Planning to reinstall Fedora and Windows 10, but I have to plan

isaac0clarke · January 5, 2026, 10:38am

Hello.^[1]

My plan is to reinstall my OSs because I want Fedora on my NVMe.

~$ inxi -Fzxx
System:
  Kernel: 6.17.12-300.fc43.x86_64 arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc
    v: 15.2.1
  Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 6.5.4 tk: Qt v: N/A wm: kwin_wayland dm: SDDM
    Distro: Fedora Linux 43 (KDE Plasma Desktop Edition)
Machine:
  Type: Desktop Mobo: ASUSTeK model: PRIME B450-PLUS v: Rev X.0x
    serial: <superuser required> part-nu: SKU Firmware: BIOS
    vendor: American Megatrends v: 3211 date: 08/10/2021
CPU:
  Info: 6-core model: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Zen 3+
    rev: 0 cache: L1: 384 KiB L2: 3 MiB L3: 32 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 1738 min/max: 561/4654 boost: enabled cores: 1: 1738
    2: 1738 3: 1738 4: 1738 5: 1738 6: 1738 7: 1738 8: 1738 9: 1738 10: 1738
    11: 1738 12: 1738 bogomips: 88801
  Flags-basic: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a
    ssse3 svm
Graphics:
  Device-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Navi 23 [Radeon RX 6650 XT /
    6700S 6800S] vendor: ASUSTeK driver: amdgpu v: kernel arch: RDNA-2 pcie:
    speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16 ports: active: DP-1 off: DP-2
    empty: DP-3,HDMI-A-1,Writeback-1 bus-ID: 09:00.0 chip-ID: 1002:73ef
  Display: wayland server: Xwayland v: 24.1.9 compositor: kwin_wayland
    driver: gpu: amdgpu display-ID: 0
  Monitor-1: DP-1 model: Philips 27M2N3500AM res: 2560x1440 hz: 180 dpi: 109
    diag: 685mm (27")
  Monitor-2: DP-2 model: Philips 27M2N8500 res: 2560x1440 dpi: 110
    diag: 678mm (26.7")
  API: EGL v: 1.5 platforms: device: 0 drv: radeonsi device: 1 drv: swrast
    gbm: drv: kms_swrast surfaceless: drv: radeonsi wayland: drv: radeonsi x11:
    drv: radeonsi
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: amd mesa v: 25.2.7 glx-v: 1.4
    direct-render: yes renderer: AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT (radeonsi navi23 LLVM
    21.1.5 DRM 3.64 6.17.12-300.fc43.x86_64) device-ID: 1002:73ef
    display-ID: :0.0
  API: Vulkan v: 1.4.328 surfaces: N/A device: 0 type: discrete-gpu
    driver: mesa radv device-ID: 1002:73ef device: 1 type: cpu
    driver: mesa llvmpipe device-ID: 10005:0000
  Info: Tools: api: clinfo, eglinfo, glxinfo, vulkaninfo
    de: kscreen-console,kscreen-doctor wl: wayland-info x11: xdriinfo,
    xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr
Audio:
  Device-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Navi 21/23 HDMI/DP Audio
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16
    bus-ID: 09:00.1 chip-ID: 1002:ab28
  Device-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Starship/Matisse HD Audio
    vendor: ASUSTeK driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: speed: 16 GT/s
    lanes: 16 bus-ID: 0b:00.4 chip-ID: 1022:1487
  Device-3: C-Media SADES Locust Plus
    driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid type: USB rev: 1.1 speed: 12 Mb/s
    lanes: 1 bus-ID: 1-7:4 chip-ID: 0d8c:0012
  API: ALSA v: k6.17.12-300.fc43.x86_64 status: kernel-api
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.4.9 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse
    status: active 2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin
    4: pw-jack type: plugin
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8211/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
    vendor: ASUSTeK RTL8111H driver: r8169 v: kernel pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s
    lanes: 1 port: e000 bus-ID: 04:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8168
  IF: enp4s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 18.4 TiB used: 9.83 TiB (53.4%)
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Kingston model: SA2000M8500G size: 465.76 GiB
    speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 serial: <filter> temp: 29.9 C
  ID-2: /dev/sda vendor: Seagate model: ST10000NM0046 size: 9.1 TiB
    speed: 6.0 Gb/s serial: <filter> temp: 33 C
  ID-3: /dev/sdb vendor: Mushkin model: MKNSSDEL2TB size: 1.82 TiB
    speed: 6.0 Gb/s serial: <filter> temp: 22 C
  ID-4: /dev/sdc vendor: Kingston model: SA400S37960G size: 894.25 GiB
    speed: 6.0 Gb/s serial: <filter> temp: 21 C
  ID-5: /dev/sdd vendor: Integral Memory model: V Series SATA SSD 250GB
    size: 232.89 GiB speed: 6.0 Gb/s serial: <filter> temp: 29 C
  ID-6: /dev/sde model: SSD 512GB size: 476.94 GiB speed: 6.0 Gb/s
    serial: <filter> temp: 22 C
  ID-7: /dev/sdf vendor: Western Digital model: WD20PURZ-85AKKY0
    size: 1.82 TiB speed: 6.0 Gb/s serial: <filter> temp: 28 C
  ID-8: /dev/sdg vendor: Seagate model: ST4000DM004-2U9104 size: 3.64 TiB
    speed: 6.0 Gb/s serial: <filter> temp: 29 C
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 195.78 GiB used: 159.48 GiB (81.5%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sdd2
  ID-2: /boot size: 5.68 GiB used: 616.8 MiB (10.6%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sdd3
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: zram size: 8 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: 100
    dev: /dev/zram0
  ID-2: swap-2 type: partition size: 11.72 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%)
    priority: -2 dev: /dev/sdd1
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 38.5 C mobo: N/A gpu: amdgpu temp: 30.0 C
    mem: 24.0 C
  Fan Speeds (rpm): N/A gpu: amdgpu fan: 0
Info:
  Memory: total: 16 GiB available: 15.52 GiB used: 5.46 GiB (35.2%)
  Processes: 511 Power: uptime: 25m wakeups: 0 Init: systemd v: 258
    default: graphical
  Packages: pm: rpm pkgs: N/A note: see --rpm pm: flatpak pkgs: 26
    Compilers: clang: 21.1.7 gcc: 15.2.1 Shell: Bash v: 5.3.0
    running-in: konsole inxi: 3.3.40

