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I want to dual-boot Centos7 and Win10.

So what is the best OS installation order/process and HD partition configurations to support this smoothly, given my HW config?

I've got an ASUS ROG G751JY-DH72X laptop (Intel i7 64-bit) It's got 2 harddrives:

  1. 1 TB HGST 7200rpm (SATA ATA Port 3)
  2. 512 GB SSD (on PCIE SATA Port 0).

Another important question is how to correctly/best set up the UEFI config?

Here is my current BIOS info.

=== BIOS INFO ===
Aptio BIOS copyright 2012 American Megatrends
ver 205
VBIOS version 84.04.1F.00.46.N81G750

Advanced:
   Intel AES-NI
   VT-d  (enable VT-d function on MCH??)

PCIE SSD Information
   PCIE SSD SATA PORT 0
    Device Type: Hard Dirsk
    Model Name: SAMSUNG MZHPU512HCGL-00

SATA ATA Port 2
    Device TYpe: ATAPI CDROM
    Model Name: MATSHITABD-MLT

SATA ATA Port 3
    Device Type: Hard Disk
    Model Name: HGST HTS721010A9E630

Boot Options
   Launch CSM
   Launch PXE OpROM policy

Boot Option Priorities
   P3: HGST HTS721010A9E630
   P2: MATSHITABD-MLT UJ272 S

Secure Boot - Disabled
=== END: BIOS INFO ===

I am willing/planning to reformat the HDs and reinstall everything from scratch. Just want to know the recommended config to minimize headaches! Please let me know if more info/specs details are needed. Thanks!

Rui F Ribeiro
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Colin Reinhardt
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    The first thing you should be sure of is if you really want to dual-boot, or if you want to run one or the other OSs inside a VM. E.g., if you have to use Windows because work requires Office, then possibly you just want to boot Windows inside a VM when needed—that way, it doesn't interrupt anything you're doing in CentOS. Alternatively, if you mostly work in Windows, you may want to boot CentOS inside a VM. – derobert Aug 05 '16 at 01:11
  • Good point but, yes definitely need a true dual-boot. VMs wont work. – Colin Reinhardt Aug 05 '16 at 01:18
  • Be aware that Windows cannot read the standard linux file system `ext3` (or 4 nowadays). So you might want to put both OSs on the SSD for speed reasons and use the 1TB device with an `ntfs` file system (I don't know if `ReFS` is ready for the user market yet) so both OSs can access the large storage and you can have a common drive for data you need in Both OSs. Of course the Windows partitions can always be accessed from Linux, but not vice versa. Depending on what you need, you can thus think about reducing the Linux partition to a rather small size (50GB or less) and use it for the OS only. – FelixJN Aug 05 '16 at 08:34

1 Answers1

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Windows 10 will need to be installed first because it will overwrite any existing bootloaders on the drive. I have a dual-boot of Windows 7 and Gentoo, and I've found the best partition scheme that doesn't result in Windows corrupting the bootloader is as follows:

/dev/sda
1 /boot   ext2 148M
2 Windows 7 ntfs 500GB
3 Extended Partition
   4 /      ext4 450GB
   5 swap   swap 16GB

Your partition sizes will vary obviously but I've been running this scheme with Grub2 in the MBR for a few years now and not had the problems I had before with Windows corrupting the MBR after a while.

  • /boot does not have to be a separate partition, but it is recommended for security reasons that it be so. In my case on other machines where I have more than one Linux distribution installed it makes it convenient to manage configurations for the bootloader across all installs. Here are some other reasons
  • You need to install Linux first so that you can use the included tools to create the partition scheme you want. Windows Setup will not allow you to do this. Once you've created the partition scheme, installed Linux and the bootloader, you can run Windows Setup and install on the NTFS partition you already created.
  • I have used extended partitions in this setup instead of primary partitions because my machine does not support more than 3 primary partitions. This may not be necessary in your case.
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Josh Benson
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  • The SSD HD doesn't show up as an available boot option in the BIOS. (@Fiximan, @Josh-Benson) Do I need to use the "Add New Boot Option" (which says 'Add a new EFI boot option to the boot order' in the instructions)? Which also reminds me, what about the CSM and PXE OpROM policy options in the BIOS (see above BIOS report)? Do I want UEFI enabled? Does both Win10 and the Grub2 MBR support it?? – Colin Reinhardt Aug 05 '16 at 15:49
  • QUESTIONS: (1) Is the separate small /boot partition required? why (which OSes use it)? and what format should it be? (2) How should I create my new partition structure and format the partitions? It appears if I do it through the Win10 setup boot-DVD it will automatically format only as NTFS and won't allow any other choices (3) What is the value of creating the "Extended Partition" instead of just creating multiple adjacent regular partitions? – Colin Reinhardt Aug 05 '16 at 18:46
  • what are the formats of the partitions you listed? Does partition 1 on /dev/sda have to be a format Windows recognizes, or will it still boot correctly if it's `ext4` for example? – Colin Reinhardt Aug 06 '16 at 20:00
  • I've updated my answer with responses to your further questions. – Josh Benson Aug 07 '16 at 17:43