Solved Dual boot with 2 drives - Windows 11 and CachyOS

Tasmania Green said:

I have my computer locked with a password. Am I correct in thinking that will be present before any boot manager runs? I ask because assuming can get a person in trouble. Lol.

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With a BIOS password? Why?

A couple of things to keep in mind.

Not a BIOS password. Just holding the Windows key + L. That’s all. I lock my computer at work when whenever I walk away from it.

That’s locking whilst within Windows, boot manager opens at boot.

antspants said:

That’s locking whilst within Windows, boot manager opens at boot.

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Ok. That makes sense it looks like the rEFInd boot manager has that function, but I’m only going from a screenshot.

Tasmania Green said:

rEFInd boot manager has that function

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What function?

A boot manager opens at boot, so as you can choose which OS to load into.
If you're using Win key + L to lock the OS, then you're way past the boot menu, you're in Windows already.

antspants said:

What function?

A boot manager opens at boot, so as you can choose which OS to load into.
If you're using Win key + L to lock the OS, then you're way past the boot menu, you're in Windows already.

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Sorry. I meant to say that it looks like IREFind has the option to lock the computer. But given what you just said, that’s not possible, it would seem.

Then is appears that one cannot “lock” a computer when they walk away.

Tasmania Green said:

Then is appears that one cannot “lock” a computer when they walk away.

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I am not sure I am following you, Mike.

When in Windows, Windows behaves normally, you can lock the PC

When in Linux, you can cross your legs, meditate, and chant “give peace a chance” (Or whatever you need to do in that Hippie OS to lock the screen)

Am I missing something? Does IREFind have the ability to switch to another OS whilst already in an OS? On the fly?

antspants said:

I am not sure I am following you, Mike.

When in Windows, Windows behaves normally, you can lock the PC

When in Linux, you can cross your legs, meditate, and chant “give peace a chance” (Or whatever you need to do in that Hippie OS to lock the screen)

Am I missing something? Does IREFind have the ability to switch to another OS whilst already in an OS? On the fly?

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Never mind. I was making it more complex than it has to be. I was trying to lock the computer from outside either OS. I’ll just lock it from within whichever OS I’m in. No worries.

That program could have a password before you can make an OS choice, I am not sure mate. Not something I am familiar with.
But I would go the most popular Boot Manager due to the help you may receive if in need. Again, not my forte.

antspants said:

That program could have a password before you can make an OS choice, I am not sure mate. Not something I am familiar with.
But I would go the most popular Boot Manager due to the help you may receive if in need. Again, not my forte.

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That works for me. While rEFIN

antspants said:

That program could have a password before you can make an OS choice, I am not sure mate. Not something I am familiar with.
But I would go the most popular Boot Manager due to the help you may receive if in need. Again, not my forte.

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That works. I just want something that works and is easy to use.

Setting a BIOS password is an easy way to lock the computer before booting to a specific OS. Yes, I know you can reset it if you clear CMOS or remove the BIOS battery for a few minutes, but this is only if it is stolen and there is access to the motherboard. You shouldn't rely on only one method to protect your data. You can set a BIOS password and an OS password. Next step is to also encrypt your data. But the more you lock the computer the more is the risk to be locked out if you forget one of the passwords. Don't overdo it. Especially with an encrypted hard disk, if you forget the password, and cannot use your account to unlock it, your only option is to wipe all your data, reinstall OS and start over! You certainly don't want that! Even worse if the disk is locked with a device password and cannot be unlocked. You will be forced to send back to manufacturer to unlock it or buy a new disk! Been there done that! I had a Samsung 250GB SSD locked with a forgotten device password. I had to fill an RMA form and send back to Samsung to unlock it. Probably they couldn't unlock it either and they send me a new sealed unit! I was lucky it was still under Warranty. Imagine if it weren't... Not worth sending, just buy a new one and forget about it.

What I’m more interested in is finding a boot manager. I have Windows 11 on one SSD and CachyOS on another SSD. Can someone recommend a boot manager?

