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Will installing windows on a separate drive break my current linux install? (self.techsupport)

submitted 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) by Quills to c/[email protected]

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So, i use linux, i don't have any windows install on my disk, but someone wants me to install windows on their HDD, so, if i plug said HDD on one of my sata ports and try to install windows 10 on it, will it mess with my linux boot? if yes, is there a way to prevent that without physically disconnecting my main drive? (my main is an nvme ssd, that's why I'd rather not remove it, already suffered enough trying to screw that in ther

Edit: Fortunally i got to convince the person to bring their whole PC, so now i won't have to deal with this anymore! Thank you very much for all the answers everyone

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

No. Windows will only replace the removable media path at \EFI\boot\bootx64.efi, of the bootloader. If grub is stored somewhere else, windows won't replace it.

https://wiki.debian.org/UEFI#Force_grub-efi_installation_to_the_removable_media_path

However, not every motherboard is compliant with the UEFI spec, and supports booting from other EFI binaries than \EFI\boot\bootx64.efi. My motherboard was one such board, where I had to force grub to install to the removable media path (which isn't the default on debian, although it is the default on a lot of other distros).

@[email protected] , you should test if your motherboard properly implements the UEFI specification, by going into the UEFI menu, and selecting a different file to boot from, or changing defaults. If you look and there is no such option, or the option is ignored, then you know your motherboard isn't properly implementing the UEFI spec.

You can test if your motherboard supports booting from a different file by downloading an abitrary efi file (like memtest), and then placing it in the EFI system partition, at somewhere other than the removable media path. If you can get the UEFI to boot from somewhere other than that, then the UEFI spec is properly implemented, and Windows updates won't overwrite grub.

Of course, a simpler way to test is to simply install debian and see if it boots. If it does, then windows won't overwrite grub. If not then it will. You can then install a different distro from there.