# New 13" dual boot setup

**URL:** <https://community.frame.work/t/new-13-dual-boot-setup/82997>\
**Category:** Framework Laptop 13\
**Tags:** laptop-13-chassis, amd-ai-300\
**Created:** [June 11, 2026, 11:33am UTC](https://community.frame.work/t/new-13-dual-boot-setup/82997 "2026-06-11T11:33:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Deskrye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/76d3ee/32.png) [@Deskrye](https://community.frame.work/u/Deskrye)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2026, 11:33am UTC](https://community.frame.work/t/new-13-dual-boot-setup/82997/1 "2026-06-11T11:33:52Z")

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so i have a new pre-built 13" with a local account win11 pro that i intend to dual boot with Mint or Zorin. I’ve read that Win 11 doesn’t play nicely sometimes…

so for long-term data safety…

should i have 3 partitions on the hard drive - Win11, Linux and documents.

or 2 partitions - Win11 and documents - with a 250GB expansion card with linux on it?

i assume that either makes sense or it’s irrelevant to the Win11 issues…

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**Author:** ![Fishd](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex001/user_avatar/community.frame.work/fishd/32/34059_2.png) [@Fishd](https://community.frame.work/u/Fishd)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2026, 2:00pm UTC](https://community.frame.work/t/new-13-dual-boot-setup/82997/2 "2026-06-11T14:00:45Z")

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Not personally dual-booted in quite some time but I believe the primary issue is that Windows updates _can_ sometimes overwrite your custom bootloader entries… meaning that you’ll need to boot from a rescue USB stick in order to reinstall your chosen bootloader and re-enable linux booting.

Given that most linux distros are ok to read and write to NTFS partitions (though, again, not something I do so citation-needed I guess) I’m not sure that an extra partition for your documents is warranted? Unless you run some programs that will struggle with file permissions on a non-native filesystem (aka, I believe the Steam linux client doesn’t like using NTFS for storing games).

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**Author:** ![Sergio\_Ortega](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Sergio\_Ortega](https://community.frame.work/u/Sergio_Ortega)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2026, 7:23pm UTC](https://community.frame.work/t/new-13-dual-boot-setup/82997/3 "2026-06-11T19:23:21Z")

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For data safety I would not make a shared NTFS “documents” partition the only copy of important stuff. Windows fast startup/hibernation and Linux NTFS writes can make troubleshooting annoying, so if you want shared files, keep it simple and also keep a real backup. For the Linux install, I’d usually shrink Windows, leave the EFI partition alone, disable Fast Startup, suspend BitLocker/device encryption if it is enabled, then install Mint/Zorin beside Windows. Running Linux from an expansion card is fine for testing, but for a daily setup it is easier to lose/unplug and slower than the internal SSD.