Can you dual boot on a Workstation Pc

[Roxy.music]

I am thinking of getting a workstation this one here. HP Z230

. I saw a video where the guy in another video said that a M2 NVMr SSD can not be used as a bootable drive.
What i would like to know is can i use a dual boot for this Pc with ab SSD?
Or is it just that the M2 is not optimised for the PC?
The guy in the video says something about bios in HP computers. being hidden.

​

 

[velocityg4]

Dual boot is entirely different than m.2 NVMe.

Yes you can dual boot, triple boot, &c. You can boot as many different OSes as you want.

NVMe SSD. Whether m.2 NVMe or any other type of NVMe won’t work as a boot drive. As the BIOS doesn’t support it. NVMe should still work as a data drive. Just not for booting.

You have to use an SSD which uses AHCI. Which is most commonly SATA 2.5”. But also comes in mSATA and M.2 SATA. There is also some PCIe cards and PCIe M.2 which use AHCI.

Not sure if there is an AHCI u.2. There’s also SAS but will require a controller card.

You may be able to mod the BIOS for NVMe support. But can destroy the computer if done wrong.

 

[Roxy.music]

Thanks for your very informative reply.I was not going to add a M2 drive but just wondered why it would not work

 

[Roxy.music]

Dual boot is entirely different than m.2 NVMe.

Yes you can dual boot, triple boot, &c. You can boot as many different OSes as you want.

NVMe SSD. Whether m.2 NVMe or any other type of NVMe won’t work as a boot drive. As the BIOS doesn’t support it. NVMe should still work as a data drive. Just not for booting.

You have to use an SSD which uses AHCI. Which is most commonly SATA 2.5”. But also comes in mSATA and M.2 SATA. There is also some PCIe cards and PCIe M.2 which use AHCI.

Not sure if there is an AHCI u.2. There’s also SAS but will require a controller card.

You may be able to mod the BIOS for NVMe support. But can destroy the computer if done wrong.

Thanks for your very informative reply.I was not going to add a M2 drive but just wondered why it would not work.

 

[velocityg4]

Thanks for your very informative reply.I was not going to add a M2 drive but just wondered why it would not work.

You're welcome. Basically, the BIOS doesn't know how to talk to it. So, it can't get the boot loader started.

Windows does know how to talk to it, that's why it would work as a data drive after boot. As Windows just needs the drivers for any attached hardware.

There are workarounds. One is a bootloader on a SATA drive which emulates EFI with NVMe support. The BIOS talks to the SATA drive. Which loads the bootloader with EFI emulation and NVMe support. Which then finds the NVMe and loads it. It'll work but boot times will be very long. As it can take the boot loader a few minutes to pole all drives.

 

[Roxy.music]

You're welcome. Basically, the BIOS doesn't know how to talk to it. So, it can't get the boot loader started.

Windows does know how to talk to it, that's why it would work as a data drive after boot. As Windows just needs the drivers for any attached hardware.

There are workarounds. One is a bootloader on a SATA drive which emulates EFI with NVMe support. The BIOS talks to the SATA drive. Which loads the bootloader with EFI emulation and NVMe support. Which then finds the NVMe and loads it. It'll work but boot times will be very long. As it can take the boot loader a few minutes to pole all drives.

Another thing i am wondering about could i use a Samsung T5 as a boot drive?

 

[Janichsan]

NVMe SSD. Whether m.2 NVMe or any other type of NVMe won’t work as a boot drive. As the BIOS doesn’t support it. NVMe should still work as a data drive. Just not for booting.

And yet, the Razer laptop on which I'm typing this right now has an NVMe SSD as boot drive...

 

[Roxy.music]

And yet, the Razer laptop on which I'm typing this right now has an NVMe SSD as boot drive...

He was replying to my question about an old 2014 Pc.

 

[Janichsan]

He was replying to my question about an old 2014 Pc.

Okay, that might be a tad old for proper NVMe support.

 

[Roxy.music]

Okay, that might be a tad old for proper NVMe support.

Apparently you can put one in there *NVME.2 Drives cannot be used as a boot device with this model workstation*
NVME.2 SSD Adapter *Required to Install NVME.2* NVME.2 PCIe Adapter (You need this if you plan to install an NVME.2 Drive in to this system):

 

[velocityg4]

Another thing i am wondering about could i use a Samsung T5 as a boot drive?

Windows booting from a USB Drive is a pain in the rear. Most articles you find will be how to make Windows Installation media. Not actually how to install Windows to an external drive for booting.

Linux, I suppose it depends on the distro. Should boot off a USB drive without issue.

 

[Roxy.music]

Windows booting from a USB Drive is a pain in the rear. Most articles you find will be how to make Windows Installation media. Not actually how to install Windows to an external drive for booting.

