So I don’t know if anyone else has heard the rumors about Win 11 starting to take screenshots every 3 seconds for their new AI garbage but I heard a little about it and decided that is what it took to get me to daily drive linux instead of just doing VMs. That brought up some questions when I got to thinking out the logistics. I have to face it that there is probably going to be something where I am going to need Windows at some point in the future so I don’t think I can totally kick it to the curb. The idea me and my brother came up with is installing Win 11 on the 256GB expansion module and just doing a bare metal version of my favorite Linux distro on the internal NVMe. 1 question regarding that, Can I set the UEFI to boot from the expansion module as the first option so that if I have it plugged in it will load Win11 but if it doesn’t see that module then it will boot Linux? Just wondering how the computer sees the expansion modules and wether they would be an option to boot from?
2nd issue if that option doesn’t work out, I plan to partition my NVMe and load both OSs that way. I have a 2nd 1TB NVMe just for storage. Will I need to partition the 1TB drive as well or will both OSs be able to read/write to that drive as normal?
Thanks for any help you can offer.
Welcome to the forum!
You can install windows on an expansion card (I have done it) but it is not recommended, as it’s not as fast, the cards are less stable connection-wise than an internal drive, and it’s not a supported configuration in windows.
I would suggest getting a second nvme (2230 if you have a 2280, or a 2280 if you have a 2230) and installing windows on that. That has the added bonus that you can pass it through to a vm or boot from it natively.
For choosing on boot, I like refind, but others may prefer grub or spamming f10 (I think that is the key, but check on it as I am going off of memory).
Thanks! What option did you use for the bootloader to give you the option for which OS to boot? Do you know if there is a way to have it default and load the expansion module OS if it there and then choose the local NVMe if the expansion module isn’t? That way I would never have to choose. I would just take out the expansion drive when I don’t need it, which will be most of the time.
Thanks. I get that it is not recommended and that is a valid point. For my use case I would only be using the Win 11 expansion module for something when I didn’t have an option in Linux. I wouldn’t care about a slight slow down or anything like that in those cases.
It definitely works, but it’s a mild hassle to set up and deal with. I set one up “by hand” and the other using rufus iirc, and the rufus-built one has been a bit more problematic. For occasional use it probably will be fine, but you may run into hiccups if the card disconnects, for example, which does happen with them on occasion.
I have put Win10 on a 256GB 2230 drive and Linux on a 4TB 2280 drive. The 2280 is considered the first drive in the hierarchy and so is booted to first, but I can reboot and mash F12 to get the drive selection menu when I want Windows.
I’m going to look into how to boot Win10 in a VM though, once I get some problems with my 96GB memory sorted.
Thanks. I knew you can order the boot options, just wasn’t sure the expansion modules would be available as an option.
Oh heck yeah! I’m really excited about this option. It is going to work for me nicely. I could have partitioned the drive(s) (still don’t have an answer about that second drive partition thing) but I really didn’t want to go that way if I didn’t have to.
But I want to daily the Linux OS and get away from Win because of their snooping crap. The Win expansion drive is just incase I find something I can’t do in Linux.
I want to dual boot with Fedora on the 2280 drive and have Windows 11 on the 2230 like your setup. I saw on another dual boot threat the posters recommended installing Windows first then Ferdora/Linux. Is that what you did in your installation process or it doesn’t matter? Thanks.
I fitted the 2230 drive and loaded that with Win10 as a pure windows installation. I then updated the BIOS and Framework Drivers so everything is at the current revisions. Loading the drivers allows network and bluetooth connections as well. I did the OOBE\BYPASSNRO to bypass the initial network connection requirement when doing the initial Windows load (for those not familiar with how to do this search the forum for OOB).
Having got Windows operating I then installed the 2280 drive and proceeded to load Fedora to it. Having done that I can tell Linux to restart, and keep mashing the F12 key to select the Windows drive to boot from. Later on I want to work out how to get windows to boot in a VM, then I won’t need to do the restart/F12 mash to get to it.
You can use “rufus” to create a “Windows-to-go” installation and put that on the expansion card or any USB stick.
You can then boot windows just like you can boot a Linux Live USB stick.
Does anyone have a “storage expansion card”? Can you do a fio or hdparm speed test on it?
The FW16 BIOS has a UEFI boot menu. You can use it to select which ever OS you wish to boot. Be in on NVME, expansion card or USB Stick. It then remembers the last boot choice and continues to boot that one automatically each time until you go into the boot menu and select a different one or you remove the device.