sorry, mona can't come to the phone right now 🌺Jun 27, 2025

Folks, is there a straightforward way to run a windows VM on a linux host, with all the VM's data sitting on a physical drive?

like a dualboot, but one OS inside the other

My idea is to add a linux distro to my PC on a fresh drive, and keep the current win10 setup more or less untouched

If I realize I need anything from the Windows system, I'd like to be able to fire up a VM with the old OS, grab *the thing* and move on, instead of shutting down linux and switching over completely to the other OS

bonus points if I could use the windows system through both a VM or a proper dual boot, e.g. for gaming (until I've had a chance to move all my games over properly)

I basically wanna Soulkiller my current PC 

Show threadRachel
@Sirs0ri my current plan is to backup my laptop's home directory

Then install nixbook on a new SSD

Then use a NVMe to USB enclosure if I missed anything
Jun 27, 2025 at 10:48pmWeb
Show threadsorry, mona can't come to the phone right now 🌺Jun 27, 2025

@rachel yeah, i'll probably end up doing the same, backup data -> reinstall some linux on new drive -> hope

I'm probably going to do some distrohopping to see what I like, and for that time I'd love to keep my windows install around as a fallback and for gaming (because I really don't want to move my steam Library around more than necessary, once is enough once I figure out which distro I like 😅)

Show threadRachelJun 27, 2025
@Sirs0ri yeah thankfully this laptop is basically a web browser + terminal so not as tricky