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I have a new system with Ubuntu installed on the SSD with GPT and EUFI boot and LVM. Now I want to install Windows 10 on a second SSD. I want to be able to choose which OS to run and would like it to be as easy as possable. What I want to know is the best way to install Win 10 on the second drive. I was thinking that simply unplugging the Ubuntu drive and installing Win 10 and reconnecting the Ubuntu drive and using the bios to choose which OS to boot would work, but I would like a menu to come up when I reboot instead of waiting for the right moment to hit the select drive key.

I do not know about the LVM on Ubuntu and how it will work with Windows and more drives. I want to add a M2 drive later, for Win 10 and I plan to add HDs later for media storage only, but I dont know if there may be conflicts using LVM. I want the media drives to be available to both OS.

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From my experiences dual-booting Windows and Linux on two different SATA HDDS, the Windows bootloader will always overwrite the GRUB bootloader and will never show the Linux OS. So, I install Windows first, then Linux. When the Linux installer asks for the location to install the GRUB bootloader, I point it to the Windows EFI partition. Then GRUB will find the Windows install and add it to the boot menu. This works for my particular standard configuration in which I am dual booting Windows 10 64-bit and Ubuntu 20.04. I am NOT using LVM so I can't guarantee that this method will work for you.

delta1071

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I would do as you suggested:

  • Remove Ubuntu drive to install Windows
  • Put the Ubuntu drive back in, and tell the UEFI to start Ubuntu rather than Windows.
  • Reinstall GRUB so that it can find the Windows partition, and let you choose at boot time which you want.

I'd need to look a little further into it to find out exactly which GRUB commands to use, but this is how I would approach it.

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    Most UEFI allow you to disable a drive in UEFI settings. So you do not have to physically disconnect it. But it may forget ubuntu entry in UEFI and need either grub reinstall which uses efibootmgr to add new entry into UEFI or just use efibootmgr to add/replace entry. Windows likes to install boot files into drive seen as default in UEFI/BIOS. And it does not see Linux partitions, so if wrong drive set as default, it may just overwrite something critical. Good backups always important.
    – oldfred
    Apr 30, 2020 at 16:42

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