Basically. I have separate drive for my windowsOS/media etc. And one of my nvme drive now is completely empty.
Is there a way to install Linux onto that empty nvme with windows and then like turn the PC off remove my windows drive entirely, and then have it just boot with the linux drive without needing to do a whole bootable usb through the motherboard uefi?
I don’t have USB drives and they cost too much for something i never use.
Like if there was a linux installer that Ibcan run while logged in to windows that would be amazing…
I installed from inside vmware before, with the linux drive mounted natively, then removed the windows drive.
This feels wrong but I don’t know why. It just feels like it would break somewhere. I’ve never given a vm its own physical drive though.
When my freebsd home server died I just put it’s disks into my gaming rig and connected them to a VM and it booted with no hassle. It will work for linux too, unless you have architecture differences or some whacky secure boot setup, or highly customized kernel or something.
It’s honestly genius and idk why I hadn’t considered that it could be done until now
Passing physical drives through to a VM is the only way I install Windows anymore, that way it can’t fuck up my boot order or EFI partition, since I use Linux daily. Can’t wait for the day I don’t need Windows, alas, medical device update software often requires Windows/Mac, and passing the USB through to a VM doesn’t work.
I’m pretty sure past dual boot woes and originally learning Linux, when I was confused about efi/uefi or the boot process altogether, is what’s getting to me. Most of my VM use is from that time, transitioning to bare metal.
Hopefully one day we can get actual parity in niches like what you need without porting every little thing, and I know I’ve had devices with firmware updates requiring windows that I probably ignored. Gaming has already come so far though, so maybe there’s hope!