A while ago I decided to get an extra m.2 drive and put Linux Mint on it to try and switch off Windows. I unplugged the original drive, plugged in the new one, put Mint on it, then put the old drive back in. This has allowed me to dual-boot. However, Ive since fully committed to the Linux drive and haven’t used the Windows drive in a long time. How do I put Linux on both drives?
I would like to fully encrypt both drives since I dont think I did that when I installed Mint. I would also rather have the original drive as the main drive again because I think it’s in a faster slot for the motherboard. Is there a way to make this change without a fresh install? I could probably backup most of my important data to a flash drive but I’d rather not. (I’m fully ok with losing everything on the Windows drive though).
You’re welcome, and yeah growing pains every time with a new install. But you do it a little better each time.
One recommendation - when you do reinstall, don’t use the default/automatic partitioning. Manually set up your /home directory as a separate partition from /root. This lets you reinstall the OS without having to touch your user files. When you reinstall again, all you have to do is select the existing /home partition to use as the new install’s home (and make sure not to format it). This makes your install a lot more flexible, and your OS a lot more disposable.
If you do manual partition configuration, don’t forget to also create a /swap partition that is at least 1.5x the size of your RAM.
Separating home is unnecessary these days with btrfs, Fedora for example will let you reinstall while preserving /home/.
Another benefit of a separate home you can keep is that a lot of linux-native programs store their preferences and other stuff in ~/.config or ~/.share, so you get the added bonus of not having to set these programs up again as well.