Rearranging a new boot system after adding SSD

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1

I recently decided to install my old SATA SSD from my old laptop into my new one, since I don’t use my old laptop anymore and need more space. Now I have my NVMe drive with Manjaro/Windows plus the newly installed SATA with Arch/Windows.

Entering my BIOS boot menu offers me manjaro (grub), windows boot (NVMe) and windows boot (SATA). The Arch installation is not found. Can I add it to grub in Manjaro or will it be a problem that it’s on another disk?

What I want to do now is nuke the Windows installation on the NVMe - one Windows installation is enough for certain games, and it makes sense to leave the one with the most space on the SATA drive. I want to use the space for my Manjaro installation. Is there any easy way to merge it with the existing partition or would it be easier to just reinstall everything?

So, I want to add Arch to the grub menu, remove NVMe Windows and add the free space to my Manjaro installation, and add the SATA Windows and Arch to my filesystem (I guess I’ll have to add fstab entries?).

Does anyone know if my SATA Windows installation will start acting weird from my changing the disk into a new computer? Or if it’ll complain about the license being different on this machine as compared to the previous one?

Any tips for how to achieve this or cautions about problems I haven’t thought about or alternate solutions are highly welcome and appreciated! :slight_smile:

Both my laptops, the old and new, have intel+nvidia. Maybe this makes the transition easier? Maybe it has no effect?

lsblk

NAME        MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda           8:0    0 465,8G  0 disk 
├─sda1        8:1    0   300M  0 part 
├─sda2        8:2    0    99M  0 part 
├─sda3        8:3    0   128M  0 part 
├─sda4        8:4    0 338,6G  0 part 
├─sda5        8:5    0   892M  0 part 
└─sda6        8:6    0 125,8G  0 part 
nvme0n1     259:0    0 476,9G  0 disk 
├─nvme0n1p1 259:1    0   260M  0 part /boot/efi
├─nvme0n1p2 259:2    0    16M  0 part 
├─nvme0n1p3 259:3    0 156,3G  0 part 
├─nvme0n1p4 259:4    0  1000M  0 part 
└─nvme0n1p5 259:5    0 319,4G  0 part /

sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/nvme0n1: 476,94 GiB, 512110190592 bytes, 1000215216 sectors
Disk model: HFM512GDHTNG-8310A                      
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 0897E4E2-753E-4FFC-9AC8-E2F24CF18DB4

Device             Start        End   Sectors   Size Type
/dev/nvme0n1p1      2048     534527    532480   260M EFI System
/dev/nvme0n1p2    534528     567295     32768    16M Microsoft reserved
/dev/nvme0n1p3    567296  328247295 327680000 156,3G Microsoft basic data
/dev/nvme0n1p4 998166528 1000214527   2048000  1000M Windows recovery environment
/dev/nvme0n1p5 328247296  998166527 669919232 319,4G Linux filesystem

Partition table entries are not in disk order.


Disk /dev/sda: 465,76 GiB, 500107862016 bytes, 976773168 sectors
Disk model: Samsung SSD 850 
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 8CCAABE6-BA5B-4053-84E8-7C518D402DBE

Device         Start       End   Sectors   Size Type
/dev/sda1       2048    616447    614400   300M Windows recovery environment
/dev/sda2     616448    819199    202752    99M EFI System
/dev/sda3     819200   1081343    262144   128M Microsoft reserved
/dev/sda4    1081344 711203760 710122417 338,6G Microsoft basic data
/dev/sda5  711204864 713031679   1826816   892M Windows recovery environment
/dev/sda6  713031680 976773134 263741455 125,8G Linux filesystem
2

You will find out when you enter in Manjaro

sudo update-grub

and reboot into Manjaro’s grub menu.

3

Thank you!

The Arch installation is now found! I booted into it, and discovered that it was a real mess. I’d better delete it completely.

Just in case someone knows: when I booted into my old Arch installation my fans went off and were noisy throughout my stay. When I booted back into Manjaro they calmed back down. Is this because of a newer kernel or does Manjaro utilize some sort of power saving or the like?

Now I’ll have to figure out how to remove Windows and add the freed space to my current Manjaro installation!

4

This is a probable scenario. Have you already checked that the Windows installation on the SSD functions as it should on the new hardware?

Myself, I would keep the one on NVME and use the SSD as extra storage apace.

This:
/dev/nvme0n1p5 328247296 998166527 669919232 319,4G Linux filesystem
looks like a good enough space for a Linux install.

5

And that’s exactly why my current Manjaro installation is placed there :wink:

As for the Windows installation on the SATA, I have accidentally booted into it a couple of times, since BIOS changed the boot order to prefer the SATA disk. I didn’t log in and check that things worked. I’d rather just reinstall Windows completely and wipe the Arch install while I’m at it. It has a recovery partition, so technically it should be possible, I guess. Of course, it was set up on my old computer, so I don’t know if I can access it on this new one. I’ll have to look into it.

The reason I want to keep Windows on the SATA is that it feels safer to have it on a separate disk entirely, having read of people’s experience with Windows overwriting the EFI partition after an update and other such things. I would still mount the Windows partition in Manjaro to have access to the free space.

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