Creating a new Fedora install and then resetting Windows

Ask Fedora
1

I have recently acquired a new storage drive and would like to finally have Fedora and Windows on separate drives rather than the shared dual boot I’m using now. Though, I’m very wary of how I should go about this.

First off, I’d like to make a new Fedora install on the new drive, though without nuking my first install on the old main drive. Though I’d like to start fresh, I also want to use my old installation as a reference of the things I have installed and changed under the hood. I’m not going to bring everything over, so it’s just something I can use to see which ones I want to bring over. And of course, keeping the old install as a backup in case the new installation goes south.

Once that’s done, I also want to reset my Windows installation to have it start anew as well. I now primarily use Fedora, but still realistic in keeping Windows for apps I just can’t run here (when it happens), so its also best I keep Windows to a minimal install for that purpose. Windows came with my laptop, so I have no installation media for it, so my only recourse is to go to its options and “reset” it.

Every part of this can really risk screwing up my PC, so I’d like to ask for any advice on how I can go about this - or if I should/is worth even doing it this way. Thanks!

2

There is a terrible myth that a PC should have a single UEFI system partition.

If one is foolish enough to install Fedora while sharing the system partition created by windoze, Murphy’s Law indicates that you will rue that decision. Reinstalls or updates to windoze can remove the ability to boot from any Linux distro that was installed sharing that single system partition. The latest fun thing from Redmond is encryption of the system partition. Fedora cannot boot if the files that are required exist in a windoze encrypted partition.

The anaconda installer provides a means to create partitions but you can achieve greater precision with less stress by using gparted to create them before you start the installation.

A lot of documentation suggests using a system partition that is much larger than 90 MB. Perhaps this is due to a “one system partition per PC” mind set.

Use gparted to create, format and name a fat16 partition to be used as /boot/efi. It does not have to be larger than 90Mb. If you think that you might want to install a second instance of Fedora, create, format and name a second fat16 partition to be used as its /boot/efi.

Next you should create, format and name an ext4 partition for Linux. Unless your SSD is quite small, 50,000 Mb should be adequate. This number is just a general starting point. Size can be increased or decreased after Fedora has been installed if you wish.

During the install, select Custom, Standard Partitioning and ext4 as the filesystem. I prefer ext4 over btrfs because ext4 partitions can be easily backed up and restored.

Here is a screen shot of one of the m.2 NMVe SSDs on my workstation where I have been following the suggestions that I have provided for several years:

Internal_NVMe Partitions
Internal_NVMe Partitions775×532 58.4 KB

3

Sorry, I suppose I wasn’t clear. Windows and Fedora share a drive, at least right now, but I assure you they are separately partitioned.

Anyhow, it seems like you are suggesting that, if I am to have a second Fedora install (with my current one on the old drive being the first), then it would be better to partition the new drive with gparted manually beforehand rather than let the Fedora Installer do it for me then?

I suppose if the /boot/efi is on the new drive, then even a Windows reset shouldn’t be able to touch it then.

4

I think the suggestions above are reasonable, but are definitely one users opinions. They are also slightly distrustful of the installation choices that have worked for fedora for many years flawlessly.

It is your choice whether to accept the fedora default installation or to perform a custom installation. It is also your choice to partition the driver first or to allow the fedora installer to partition the drive for you. If you partition the drive first then you will be forced to choose a custom installation to be able to use the partitions that already exist.

The comments related to the potential for windows to bork the use of fedora with a shared efi partition are valid concerns. I have never had such an issue over many years (20+) with dual boot of fedora + windows but it does exist.

Having the second drive makes the installation very easy.

  1. install the drive
  2. install fedora and perform the installation.
    a. Be careful to select only the new drive as the destination for the install.
    b. if you wish to define the partitions and file systems then use a custom installation and define them during the first stage of the install prep. Using gparted before beginning the installation is not necessary and does add additional complexity to the process.

20 plus years of fedora doing an automatic setup for users cannot be said to be a poor choice. The arrangement of partitions and file systems that is used with an automatic install works for all users except those very few who are very picky in the setup for their machines.

When you perform the installation to the second drive I can tell you from recent experience that fedora will install everything on the second drive, including its own esp partition, yet grub will still find the windows installation on the first drive and enable dual boot.

It may be necessary to set the boot order within bios to boot from the second drive but otherwise an automatic installation does work very well and windows would not normally affect the second drive in any way.

5

Sorry, that doesn’t make sense. The ESP can’t be encrypted because then nothing would be bootable, not even Windows. The boot partition is not touchable by windows, and neither are the other linux partitions.

