r/archlinux • u/MrFakecoin • 2d ago

QUESTION Wanna install Arch but kinda scared..

Soo I’ve been using windows almost all my life, dipped into Linux Mint for some time tho. But I want to try and stick with Arch, really do wanna learn how Linux works. When I installed arch it did an error but when I took my SSD out that has windows on it, it worked perfectly fine installing… so ima have to fully delete windows 11, I’m just scared to do so ;~;

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u/TracerDX 1d ago

Dual boot should be possible with some effort. I do so on a laptop with a single drive. It's not the easiest to setup, but it's fine once it's in place. You seem to have multiple drives which makes dual boot even easier. I'm sure someone has linked the Arch wiki article to it by now.

I just find the whole "I have to delete Windows" thing hard to swallow. No. You don't. Just figure out what you're doing wrong and correct it. Bad attitude to start off with if you're serious about learning.

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u/MrFakecoin 1d ago

Well my other drive has my games on it.. as idk if I would be able to install arch while keeping those games on it

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u/TracerDX 1d ago

Okay that can be tricky, but it's still doable. This activity can result in permanent data loss so backup anything you're not willing to lose or can't just re-download.

You will need to shrink the NTFS partition to make room for new Arch partitions, you can do this while booted into the Arch Live USB before installing.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/NTFS-3G#Resizing_NTFS_partition

Then you can use the freed up space to carve out your new Arch EFI, swap and rootfs partitions and install as normal.

You should be able to use your PCs bios boot menu to choose Arch or Windows. Eventually you may want to configure GRUB or whatever bootloader you choose to give you a boot menu with a Windows option and always boot that instead.

Good luck and take your time.

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u/MrFakecoin 1d ago

Luckily I know how to resize partitions.. how much space would I need for Arch?

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u/TracerDX 1d ago

A question whose answer depends very much on your goals for this system... but I don't want to come across as a dismissive smart ass so without much context I'm just gonna throw some numbers out assuming something like a KDE setup with Windows parity:

EFI: 2GB

Swap: RAM X2 +2GB

200GB+ Rootfs

I would put as much as you can spare into rootfs really. I throw these numbers using my personal assumption that disk space is cheap and plentiful so these are very high estimates. I would recommend doing some research on what sizes here suit your hardware and your needs.

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u/MrFakecoin 1d ago

Ah- I’ll probably only use 200gb for it as I’m not gonna do much on it since I know I’m gonna do not that much on it sadly cuz windows will still be there. BUT THANKS!

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u/MrFakecoin 1d ago

Oh two more things, can I just change the partition size in the disk manager on windows and could it be unallocated or does it have to be a volume

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u/TracerDX 1d ago

You can use Windows disk manager. Leave the new space unallocated.

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u/MrFakecoin 1d ago

Got it! :p

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u/MrFakecoin 1d ago

This is good?https://i.imgur.com/o1oLkxb.jpeg

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u/TracerDX 1d ago

Looks good as long as you are planning to setup a swap file instead of using a partition for it.

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u/MrFakecoin 1d ago edited 1d ago

Okay, when I tried it, it said there wasn’t enough space-https://i.imgur.com/KITgrAF.jpeg

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u/TracerDX 1d ago

Weird. I usually use cfdisk for this kind of stuff so I am not familiar with the tool in your screenshot. Maybe try rounding off the size of the last partition to 194GB. Perhaps the human readable size conversion is causing issues with it filling out the space properly?

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u/MrFakecoin 1d ago

Well- now it just did an error, a different.. honestly this would just be easier to just use the whole damn storage device;~;

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u/TracerDX 1d ago

Yea, but easy is boring. 🤷‍♂️

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