Dual Booting Windows 10 and Linux Mint: A Practical Approach
Thinking about setting up a dual boot with Windows 10 and Linux Mint on the same PC? It’s actually a pretty handy way to get the best of both worlds without having to choose just one. It might seem a bit intimidating at first, but with a bit of preparation, it’s totally doable. The key is to do some groundwork beforehand.
Back Up Your Data – Really
Before diving into partitioning or installing anything, make sure you back up your files. Sounds obvious, but plenty of folks skip this step and end up losing important stuff. Use an external drive or cloud storage—whatever suits you best. Having a backup is a lifesaver if anything goes sideways during the partitioning or install process.
Freeing Up Space for Linux Mint
Now for the fun part: creating room for Linux Mint. Open Windows’ built-in Disk Management tool and shrink your existing partition. Aim for at least 20GB, but if you can, give it more — that way, you’ll have plenty of space if you want to add more programs later. It sounds straightforward, but be careful not to accidentally delete anything important. Mistakes happen when you least expect them, so proceed with caution.
Download the Linux Mint ISO
Next, grab the official Linux Mint ISO from their website. Make sure you pick the right version for your setup—most modern PCs will want the 64-bit edition. This ISO file is your ticket to creating a bootable install drive later on.
Making a Bootable USB Drive
To turn that ISO into a bootable USB, tools like Rufus are reliable for Windows users. If you fancy something different, Balena Etcher or UNetbootin work equally well on both Windows and Linux. Just a heads-up: this process will wipe everything on your USB stick, so back up anything important first. That USB will become your installation partner.
Time to Install
Reboot your PC and enter the BIOS/UEFI settings. Typically, you do this by pressing F2, F12, DEL, or Esc right after turning on. Find the Boot menu and set your USB drive as the first device in the boot order. If you’re on a UEFI system, be sure to disable Secure Boot — otherwise, the installer might not load properly. Save your settings and restart. You should now see the Linux Mint installer loading.
Once in the live environment, select your language and click Install Linux Mint. When prompted, choose to install alongside Windows. The installer will detect your existing Windows installation and may suggest resizing the partition. If you’re comfortable with manual partitioning, you can use the Partition Editor (like GParted) to fine-tune things. After the install finishes, your system will reboot into GRUB — the bootloader that will let you pick between Windows and Linux at startup. That’s your dual boot set up in action. Now, each time you turn on your PC, you can choose which OS to run, depending on what you need.
A quick note: sometimes on certain machines, GRUB doesn’t appear right away. A restart or a quick tweak in BIOS might do the trick. Just keep that in mind if things don’t show up immediately.
It can be a bit of a hassle initially, but once it’s all set up, the flexibility is well worth it. Hopefully, this guide saves someone a few hours — or at least spares a few headaches.
Checklist:
- Back up your files.
- Shrink your Windows partition.
- Download the correct Linux Mint ISO.
- Create a bootable USB drive.
- Set USB as the primary boot device.
- Install Linux Mint alongside Windows.
Just a process that has worked across multiple systems.