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How do I install linux using an internal hard drive?

By Emma Payne

I have an ISO of a linux distribution. I have two hard drives connected to SATA: one has a Windows 10 partition, and an empty partition each 250Gb; the other hard drive is empty. Can I put the ISO onto the second hard drive and then boot off of it? Then I would like to install linux onto the second partition of my first hard drive. My motherboard is a Rampage V Extreme if that matters.

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1 Answer

You absolutely can, but you'll need to do a whole lot of reading about UEFI and partitions if you want to feel more safe, and using a bootloader like GNU GRUB rather than the Windows one. Do you just want to play around with linux, or do you want to utilise you hardware in linux to its maximum capacity? If you just want to have a play you should consider just installing linux within a virtual machine (see VirtualBox) and playing with it there. That way you can use the unused hard drive space with either system. It also means you can be running Windows and Linux at the same time, and shunt any files between them. Virtualisation is great!

If you want to go down the non-virtualised, one-running-system-at-a-time route, you'll need to use a tool to create a bootable linux installation, there are many, but if you're insisting on avoiding using a USB you need one that's able to create a bootable drive out of a hard drive rather than a USB. Check out something like

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