Dual Boot on separate drives - What is the best method?

[KrustyKrab]

Hi guys,

This will be my first attempt at the Hackintosh, so thank you in advance for all the support and advice!
I finally managed to put together my build, but I installed Windows 10 first just to make sure my machine actually works.
I've currently got Windows 10 installed on an 500GB NVME Drive, and I would like to install Big Sur on a separate 1TB NVME Drive.
Just confirming that it is also recommended to unplug the Windows Drive before attempting to install Big Sur on the second Drive?

There are a few video tutorials on how to Dual Boot using Clover with Catalina and Windows, but at this moment I can't seem to find any tutorials for current version of Clover with Big Sur. I've also watched video tutorials on how to install Big Sur through OpenCore but I can't find any information on how that would work with dual booting.

I would like to have Big Sur as the Main Default OS that the machine will boot into from Power On. How would I configure that?
As for booting into Windows, would I just have to do so via the F11 BIOS screen (if I went down the OpenCore method)?

My motherboard is the Gigabyte Z490 Vision D.


Look forward to hearing from you guys.

 

[Jamesbond007]

Hi guys,

This will be my first attempt at the Hackintosh, so thank you in advance for all the support and advice!
I finally managed to put together my build, but I installed Windows 10 first just to make sure my machine actually works.
I've currently got Windows 10 installed on an 500GB NVME Drive, and I would like to install Big Sur on a separate 1TB NVME Drive.
Just confirming that it is also recommended to unplug the Windows Drive before attempting to install Big Sur on the second Drive?

There are a few video tutorials on how to Dual Boot using Clover with Catalina and Windows, but at this moment I can't seem to find any tutorials for current version of Clover with Big Sur. I've also watched video tutorials on how to install Big Sur through OpenCore but I can't find any information on how that would work with dual booting.

I would like to have Big Sur as the Main Default OS that the machine will boot into from Power On. How would I configure that?
As for booting into Windows, would I just have to do so via the F11 BIOS screen (if I went down the OpenCore method)?

My motherboard is the Gigabyte Z490 Vision D.

Look forward to hearing from you guys.

Yes, you should remove the Windows drive before attempting to install MacOS on your second NVMe drive, in order to prevent the MacOS installation program from doing anything to your Windows drive.

 

[KrustyKrab]

Thanks, James Bond.

What about post-installation? Once I have both operating systems running smoothly independently, how do I go about plugging back both NVME drives and booting them the way I want?

I read on a thread that OpenCore has a tendency to change the PC environment, which impacts the way Windows runs. What are your thoughts?

 

[Jamesbond007]

Thanks, James Bond.

What about post-installation? Once I have both operating systems running smoothly independently, how do I go about plugging back both NVME drives and booting them the way I want?

I read on a thread that OpenCore has a tendency to change the PC environment, which impacts the way Windows runs. What are your thoughts?

I suppose you should set the MacOS drive as the first boot drive in the BIOS.

This is what is need in this guide :

Guide: Multibooting UEFI on Separate Drives

MultiBooting Win10, OS X and Ubuntu on separate drives is as simple a procedure as installing all 3 on the same drive and booting them with Clover ( See http://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/guide-multibooting-uefi.197352/ ). What you need: 3 HDDs or SSDs or some combination of the two. Your...

www.tonymacx86.com

However, I have no experience with OpenCore yet, so I have no idea if it will affect the Windows installation.