Steam Deck

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A place to discuss and support all things Steam Deck.

Replacement for r/steamdeck_linux.

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Same SD card for SteamOS and Windows-To-Go? (self.steamdeck)

submitted 1 year ago by Zachariah to c/[email protected]

8 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I used https://www.windowscentral.com/gaming/pc-gaming/how-to-install-windows-on-steam-deck to set up Windows-To-Go for a few games that won't work in SteamOS. It seems to be working fine, but now I wonder if this would work…

I currently have a 1 terabyte SD card that I'm using for SteamOS. I know Linux partitions can be shrunk, so I'd like to shrink it down to half the size. Then I'd clone the partition(s) from the Windows-To-Go SD card to the now-empty space on the 1 terabyte SD card.

I think I''ll need to clone the Windows partition(s) to the beginning of the drive. So when I make the empty space by shrinking the Linux partition, I'll create the empty space at the beginning of the drive.

I'll be using GParted and Clonezilla since I'm used to them.

I have two questions:

Will Windows care that the second half of the SD card has a LInux partition? I don't want/need it to see or read/write to the Linux partition.
Will SteamOS still see the Linux partition automatically as if nothing's changed and just ignore the new Windows partition(s)?

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[–] Russianranger 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Although not a direct answer, just wanted to give my experience.

Originally used a dedicated SD card for Windows, it worked fine but was warned that the constant read/write on the card could cause it to fail quicker than its normal lifespan. Since I didn’t want to fiddle with it in another year or two, I ended up getting a bigger internal drive (2tb nvme) and dedicated 1tb to SteamOS and the other TB to windows. Then have a 1tb SD card for the majority of games on my SteamOS side of the house.

I personally use a custom windows 10 install for that side, which helps prevent Windows from overriding the REFInd boot. However I did notice that when I updated SteamOS to the main branch, it borked REFInd and had to select SteamOS boot file through the file manager on boot, then reinstall REFInd via the normal script on desktop mode.

Just some considerations for you as your journey through your dual boot adventure.

[–] Zachariah 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That’s great info. It’ll be so nice when dual boot is officially supported. I wonder if it’s taking so long to roll out because they want to make sure it works well and it’s easy to use.

[–] Russianranger 2 points 1 year ago

Most likely that. Assuming they want to find a way to prevent the boot manager from getting borked on updates for both sides of the fence. If they roll it out half-baked they’ll probably get flooded with tech tickets which would eat bandwidth for other issues. Basically preventing them from getting dragged down the support rabbit hole. In current state, if you muck up your install it’s on you to fix/troubleshoot.

For those that are more familiar with this process like you and me, it’s not a real hassle. But when you push out a new “feature”, they have to resolve for the lowest common denominator, which would consist of the more “casual” users. Bearing that in mind, you can probably see why they want to flesh it out a bit more.