If you installed Linux with the Windows disk present, you should have the selection of Linux or Windows in the Grub bootloader already. If you installed Linux with the Windows disk disconnected, then each disk has its own bootloader with only one option to load its respective OS. You can add Windows to Grub, rather advanced if you are a Linux novice, or you can download a respective GUI tool to modify Grub. The easier is to use EasyUEFI to add Linux in Windows bootloader. Then set the Windows disk to boot first and let it boot into Windows or select Linux from there. If you have both entries in each bootloader, then you can select Linux in case you accidentally selected Windows and vice versa. I did that when I was dual booting Mac OS and Windows 7, so if I wanted Mac OS but I did not choose in time, I could select Mac OS from the Windows bootloader. I could also select Windows from Darwin Bootloader if I had accidentally selected Mac OS. Yes, I was experimenting with Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard back in 2010's on an Acer Aspire One netbook. I wanted to tell my friends that you don't have to buy an expensive Macbook, you can install Mac OS to an ordinary Windows laptop. You still can, but the process was and still is too complicated to worth the effort. I have a Mac OS 12 Monterey virtual machine and an Ubuntu virtual machine in the rare cases I want to waste a little time experimenting with other OSes... (Don't get mad Linux guys, you know better than others that Linux IS NOT Windows, no matter how hard it tries).

Tasmania Green said:

What I’m more interested in is finding a boot manager. I have Windows 11 on one SSD and CachyOS on another SSD. Can someone recommend a boot manager?

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Google Gemini:

One SSD has Windows 11, the other SSD has CachyOS. Both OSs are installed as UEFI/GPT. Both OSs boot via MSI motherboard’s one-time boot menu (F11). Is rEFInd the best boot manager in this case? How do I install it?

In your setup—two SSDs with Windows 11 and CachyOS—rEFInd is an excellent choice, and many would argue it is the "best" for your specific workflow.

While you are currently using the MSI F11 menu to switch, rEFInd automates this by scanning all drives at startup and presenting a clean, graphical menu. Since you have separate physical drives, rEFInd is particularly safe because it won't interfere with the Windows Boot Manager on the other disk.

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Why rEFInd is a Great Fit​

• Auto-Discovery: Unlike GRUB, which requires you to run os-prober and update a config file every time a kernel changes, rEFInd scans your EFI partitions at every boot. It will find the CachyOS kernel and the Windows .efi loader automatically.
• Visual Appeal: It supports high-resolution themes (icons for Windows and CachyOS/Arch).
• MSI Compatibility: MSI motherboards are generally UEFI-compliant, but they can be stubborn about boot order. rEFInd handles this better than most by registering itself clearly in the NVRAM.
• Independence: If you ever remove the Linux SSD, Windows remains untouched on its own drive.

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How to Install rEFInd on CachyOS​

Since you are already in a CachyOS environment, the installation is straightforward via the terminal.

1. Install the Package​

First, ensure the rEFInd package and necessary tools are installed:

sudo pacman -S refind efibootmgr

2. Run the Install Script​

The refind-install script is a "magic" command that finds your EFI partition, copies the files, and sets rEFInd as the primary boot entry in your motherboard's NVRAM.

sudo refind-install

Note: If you are using Secure Boot, the script might prompt you about shim or signing. If you have Secure Boot disabled (common for Linux enthusiasts), you can ignore those warnings.

3. Verify the Boot Order​

Check that refind is now the first item in the boot list:

efibootmgr

You should see an entry for rEFInd Boot Manager at the top (usually BootOrder: 000X... where 000X is the rEFInd number).

4. Customizing (Optional)​

By default, rEFInd might show several icons (including one for the "fallback" kernel).

