I was planning on installing windows to my new ssd for a dualboot, but I noticed that windows installer didn’t allow me to select the disk. I learned that it just installs to the drive that is marked as M2_1 in the bios. I thought that had something to do with boot order initially, but I’m not sure about that now. If it is boot order, my second ssd doesn’t even show up in the boot order menu So:
- Does windows install to whatever is second in boot order or whatever is marked as M2_1 in the bios, and
- How can I edit this to prevent windows from nuking my main linux partition and using the empty ssd, and after the install, how should I make sure both drives are available to boot into?
Motherboard is MSI MS - 7E10
Just a quick question, will I need to do this every time I want to boot into a different OS?
No, just to install windows on the right drive. It doesn’t matter after that.
Oh thanks. I swapped them, the new Drive doesn’t show in the boot menu but it is marked as a higher number than the the old one. Will windows install to the new drive?
The new drive probably doesn’t show in the boot menu because it doesnt have a partition table or anything.
Are both drives the same size? What I’m trying to figure out is would you be able to recognize when the windows installer is trying to install to the wrong drive.
The drive is formatted, but it has no data on it. They’re both the same size
As long as you have some way of recognizing which is which in the windows installer so you don’t accidentally wipe your existing drive.
If you’re worried, just pull the one you don’t want wiped out of the system while you’re installing.