mikeroyal/Pop_OS-Guide

The system hard drive already has Windos ...

Opened this issue · 1 comments

The system hard drive already has Windos ...

How to install Linux ?

Because of this Microsoft Store issue ...
The message ( Try again ) keeps appear ...
Image

So ...

Use WSL to run Linux ← This method can't work ...

.

This is what I did to boot Pop_OS on my laptop. Exact keys and whatnot vary from device to device, so some things may be a little different, but this short guide will save you lots of research and headaches if you're on Windows 11 and trying to make the switch to a Linux distro and haven't figured it out yet.

Use Balena Etcher (use this link to download for free) and an external drive - that can be an SD card or a flash drive. Balena Etcher flashes the .iso file of Pop_OS onto the drive to make the file bootable for MacOS or Windows. With a device that has Windows pre-installed, you need to turn off Secure Boot and Bitlocker in order to boot Pop_OS on your desktop/laptop.

Bitlocker can be disabled by running Powershell (in Windows 11) as an administrator. Click Start, search "Shell," and you should be able to find Powershell in apps. Now, disable Bitlocker on the hard drive you're no longer using with the prompt:

Disable-Bitlocker -MountPoint "C"

The "C" in the prompt will refer to the system's internal hard drive that can be found in the File Explorer: usually named "Windows (C:)" or something to that effect. If the drive you want to disable Bitlocker on has a different letter, use that letter instead of "C".

Secure boot can be disabled by going into your Settings and running the Advanced Startup, using the function keys listed on the menu that will appear - keys like F9, F10, etc. - you need to select the UEFI Firmware option. It'll tell you to restart the computer in order to access the UEFI Firmware settings, and once it's done it'll take you to a menu. Find the Security tab, then Secure boot. Use ENTER and your arrow keys to disable Secure boot, then go to the "Exit" option and select the option that says something about saving changes made, usually something like Exit Saving Changes. If not, Secure boot won't disable and you'll have done all that for nothing.

When you exit the menu, your computer will boot back into Windows. From there, you can use the Advanced Startup again, go into your Boot Settings (similar process to going into your UEFI Firmware settings), and then select the now-bootable USB device's name. It should boot up on Pop_OS with no issues.

If you don't want to erase the original hard drive with Windows, in the Pop_OS setup you have the option to run a demo just to get a feel for it before completely diving in. This way, once you shut off your computer and boot it back up, you can still run Windows.