Solved Split an SSD into 2 separate Drives

fireberd · Dec 3, 2024

My Laptop only has 1 SSD slot. I have a dual boot with the Internal Win 11 SSD and second Win 11 on a USB connected SSD.
Could I install a larger capacity SSD in the Laptop and separate the SSD into 2 separate drives, install the two Win 11's on the two separate "drives" and dual boot with that?

neemobeer · Dec 4, 2024

A drive is a physical device it can't be separated. I'm not sure what your goal is with having two of the same operating systems. If one is for testing or something else you could just set it up as a VM

Berton · Dec 4, 2024

What type drive connection, NVMe M.2 or SATA? One could use a 1TB SSD and partition it into 2. I've seen some buys for NVMe M.2 drives at less than 100USD, haven't paid much attention to the SATA drives.

NVMe vs. M.2 vs. SATA SSD: What’s the difference?

Confused about the different kinds of SSDs in new laptops and desktop PCs? Our quick guide covers the basics of NVMe, M.2, and SATA drives.

www.pcworld.com

fireberd · Dec 4, 2024

One is the OEM Win 11 that came with the Laptop, the second (USB Connected) is from a desktop that was used in my closed recording studio. It has recording software and other old audio apps that are no longer available. (this started as a Win 8 install and has been upgraded to 8.1/10/11 thus the old software apps).

Both drives are NVMe SSD's. The internal drive and the USB connected drive.

cereberus · Dec 4, 2024

fireberd said:
My Laptop only has 1 SSD slot. I have a dual boot with the Internal Win 11 SSD and second Win 11 on a USB connected SSD.
Could I install a larger capacity SSD in the Laptop and separate the SSD into 2 separate drives, install the two Win 11's on the two separate "drives" and dual boot with that?

Sure you can partition SSD and install Windows 11 on each partition and dual boot.

But why?

Also, a better solution may be to install 2nd installation in a virtual hard drive rather than in a separate partition.

Bree · Dec 4, 2024

fireberd said:
My Laptop only has 1 SSD slot. I have a dual boot with the Internal Win 11 SSD and second Win 11 on a USB connected SSD.
Could I install a larger capacity SSD in the Laptop and separate the SSD into 2 separate drives, install the two Win 11's on the two separate "drives" and dual boot with that?

You could create a second partition on the drive and install to that. I'm not a fan of dual-booting though, the two OS's can get too 'intertwined' to easily go back. I do all my multi-booting with native boot vhdx. I keep all the .vhdx files in a separate Data partition.

Native Boot Windows 11 Virtual Hard Disk (VHDX)

This tutorial will show you how to boot a Windows 11 VHDX file natively to dual boot with Windows 10 or Windows 11. Native Boot allows you to create a virtual hard disk (VHDX), install Windows to it, and then boot it up, either on your PC side-by-side with your existing installation, or on a...

www.elevenforum.com

It's so easy to configure, and to remove when no longer needed. You just delete the .vhdx file and its bcd boot entry.

pparks1 · Dec 4, 2024

Bree said:
You could create a second partition on the drive and install to that. I'm not a fan of dual-booting though, the two OS's can get too 'intertwined' to easily go back. I do all my multi-booting with native boot vhdx. I keep all the .vhdx files in a separate Data partition.

Native Boot Windows 11 Virtual Hard Disk (VHDX)

This tutorial will show you how to boot a Windows 11 VHDX file natively to dual boot with Windows 10 or Windows 11. Native Boot allows you to create a virtual hard disk (VHDX), install Windows to it, and then boot it up, either on your PC side-by-side with your existing installation, or on a...

www.elevenforum.com

It's so easy to configure, and to remove when no longer needed. You just delete the .vhdx file and its bcd boot entry.

I do mine just like Bree, native boot to a .vhdx file. I was coming into this post to say the same thing.

fireberd · Dec 4, 2024

I can't do an "install". I would have to do a Macrium Reflect disc image restore.

Bree · Dec 4, 2024

fireberd said:
I can't do an "install". I would have to do a Macrium Reflect disc image restore.

That's OK. You can create a new .vhdx file, mount it (no need to format or give it a drive letter) then use Reflect to restore an image to it. Reflect can use a Microsoft Virtual Disk as the destination just as if it was a physical one.

fireberd · Dec 4, 2024

I'll get a larger SSD and install it then try the virtual disk.

Thanks

SIW2 · Dec 4, 2024

fireberd said:
My Laptop only has 1 SSD slot. I have a dual boot with the Internal Win 11 SSD and second Win 11 on a USB connected SSD.
Could I install a larger capacity SSD in the Laptop and separate the SSD into 2 separate drives, install the two Win 11's on the two separate "drives" and dual boot with that?

Yes. There is confusion over the word "drive"

In one sense a drive is an area capable of holding an operating system as in %systemdrive% and "drive letter". For most purposes it is a partition ( or possibly a spanned partition ).

Unfortunately, more recently the word drive is also used to describe the actual physical device that consists of the controller and the storage media ( also called disk ).

You can certainly dual boot two os from two different partitions ( drives ) on the same disk.

Bree · Dec 4, 2024

fireberd said:
I'll get a larger SSD and install it then try the virtual disk.

Try to make the smallest possible capacity for the vhdx. If you make a dynamically expanding vhdx then it requires enough unused space on the partition to expand to its maximum size while it is booted from. If you make a fixed size vhdx then you don't want it to be any larger than strictly necessary. Reflect can restore an image to a smaller drive than the original, as long as the drive has enough space for all the used data.

JAM83 · Dec 4, 2024

fireberd said:
My Laptop only has 1 SSD slot. I have a dual boot with the Internal Win 11 SSD and second Win 11 on a USB connected SSD.
Could I install a larger capacity SSD in the Laptop and separate the SSD into 2 separate drives, install the two Win 11's on the two separate "drives" and dual boot with that?

You can split the drive into 2 separate partitions and do it that way if you wanted to.

Solved Split an SSD into 2 separate Drives

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