^[2]

As said in a previous post, “to install Windows after Linux will make it cannibalize the Grub2 menu”.

I do not know if this is due to a mishandling of the UEFI BOOT partition on the user’s end, or not,

and honestly I doubt most people on Earth do.

I plan to do this ONE LAST TIME and then be set.
That’s why I am making a post here, to avoid installing and re-installing and troubleshooting and possibly not having my PC for a couple of days (which could happen since I am chronically ill).
For the sake of avoiding this pain for me and anyone else who will stumble on this post, I am asking for help.

Is it even possible to install Linux first, and then Windows, without having to follow what I linked above?

If so, what are the steps which could be taken to avoid the undesired outcome?
Speculation:

During the installing of Windows (10), could setting Linux’ /boot/efi as W10’s own boot partition prevent said problem? Would it make W10 install properly, not eat off Grub2’s “priority” and just work?
Would it allow W10 to not just randomly disappear from the Grub2 menu without any reason, needing to go fetch it from the BIOS to launch it every time I want to boot into it?

As said before, I am tired, so this post is not in its best form, as for now.
I hope I explained myself clearly.

Have a good day, I’ll be waiting for comments.

I am tired now, so the eventual mistakes I’ll make in this post will be fixed by me, updating this post, once I will manage to get some proper sleep… ↩︎
Old screenshot to highlight some data. ↩︎

isaac0clarke · January 5, 2026, 11:04pm

Just to add something:

I am also trying to solve another problem, but since it’s not due to Linux, I’ve posted this on another site.

digitalman · January 8, 2026, 11:06pm

Why would you want to install Linux and then Windows?

