I want to make the switch but I want to test run first before fully committing. My PC has an M.2 SSD. I was thinking I could buy another one, swap them out and put Linux on that. In an emergency, I can swap the SSD back. Does this seem like a viable/sensible path toward Linux? I don’t really have too many files on my PC that I care about. I don’t want to dual boot. I did that on a laptop back in the day and it was annoying.
That’s the best, safest way. By the way, you can do the same thing from a flash drive too, if it has enough space to hold the system. I don’t mean as a live temporary system, I mean you can just point the installer to a second flash drive as the install disk and it won’t care.
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But keep in mind slower read performance will make the system slower. The SSD will fly by comparison. Don’t let a flash drive fool you into thinking Linux is slow.
Yeah I thought about booting from a flash drive as a test run option but I figured that would not be a very accurate way of gauging what the experience is like. Also, it would keep me from “settling in” with Linux because I wouldn’t want files and stuff on a flash drive, which would make me keep my PC at arms length.
On a high quality flash drive, it will be decent. or, you can do the cheaper, more convenient way by installing Oracle’s free VirtualBox program and testing a bunch of distros. Be sure to try out as much of the software that a distro comes with as you can even if you dislike the distro itself. And, makes notes of the themes you like. I’d think an external drive might be a convenient option that can be used at work, at home, while visting your family in Kentucky…But, VMs are the cheapest and there is even software to clone a VM into an iso after you’ve customized it how you want it, then load the .iso onto a driveshaft to permanently install on “bare metal”.
Good thinking. Let us know how it turns out with a new post.
I used a usb-c external SSD drive. Worked like a charm and I even could run starcitizen from that with no remarkable performance drop. Once I was settled with linux I just installed the external SSD internally.
I also would use Clonezilla and make a backup of your current drive. Easy to do, and gives you a backup you can restore anywhere including a virtual machine, meaning you can have windows back inside of Linux if you forgot anything.
Or you can restore the drive if you accidentally corrupt it.
We really should have m.2 insertable disks that plug directly into pcie1x bus
Does your pc’s mobo have 2 m.2 slots? If so, that’s a great solution. If you do decide to stick with linux, that gives you two hdds. If not, you might want to consider buying a m.2 ssd to usb enclosure too. You can use it to transfer files you want to keep or for ventoy or backups.
Good point that I didn’t consider. I actually don’t know if I have 2 slots. I just took a peek in the glass door and I can’t see well enough without unplugging a bunch. Either way, I’m buying another SSD so I guess I’ll make that call when I open my case to put it in.
If you know the model of your motherboard, you could look up the user manual. Then you don’t need to open it to see if you have two slots. Also, I don’t know your setup. If you have a slot for a physically bigger hard drive, then it might be a good idea to get a bigger storage drive as your second drive. If you like Linux, then reinstall it to your main drive and keep the second drive as storage drive.
That’ll work just fine. If you just want a test run, a LiveUSB is pretty sufficient for more things.