Linux, I suppose it depends on the distro. Should boot off a USB drive without issue.

Yes you are right there.It took me a few times to get it to work doing it through VMWare fusion.
I have Windows on external drive on my Mac ,sometimes i can,t get it to boot and at other times it says it is repairing it.I will be putting Linux on there

this is a exserlant distro

 

[mi7chy]

I think it has to do with legacy BIOS vs UEFI. Legacy BIOS requires storage to be set up as MBR to boot while UEFI requires GPT so you can't intermix the two. There are other peculiarities too like some dGPUs requiring UEFI to get past POST. I know with AMD RX6000 series dGPUS it doesn't POST with legacy BIOS so you have to use a dumb VGA adapter to get past POST to install drivers for RX6000 to get to desktop.

 

[Flint Ironstag]

Just an additional data point. I now have several HP Z820s & Z840s running MacOS via various methods. All the Open Core ones have a windows 10 install they can also boot to.

The 820s required a specific drive to boot NVMe but can use as storage all day long. The 840s don't care.

 

[Roxy.music]

Just an additional data point. I now have several HP Z820s & Z840s running MacOS via various methods. All the Open Core ones have a windows 10 install they can also boot to.

The 820s required a specific drive to boot NVMe but can use as storage all day long. The 840s don't care.

There cool machines.Another question can i use a GTXx 970

Just an additional data point. I now have several HP Z820s & Z840s running MacOS via various methods. All the Open Core ones have a windows 10 install they can also boot to.

The 820s required a specific drive to boot NVMe but can use as storage all day long. The 840s don't care.

There cool machines and built like Tanks.Can you answer the question about a 1070 or 970 working with the 400w one in the HP Z230 i know the guy in the video says the 1070 does work.
And that the 970 uses near the same power as the 1070.I asked on Toms hardware after i put a video by Tech deals saying it would work on a 400w psu.

they did not believe him But why would someone with all his knowledge say it worked if it did not?They said don,t believe everything people say i don,t.I respect the guy.

 

[Flint Ironstag]

I'll let one of the hardware gurus chime in, but basically you need to add up the wattage of all the components in your system, and compare that number to 400W. Don't forget you need some headroom. 400 sounds marginal.

 

[maflynn]

I'm no hardware guru, but one of my guidelines I try to follow when building a PC, is never cheap out on the PSU. Don't buy a no-name brand, and be sure to keep headroom. So for me, 500w for a budget machine running a 1070 would be the bare minium. Personally, I'd probably for something > 500 watts, but that's just me.

 

[Roxy.music]

I'm no hardware guru, but one of my guidelines I try to follow when building a PC, is never cheap out on the PSU. Don't buy a no-name brand, and be sure to keep headroom. So for me, 500w for a budget machine running a 1070 would be the bare minium. Personally, I'd probably for something > 500 watts, but that's just me.

I agree with you Mike certainly for the 1070.I think he is pushing it on the HPz230
But there is a delta power supply with quad rail which i take it is good.

 

[Roxy.music]

I'll let one of the hardware gurus chime in, but basically you need to add up the wattage of all the components in your system, and compare that number to 400W. Don't forget you need some headroom. 400 sounds marginal.

Yes i have seen where they show you where to do it.The same guy that has the HPZ230 which i have just got

it,s in a1 condition. He obviously did not do that on the HPZ230. with the 1070.

 

[Steve Adams]

My workstation has a 500w PSU. I am running 4 drives, a 2070 RTX and a 10700 cpu. I think it will be fine. Ha ha. Only time will tell.

 

[Steve Adams]

Yes you are right there.It took me a few times to get it to work doing it through VMWare fusion.
I have Windows on external drive on my Mac ,sometimes i can,t get it to boot and at other times it says it is repairing it.I will be putting Linux on there

this is a exserlant distro

I ventured over to their website, I cannot find minimum specs to run Guarda. I would like to try it on my little dell inspiron 11 3000. core i3, 4gb of ram 512gb ssd.

 

[Roxy.music]

I ventured over to their website, I cannot find minimum specs to run Guarda. I would like to try it on my little dell inspiron 11 3000. core i3, 4gb of ram 512gb ssd.

I think you will agree with me it looks a loverly distro.There are so many amazing Linux distros we are spoilt for choice.The amount of work the people put in to them.This one for instance

this guy is one of my Fav youtube s

 

[Roxy.music]

My workstation has a 500w PSU. I am running 4 drives, a 2070 RTX and a 10700 cpu. I think it will be fine. Ha ha. Only time will tell.

What work station do you have?
How do the Dell Precision modals from the same era as my HP one
ones compare.I see that they only have a 275w Psu.
Mine has a 400w.I will be running three distro s Guarda on one ,and Windows and another distro dual boot on another.With a third 2TB hard drive for storage and backups.It seems it can,t i have tried everything.