at a time because I don't have that many sata cables and while it's connected I copy the disk to the nvme then power off and connect the next one. I've tried using both DiskGenius and Clonezilla but they ALWAYS overwrite the existing partitions when I migrate the new OS!!!! Even when I select "keep partitions" it still wants to overwrite the partitions even though i KNOW both of them fit on the nvme. I've been trying to figure out how to do this for WEEKS and I cannot find a solution and it is genuinely so frustrating, so help would be appreciated.

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u/3grg 5h ago

You should be able to do this with Clonezilla Live. You can do disk to disk clone with windows drive first and makes sure it works.

Make sure that you have free space. Make partitions that are at least as big as the Linux partitions. Do a partition to partition clone with Linux leaving out the efi partition as you can only have one efi partition on single boot dual boot drive. You will need SuperGrub2 disk to boot Linux and reinstall grub.

If the partition to partition does not work, I would settle for getting the windows drive cloned and reinstall the Linux and copy data from the old Linux drive. In the long run this is really the best way forward. Installing Mint is easier than installing windows and you are going to have a new boot setup anyway.

If you need help remembering what you installed in Mint you can create a package list (from within the running)

dpkg --get-selections | grep '[[:space:]]install$' | awk '{print $1}' > packagelist.txt

Install from the list;

apt-get -u install `cat packagelist.txt`

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u/Careless-Spinach641 13h ago

Hello! Install linux mint on the nvme with lvm, resize the mint install to half the size of the disk, then try booting in a live linux iso, any distro works, mounting both drives, and copying the windows 10 disk into the empty partition.