Where to put bootloader when dual-booting with two seperate disks?

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1

I know there is a very similar question to mine on this forum but I am not sure if the answers given there apply in my case.

So I am trying to dual boot Windows 10 and Manjaro (KDE) on two seperate drives and I am unsure of where to put the bootloader.

I have one SSD (500GB) with Windows already installed and also the EFI Partition on it and a second SSD (1TB) with a smaller partition (345GB) which is also used by Windows. The rest of the 1TB SSD is unallocated and the place where I’d like to put Manjaro.

The guides I have read and watched so far all use a configuration with two partitions on the same drive (for Windows and Manjaro) and then edit the existing EFI partition of windows to mount it on /boot/efi. Now I am unsure wether I can have my root partition (/) on the 1TB SSD and have the EFI partition, which I mount on /boot/efi, on the other SSD or if I have to do something else.

If you miss any information or anything about my question is unclear, just let me know.

Thank you very much in advance.

2

Hello @schasch :wink:

Sure, you can do that. Normally the UEFI searches for specific efi partitions on all local drives and there is no limit. You can have one efi partition for each OS, if you like. Beside that, it ensures, that no OS change or overwrite efi files of other OS’s if each OS has its own efi partition. Well, if you are greedy, you can use the efi partition of windows.

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So should I create a new EFI partition for Manjaro or edit the existing one of Windows 10 as described above?

4

Not specifically, you can choose to use the Windows FAT/boot/efi partition to be the manjaro partition.

As Windows is already installed on another disk, what can happen is that you go into the BIOS/UEFI of your card and choose this second SSD with manjaro to command the boot

Sorry my bad english (Mrs. Google Translate)

T+ = See you later

5

That is up to you. I recommend one small efi partition for each OS. 100-150 MB is still enough.

Beside that, if you use the windows efi partition on the first drive and it is not connected, then Manjaro won’t boot…

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That worked! Thank you very much for your time

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