Using several operating systems on a laptop equipped with two SSDs
Using several operating systems on a laptop equipped with two SSDs
hello, as mentioned in the title I have two SSDs on my small ASUS 2.5GHz system and I aim to run several operating systems to fully use these drives. right now I plan to install Tails Parrot Windows 10 or Zorin OS for Tor browsing, plus Windows for penetration testing, and I’m also curious about using a VM to boot Tails. i’m new to partitioning, so I have a few questions: can I place the operating systems on one drive and use the other for general storage instead? or should I put each OS on a separate drive? thank you too, and also I’d like advice on what to install on my second laptop—currently it has one 1TB HDD. any suggestions or opinions would be great!
You don’t have to set up the 1 TB drive that way, and you shouldn’t need a participation table—just focus on the SSD. Also, Parrot runs Debian with rolling updates, so I’m interested in giving it a try after using Kali.
For as long as it uses NTFS formatting, you can mount and work with the drive on any operating system.
Yes, you can format only the NTFS drive in Windows Manager. It doesn’t require a minimum size like 20 gigabytes—you can still use more space if needed. Regarding multiple OSes, it depends on how you manage boot settings and which operating system you want to activate; you’ll need to configure boot preferences accordingly.
I previously used a quad-boot configuration (XP+Vista+Win7+Ubuntu) on an old netbook, but switching between three Windows versions and one Linux feels quite different from moving between multiple Linux distributions and a single Windows installer. Win10 especially surprises me because updates can mess with multiboot bootloaders. I tend to stick with an older Windows release. Usually, I start with the newest Windows install, then move to the previous versions on the main partitions, and finally add Linux on a separate logical drive. The Linux installer detects existing OSes and will set up GRUB by default, showing you a boot menu each time you power on. Formatting the other disk to NTFS is straightforward with most Linux distros; I’m sure Gparted can handle it. When it comes to space, Windows tends to expand over time due to shadow copies and restore points. For stability, I’d recommend around 50GB of Windows space—preferably with a bit more if you plan to run games on C:\. It’s better to have extra than to run short.
Thanks. Running Windows 10 on a VM in one of the Linux distributions might work. Windows 7 is solid and most people are comfortable with it. I’m mainly worried about security. I plan to install Windows first so it doesn’t recognize other OSes, but I was considering starting with Linux because it feels simpler with tools like GParted. I’m not very familiar with the partitioning method Windows uses.
Noticing your comment about LOL, I’d suggest avoiding Windows in a VM. It functions in a VM just fine, but gaming isn’t ideal. The virtual environment doesn’t grant direct access to the laptop’s graphics hardware, only limited resources are allocated for visuals. From a security standpoint, I’m more concerned with Win10 than with Win7. So far, most exploits and weaknesses have affected the entire range from Vista to Win10. If I were a hacker, I’d concentrate on uncovering flaws in Win10. People still using Win7 and Win8.1 were tech-savvy enough to resist the changes Microsoft introduced during the free upgrade phase. Those who upgraded were either deceived by their operating system or influenced by misconceptions about DirectX12, assuming their OS was now safer because Microsoft said so. That makes them vulnerable targets. To be honest, most of these users likely run an admin account constantly, making it simple to gain root access. It’s amusing how Windows 7 was consistently regarded as the top choice, only for Win10 to emerge and expose its shortcomings—people who stuck with it were essentially taking a risk. Full disclosure: I personally don’t like Win10. The telemetry, mandatory updates that often cause issues, and the ads all contribute to frustration. So I might have a bias here. Earlier versions still collect telemetry, but they haven’t yet turned it into an ad network. If you’re using Windows solely for casual play with LOL and prefer Linux for everyday browsing, you should be comfortable with either OS. You could try partitioning with gparted while running Linux from a live USB, just set up one main partition, leave the rest unallocated, reboot, and let Windows install itself there. Later, add more partitions as needed. The Windows partitioner will handle most of the setup automatically, though it defaults to using the entire SSD—so you’ll need to specify the exact size manually (for example, 51200 MB for a 50GB drive).