This is how I used a secondary disk to have dual boot with Windows 11 without having dual boot

Pablinux

5 minutes

Dual boot that is not dual boot

For several years now, I have decided not to use dual boot. Why? Well, it's been less than two months since a Windows 11 patch ruined it. Solutions often appear and are not too complicated, but I think that the main installation is put at risk. My Linux mentor told me this a long time ago, and well, what happened? I prefer to look for alternatives, such as pulling a new installation. Win To Go.

My main laptop is a few years old now. Although I upgraded it not long ago, it came with 128GB SSD and 1TB HDD. When I upgraded it, in addition to upgrading the RAM, I put 1TB SSD, and since then the HDD has been used little or not at all. I used it for backups for a while Timeshift mode, but I have 2TB on an old AirPort Extreme — Apple disk — so I'm already covered. Also, I wasn't convinced by how Timeshift handled things, which often wouldn't let me turn off my Manjaro.

So what can I do with that disk? If I install normal Windows on it, we're in the same boat: it might overwrite anything I didn't ask it to at any time and screw me up. Luckily, there's such a thing as Win to Go, which is a Windows installation that can be done on a USB or external SSD to take with us, hence its name. I've had it like that for a while, since I removed those 128GB and didn't know what to do with that drive. But recently I had the idea of ​​using a Win to Go on that secondary disk and it works for me.

It goes without saying that if anyone wants to follow in my footsteps, do so with caution and at your own risk, just in case. You may not be able to access the BIOS, as Win to Go forces you to boot from it. In my case, I've decided that I gain more than I lose.

Dual boot without dual boot with Win to Go

Now, the road to getting there wasn't all a cakewalk. If you want to achieve what I did right after buying a computer that already came with Windows, it's easier. A full version allows Rufus to access non-USB drives with Alt+F or Ctrl+Alt+F, but it's something not supported by its developers. This is not a possibility if you start from a Win to Go as was my case, so I had to look for another option. In the end, what I did, although very spaced out in time, was this:

  1. In GNOME Boxes, I installed Windows 11.
  2. From that virtualized Windows 11, I created a Win to Go on the 128GB external SSD, which I have been using to have a “native Windows” — rather, not in a virtual machine.
  3. I tried to create the Win to Go directly from the previous point, but it was not possible. Therefore, I cloned that SSD to the secondary internal HDD:
    1. I installed CloneZilla, which is available as a Live ISO, but also as Linux Tools. It is usually found in the official repositories of most Linux distributions.
    2. To start CloneZilla, you need to do it with sudo clonezilla.
    3. It has a beginner option, and I recommend using it. Although it is in English, it basically tells you to clone from drive to drive, choose source, destination and accept. When it is finished you will have a clone of the disk in the new destination.
  4. I started Windows 11 by pressing F12 on startup and selecting “Windows” and everything worked. Slow, but it worked. Just like when we burn an IMG image to any drive, when cloning the disk I had the EFI partition that allows us to boot, the hard drive that would be C and the recovery partition, which we could delete because it is not very useful in Win to Go, but I left it just in case, all taking up 128GB. So what was left was to resize the hard drive. There are many ways to do this, such as using GParted Live or doing it from the main installation with Linux, but this could be painfully slow. What I did was use NIUBI Partition Edition:
    1. Let your page.
    2. In the URL, I removed the “es/” part because it confused me more than anything else.
    3. With the English page, we click on “Download” and then on “Install”, or on “Portable” if we don’t want to install it. I installed it because I think it is a more powerful tool than the one that comes with Windows by default.
    4. Here's how to use GParted or any partition manager tool:
      1. We secondary click on the recovery partition->move and place it at the end,
      2. Right click on the partition that would be C->resize and extend its size until it takes up the entire partition.
      3. Apply changes.

And that would be all.

Now, when I want to use Windows, I pull out that disk, which also serves as a backup. I wrote this article from it. I think it's a good way to use an extra HDD, although it takes a while to start up and move at first… Windows is Windows no matter how you use it.