Tag: boot

My long-time Macbook which I used as a development and business workstation just died on me and I cannot afford to replace it just now. I have a pretty decent windows gaming system that I would like to dual-use for a while but I need to lock it down and partition it’s gaming and business functionality pretty tightly.

(NOTE)
If this is the wrong place to post this, or there is a better place, please let me know. Other relevant post were old and had little-to-no community input.

What I am considering is dual booting two separate windows 10 pro licenses, using TPM/Bitlocker with the business in the front, and a largely open sandbox install as the party in the back.

I’m no seasoned certified windows admin, but I know my way around pretty well and my bing-fu isn’t atrocious, but what I’m looking for is any input from people who may have set up the same or similar and succeeded (or failed) on whether this is even a viable approach before I spend 10-100 hours mucking about with it.

What I have to work with:

- 1 Windows 10 Pro Retail License
- 1 Windows 10 Pro Upgrade License from:
    ○ 1 Windows XP Pro Retail License
    ○ 1 Windows 7 Pro Upgrade Retail License
- AMD Ryzen 5 3600 (Virtual TPM)
- 2 NVME Drives
- A couple low-wear HDD Drives

What I am anticipating it to look like and what I’ll use it for:

Systems:
- 
  SystemName: "The Brain"
  Purpose: "Business, Development and Secure Correspondence"
  CoreTech: "WSL2, Git, Office, VSCode, GPG, SSL, Teams, Figma"
  Users: "Me"
- 
  SystemName: "Pinky"
  Purpose: "Gaming, Modding Games, 3D/2D Art, Running Sus Apps"
  CoreTech: "Bethesda Games, Paradox Games, Krita, Inkscape, Narf!"
  Users: "Me, Fiancée, Drunken Me"

Drives:
-
  DriveName: "NVME1"
  Size: ">475GB"
  Partitions:
  -
    VolumeName: "System - The Brain (C:)"
    Size: "125GB"
    Use: "Windows Applications, Settings, User Root"
    BitLocker: True
  -
    VolumeName: "Data - The Brain (D:)"
    Size: "200GB"
    Use: "User Documents, OneDrive"
    Bitlocker: True
  -
    VolumeName: "System - Pinky (C:)"
    Size: "125GB"
    Use: "Windows Applications, Settings, User Root"
    BitLocker: False

  Notes:
  - "Leaves 25GB+ for Boot and Recovery partitions"
    
-
  DriveName: "NVME2"
  Size: ">950GB"
  Partitions:
  -
    VolumeName: "Data - Pinky (D:)"
    Size: ">200GB"
    Use: "User Documents, Save Files, Dropbox, OneDrive"
    BitLocker: False
  -
    VolumeName: "Games - Pinky (G:)"
    Size: "750GB"
    Use: "Active Games, Active Mods"
    BitLocker: False

-
  DriveName: "HDD1"
  Size: ">475GB"
  Partitions:
  -
    VolumeName: "Archive - The Brain (A:)"
    Size: ">475GB"
    Use: "Local Project Archive, Local Library Archive"
    BitLocker: True


-
  DriveName: "HDD2"
  Size: ">475GB"
  Partitions:
  -
    VolumeName: "Archive - Pinky (A:)"
    Size: ">475GB"
    Use: "Archived Games, Archived Mods, Reference Photos/Videos"
    BitLocker: False
    

I have some other HDDs and maybe a SSD or two should I need them.

Any thoughts on best practices to go about this?

Is there a visual bootloader I could use instead use f8/msconfig to swap between them (ala apple bootcamp)?

Can I shield The Brain’s filesystem completely from Pinky? Everything will be backed up on premises and through a few cloud machinations, but I’d love a way to lock down completely.

I won’t really be running suspect applications – but some of the tools used in the modding community aren’t exactly easily auditable or in anyway verified as entirely on the up-and-up. I’ll use a proper container or vm instance if I’m genuinely doing something Narf!

I know I shouldn’t $h*t where I eat, but for now this is what I have to do.

Appreciate any constructive thoughts or guidance, and if I’ve left anything out let me know.