Espionage724 · January 8, 2026, 11:14pm

That’s a lot of info; do you want to install Windows and Fedora to 2 separate drives?

As long as both drives don’t see each other during OS installs (so they don’t touch one another’s EFI partitions), either OS can be installed to one drive first, that drive disconnected, the other OS installed to the other drive, and then reconnect the first drive and handle the boot config later.

The boot config later for me was just causing a GRUB reconfigure so it probe’d the Windows boot loader on the other drive (both Fedora and Windows appeared on Fedora’s GRUB).

isaac0clarke · January 8, 2026, 11:32pm

At last, 24 hours ago I tried out to make stuff work on my own, and since Windows 10 wasn’t playing nice I just gave up.
I’m just gonna use W10 in a virtual machine…

That said:

Not really.

On my GT 1030 PC I tried to do this, because:
It had Fedora already.
I wanted to install W10 on a new SSD.
The Windows installer refused to install W10 on the other SSD.

I disconnected Fedora’s SSD and installed Windows, then what happened in my connected comment in the Opening Statement happened.

.

I am lucky that Windows is something I don’t really need, not even for benchmarking on my main PC anymore…

IF a way to install W10 on the secondary SSD actually exists and works flawlessly I’ll try once more, but since W10 is being anti-human I won’t bother with finding out ways ON MY OWN.

Espionage724 · January 8, 2026, 11:54pm

Was the other drive wiped?

If the Linux drive is disconnected, Windows installer should only be influenced by either trying to install to a non-wiped drive (or something where Windows installer can’t auto-create partitions the way it wants), or BIOS/firmware (haven’t seen Windows installer complain but post-install would sometimes not boot because BIOS didn’t have Windows Boot Loader set on the internal drive)

Could maybe also be something with an old Windows Boot Loader EFI option existing, and the hook between Windows installer → BIOS not working (BIOS might not be able to remove/update previous entry either on its own, or with how Windows installer wants it done; both influenced by BIOS versions/changes over-time and OS installer dates); in that case I’d delete the old entry from BIOS or Linux with efibootmgr.

I usually wipe all EFI options and start with 2 wiped disks to potentially avoid any pre-existing stuff causing issue.

isaac0clarke · January 9, 2026, 12:29am

I am sorry, I can’t find where I explained it, so I’ll give a tl;dr here:

Once I reconnected Fedora’s SSD (in the GT 1030 PC), Grub2 was no longer selected as “preferred option” (Windows just auto-started alone), and since the BIOS is a 2013’s office PC’s, the easiest way to repair this was to re-install Fedora…
Now on Grub2 I have all the Fedora options, the W10 options, and the “get into the BIOS” option.

This means that older PCs may require different ways to dual-boot with Windows and Linux,
but here’s the important part for this context:

My Asus B450 Plus can use ReBar only if the NVMe alone is where the UEFI/EFI “boot thing” is installed…
This means that I’d’ve to EITHER install W10 first, with its EFI on the NVMe and the OS on the 240gb SSD, or Fedora on the NVMe, then W10 on the SSD, and then repair (installing once more) Fedora on the NVMe to “repair” what Windows would break.

Since I’m not in the best of health and Windows is not crucial for me, I just gave up for now, waiting for somebody to drop an answer in this chat.
If I can install W10 without it trying to kill Fedora, or needing me to re-install Fedora, then good. Otherwise, I’m just gonna use a VM…

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Planning to reinstall Fedora and Windows 10, but I have to plan

My plan is to reinstall my OSs because I want Fedora on my NVMe.

I do not know if this is due to a mishandling of the UEFI BOOT partition on the user’s end, or not,

Is it even possible to install Linux first, and then Windows, without having to follow what I linked above?

IF a way to install W10 on the secondary SSD actually exists and works flawlessly I’ll try once more, but since W10 is being anti-human I won’t bother with finding out ways ON MY OWN.

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