Dual Booting Windows 10 and Linux Mint: A Real-World Take
So, you’re thinking about setting up a dual boot with Windows 10 and Linux Mint on the same machine? Honestly, it’s a pretty cool way to take advantage of both operating systems without having to pick just one. It sounds more complicated than it is, but if everything goes right, it’s manageable enough. Just gotta remember to do some prep work first.
Backup Your Stuff – Seriously
Before doing anything crazy like partitioning or installing, back up your data. Yeah, it seems obvious, but you’d be surprised how many people skip this part and then end up losing stuff. Use an external drive or cloud storage—whatever works for you. This backup is your lifesaver, especially when shrinks and installs can go sideways.
Making Room for Linux Mint
Now comes the fun part: creating space for Linux Mint. Fire up the built-in Disk Management tool in Windows and shrink your current partition. Try to give it at least 20GB, though more is better if you want to install extra stuff later. It sounds easy, but just be cautious. You don’t want to accidentally delete anything important. Because, of course, errors happen when you least expect them.
Grab the Linux Mint ISO
Next up, download the official Linux Mint ISO from their site. Make sure to pick the right version for your system—64-bit if you’ve got modern hardware. This file is your golden ticket for creating a bootable installation drive later.
Creating a Bootable USB Drive
For turning that ISO into a bootable USB, tools like Rufus are handy. If you’re feeling adventurous, there’s also Balena Etcher or UNetbootin which work on both Windows and Linux. Just a heads-up: this process will wipe everything on your USB, so make sure you don’t have anything important on there first. This USB will be your installation buddy.
Time for the Installation
Restart your machine and jump into the BIOS/UEFI settings. Usually, it’s something like pressing F2, F12, DEL, or Esc when you power up. Look for the Boot section and set your USB drive as the first boot option. If you’re on a UEFI system, make sure Secure Boot is disabled, otherwise, it won’t load. Save those changes and reboot, and voilà, you should end up in the Linux Mint installer.
Once you’re in the live environment, pick your language and hit that Install Linux Mint button. When asked, opt for the installation alongside Windows. The installer should recognize your existing Windows setup and might ask about resizing partitions. If you’re fancy, you can use the Partition Editor (GParted) to do manual stuff. After it finishes, the system will load up GRUB, and you’ll get to choose between Windows and Linux at startup. Now you’ve got that dual boot setup going strong. Either OS is just a reboot away, perfect for toggling based on what you need at the moment.
One more thing—sometimes on certain machines, GRUB doesn’t register right away. A restart might fix things, or playing around with the BIOS settings a second time seems to do the trick. Just keep that in mind.
It can be a bit of a headache, but once it’s set up, the flexibility is worth it. Hopefully, this shaves off a few hours for someone—or at least prevents a few headaches.
Checklist:
- Backup your files.
- Shrink Windows partition.
- Download the right Linux Mint ISO.
- Create a bootable USB.
- Set USB as primary boot device.
- Install alongside Windows.
Just something that worked on multiple machines.