• To hide icons: Highlight an icon in the rEFInd menu and press the Delete key (this just hides it from the menu; it doesn't delete the file).
• Theming: You can install themes by editing /boot/EFI/refind/refind.conf

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Important Considerations for MSI Users​

• BIOS Boot Priority: After installing, reboot and enter your BIOS (usually Del or F2). Ensure the Linux SSD (or the specific "rEFInd" entry) is set as Boot Option #1. If Windows is #1, the motherboard will skip rEFInd and go straight to Windows.
• Fast Boot: Disable "Fast Boot" in your MSI BIOS and "Fast Startup" inside Windows 11 settings. This ensures the hardware is fully released so rEFInd can scan the drives properly.

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What if rEFInd doesn't see Windows?

It usually does so automatically, but if it doesn't, ensure your Windows drive is not "hibernated." If it still fails, you may need to install the ntfs-3g package in CachyOS so rEFInd can read the Windows partition more easily.

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ChatGPT:

Why rEFInd works very well in your case​

• Designed specifically for UEFI systems
• Automatically detects:
  • Windows Boot Manager
  • Linux kernels
  • Other EFI bootloaders
• Works perfectly with separate drives
• Doesn’t depend on GRUB chainloading Windows
• Very easy to recover if something breaks
• Clean graphical menu

Compared to alternatives:

Boot Manager	Good for Your Setup?	Notes
GRUB	Works, but overkill	Best when Linux controls everything
systemd-boot	Limited	Not ideal for multi-disk Windows/Linux
BIOS boot menu (F11)	Works	But manual every time
rEFInd	Best fit	Made exactly for this scenario

Since both OSs are already independently bootable, rEFInd is just a clean UEFI-level selector — perfect.

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As far as I understand, it is an UEFI utility to select boot disk independently of an OS (it loads first and gives you choice which disk to boot from). It also has the option to use a password to lock the computer before you even choose an OS.

spapakons said:

If your Windows installation is UEFI you have to use EasyUEFI instead of Easy BCD.

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Is that because CachyOS is based on Linux? Just asking because my main desktop is using EasyBCD and I haven't noticed any problems. The boot menu has Win 11 Pro 25H2, Win 11 Pro Canary, Macrium and AOMEI Backupper. I only use linux Mint in a VM on my laptop so I can't test it.

For an official Windows 11 installation (UEFI mode boot, GPT disk), you can add/remove or modify Windows bootloader entries using EasyUEFI utility to avoid messing with the command prompt. For an unsupported Legacy BIOS installation like mine (aka CSM with MBR disk), you can add/remove or modify Windows bootloader entries using EasyBCD utility to avoid messing with the command prompt. So it depends what the Windows installation you are running the tool is, UEFI or Legacy BIOS (aka CSM), and not what systems you dual boot with. In my case, when I was experimenting with Mac OS (UEFI mode), I had a Legacy BIOS Windows 10 installation, but I used Mac OS to add the boot entry in UEFI firmware (aka BIOS). I could not remove it from my Windows installation, I had to boot Sergei Strelec WinPE in UEFI mode and use EasyUEFI utility from there to remove any unwanted entries. In other motherboards you can do that from the UEFI firmware (aka BIOS) Boot Priority menu, but apparently Asus didn't think it was necessary to add this functionality in my Asus P8H61 UEFI firmware. Once I had replaced the default Asus logo with a custom logo using a special utility which appeared at boot time and then I saw the default blue Windows logo because I have a Legacy BIOS installation. If I had an UEFI installation I would see my custom logo with the spinning curves. However the custom logo was restored to the original Asus logo once I upgraded the BIOS version to the latest, but I didn't bother to change it again. By the way if anyone knows how to replace the default Legacy BIOS blue Windows logo, I am interested. I want to replace the LEGACY boot logo, not the UEFI one. Thanks.

@spapakons I'm still not understanding because my computer is in UFEI BIOS Mode and both of the SSDs are GPT. EasyBCD works perfectly for me or or I should say I've never noticed any problem. In fact, I've never had a problem running EasyBCD on any of my computers.

As far as I know EasyBCD cannot add remove or modify UEFI boot entries, at least not the version I have used. Probably latest version can, haven't checked.