6

Please read this post:

Windows 11 update 23H2 broke my dual boot

7

I did, and there are no indication of what really happened. Bitlocker could not have prevented grub from loading as that only affects the windows file systems, and they are not involved in booting linux. It may prevent mounting the windows partition in linux.

So what could have happened is that the shim used in booting was too old and the windows update updated the dbx to blacklist it, or Windows inserted a .sbat variable in the uefi non-volatile memory, which could have the same effect.

There were another case where the shim was indeed too old, and that was caused by confusion about two many EFI partitions where one was updated normally, and the other one was actually used for booting.

1 Like
8

Hi. I’ve been exactly where you are now and with the same fears, so I will explain you how to get your laptop under control and create / obtain Windows installation media that allow you to restore your PC if anything catastrophic happened at this moment or in the future.

While this is a Fedora discussion forum and you may think “Hey how come they’re helping me with Windows!?”, I think there’s value on giving you the below tools so you can try Fedora better and with more confidence.

It’s OK if you don’t want to try the following right now, but this is something you should know how it works and how to do it. And although I did the below dozens of times in the last decade or so with no issues, if you do the following, please remember you’re doing it on your own risk.

Your Windows Activation situation can be one of the three following options:

  1. It’s activated with a key provided by a a label under your laptop
  2. It’s on your EFI
  3. It’s linked to your Microsoft Account

Let’s check this out.

If your laptop doesn’t have any label, go to your Windows Activation pane in Settings and see if your Windows is “Activated with a Digital Key” or if it says it’s linked to your Microsoft Account. If it says it’s “Activated with a Digital Key”, then you can check if the Key is in the EFI by running the following command in Powershell as Administrator:

(Get-WmiObject -query 'select * from SoftwareLicensingService').OA3xOriginalProductKey

If the output shows a Product Key, then you’re fine because Windows will self-activate itself whenever you have an internet connection (but you can jot the key down if you want):

image
image1103×638 11.4 KB

If your license is linked to your Microsoft Account, your PC would re-activated when you log in to Microsoft Account in the activation screen, as the license keys are linked to some sort of hardware fingerprints of the machines when done this way.

Now, with your product key, you can reinstall Windows with any Windows official installation media as long as you’re using the right edition of Windows, or create your own from your very PC in the form of a recovery media (check “copy system files”). The sooner will provide you with a vanilla Windows with no manufacturer bloatware or drivers --but you can download them manually. The latter would probably come with all of it.

Regardless what you do, create your recovery media (DVD or USB) with the right Microsoft tools, as traditionally you won’t be able to do it with something like Rufus or Balena Etcher --it’s finicky.

9

Ah, this is very useful! Right now, I am thinking that, when I do reset Windows (since I do want to reset it to just a fresh install after moving Fedora to the new drive), I’ll probably do it with the Reset options in Windows Recovery, but I’ll definitely do note all of this as backup in case that goes badly for one reason or another.

Thanks so much for this info!

1 Like
10

My main worry is that I do not what to expect if I use the installer on the new drive while keeping the old install on the old drive. I feel like something unexpected might happen having “2” Fedoras, or is it no different with dual booting with another distro entirely?

Still, I’d definitely be more comfortable at least having to do the partitioning myself within the installer (it’s what I did for my current install on the same drive as Windows). With what you said on your last sentence, Its a relief that it sounds like as long as Fedora is fully on the other drive and that the boot order is correct, even a reset of a Windows installation on the old drive shouldn’t be able to mess with it, is that correct? So that’s nice.

11

I agree with this and with UEFI I prefer separate drives and separate EFI partitions per OS.

During OS installs I disable the drive I don’t want touched in BIOS so they’re invisible (prevent EFI partition re-use).

I install Windows first, disable its drive, install Linux, re-enable the Windows drive, and let GRUB auto-probe add it. I boot Linux primarily, Windows from GRUB occasionally, and can F12 boot Windows Loader EFI directly if needed.

I haven’t seen it happen, but heard enough stories about Windows updates mangling Linux EFI/ESP stuff and random Bitlockers to not want to see what its about :stuck_out_tongue:

12

The only issue with this approach is that you are adding additional and entirely unnecessary steps. When using 2 drives and installing windows on one and fedora on the other the fedora installer is smart enough to limit writing to only the drive selected for installation. It also is able to properly configure windows booting from grub during the installation.

I have done this type installation repeatedly and have never seen a necessity to disable or remove the windows drive when installing fedora on the second drive. I also have never needed to manually run a grub config to enable booting from the windows drive.

You certainly can perform your procedure as you desire, but the installer is smart enough to make those steps totally unnecessary and subject to potential user errors.